This month I was really absorbed by other things and put off reading A Game of Thrones until a few days ago. I bulldozed straight through it over the past three days – and boy, is that the wrong way to read this book. I ended up feeling completely swamped by the unending horror and cruelty that just never let up. By the end of the book I was so frustrated I was ready to throw it away.
A Game of Thrones is not only part of a planned seven book series, it is an epic in itself. The major plot lines depict several noble families fighting over the Iron Throne that rules the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the fierce Night Watch, the army of men who defend the kingdoms against the “Others” – an as yet unknown, eerie, and possibly mythological malevolent presence beyond The Wall. If that’s not complex enough for you, there’s also another civilization chronicled on another continent, where an exiled princess plans to return as queen of the kingdoms with her three pet dragons.
But wait, there’s more! Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of an ensemble cast of main characters. The characters come from House Stark, House Lannister, and House Targaryen, and getting a handle on their families and marital ties takes well through the first 100 pages. There is a handy appendix to help you trace the lineages of each family, but frankly, if Martin had done away with several uninteresting characters, there would be no need for the notes and the streamlined novel would flow more smoothly.
Now, I have to admit I’m not much of a fantasy buff – I’ve read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, but not much else – but A Game of Thrones only reminded me of why I don’t usually go for it. I don’t do well when dropped into fantastical universes with intricate back stories that are only explained in dribbles over time. The book starts with a short prologue that successfully introduces nothing, and is told by a character you never hear from again. The painfully intermingled history of the noble families is revealed only in parts and drops even more names for you to remember (or check in the appendix).
But for me, the worst thing about A Game of Thrones is that the world of the seven kingdoms is unrelentingly unjust. The downward spiral has every chapter landing a character in a worse fate than the start, and the fact that no good guy ever catches a break and no bad guy is ever punished is just infuriating. The casual depictions of rape, incest, murdered children (a butcher’s boy is run down like a dog before he’s hacked with a sword)… there were several times when I threw the book down from frustrated disgust and never wanted to read another word. There’s no balance to this book, no sense of hope or joy or triumph of honorable over evil. By the end, I felt completely cheated by Martin. I suffered through his tormenting every single one of his main characters and was rewarded with the death of my favorite one. I guess since Martin has three more books to write he feels he can get away with such a frustratingly unfair first novel, but all he’s done is make me never want to read another word by him.
Final Grade: F
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Very shorts, simple and easy to understand, bet some more comments from your side would be great