Review: A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin

Firstly, apologies for the long absence- unfortunately reading has been demoted down to the bottom of my priorities list yet again, for various reasons. However, over the past few months, I have been reading reading one book, largely in snippets, and today I finally finished it to begin writing this review.

This book is the much-discussed, much-hyped A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin, the first in the A Song of Ice and Fire series which provides the basis for the hugely popular HBO television show. Here is the description from Goodreads:

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

Now, I must admit that I have committed the cardinal sin of watching the show before reading the novels, however this has been positive for me in two ways: firstly, without being such a fan of the show, I doubt I would even have picked up the novel, as fantasy isn't usually to my taste, and also the television series has helped me to visualise the characters much better, as well as assisting me in remembering who is who in the world of Westeros, with it's Seven Kingdoms and countless families.

So, down to the book itself. To avoid spoilers, I'm keeping this intentionally vague, but my main point is that this novel massively exceeded my expectations. Yes, I'm not an avid reader of the fantasy genre and I tend to avoid eight-hundred page books for time-related reasons, so perhaps my expectations were lower than those of other readers, but I was undoubtedly blown away by the sheer genius of George R.R Martin in creating a world so complex and so different from our own, yet so real that one is completely absorbed in it.

(Just on a side note, that previous sentence has prompted me into wondering whether our own world is actually so different from that which GRRM has constructed, at least underneath it all. It has a historical feel to it, but many of the issues faced by the characters are the same. Discrimination against gender and disability, check, tyrannical rulers, check, wars between divided peoples, check...)

Anyhow, I think the main device in keeping us readers interested throughout such a lengthy narrative is without a doubt the frequent switches in perspective, each chapter belonging to a different character. Admittedly, I have my own personal favourites (Tyrion and Daenerys), whilst others I care less for, yet I still fully appreciate why the author has selected their version of events. A prime example of this is Catelyn Stark, a mother guiding her teenage son as he chooses to enter a fierce battle, whilst her other children are in equally perilous situations in other Kingdoms, and relations with her sister are at breaking point. Her perspective is perhaps more intriguing than that of her son, who is merely trying to follow in his respected father's footsteps. Despite this, there is no sense that each character's tale is separate from the rest- they are very much part of a whole, interdependent on each other's actions.

Another character worthy of note is Ayra Stark, who undergoes an almost inverse Dickens-esque transformation when she finds herself plunged into poverty in an unfamiliar and uncaring city, a huge fall from her original status as the daughter of the Hand of the King. Yet she takes this in her stride, becoming fiercely independent, which endears the Stark family even more to the reader. Yet on the other hand, the wealthy Lannisters, who by all assumptions we should dislike, are equally endeared to us by the story of Tyrion, a dwarf who is a source of embarrassment to his powerful relatives, but whose amusing wit and good heart charms the audience. It quickly becomes clear that none of the characters are perfect, some far from it, however they all begin vying for our admiration as much as they are vying for the Iron Throne.

Overall, I would unreservedly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys losing track of time and escaping to another world- after all, isn't that the purpose of fiction? However this particular fantasy universe is much more complex than it would first appear, with it's multi-dimensional themes of status, gender, rivalry and power which mark it apart from any other novel I have read.