Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Male Soap Opera
Yeah, I know that I’m late to the party, but better late than never, right?
The Game of Thrones is an epic tale that rotates between nine different points of view. The kingdom has enjoyed a relative peace with King Robert on the throne when he decided to name his second in command as Eddard Stark of Winterfell. However, there is plotting in the kingdom. Will The Starks be safe? And who will sit on the throne?
When I picked this book up, I was so confused, because there were three different characters, and lots of information coming my way. Then, I would just get my bearings and be switched to a new character’s point of view with an entire set of characters.
However, I realized that this book is exactly like a soap opera except with males as the target audience. The book will switch to different characters, and they are usually connected in some fashion to each other. There is a lot of repeating of information so if you don’t catch on the first time or forget something, there is a good likelihood that it will be repeated.
Instead of the traditional soap opera focusing on gazing into each other’s eyes and whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears, this book replaced all of the romance with lust. There is quite a bit of steam.
As any good soap opera, it is filled with lots of characters, and Game of Thrones has a lot of characters with interesting backstory. There is betrayal, humor, alliances, and battles.
Lev Grossman in Time Magazine proclaimed George R.R. Martin as “the American Tolkien.” As someone who has read quite a bit of Tolkien, I could not disagree more. Although these books are both fantasy, that is about all these books have in common. The Lord of the Rings had extremely long paragraphs and detailed descriptions of the various fantasy creatures. It focused on one character’s point of view. Although I admire Tolkien’s imagination and all the inspiration that he provided to the fantasy community, I had a very difficult time conjuring up the images that he was describing in great detail. It took me nearly five months to read The Lord of the Rings because it was such a chore and I kept falling asleep.
In contrast, I found myself looking forward to reading Game of Thrones throughout the day. It had many twists and unexpected turns. Martin skipped the lengthy descriptions and replaced them with interesting history and family relationships. Game of Thrones is multiple points of view on steroids, and it has short paragraphs that keep the action flowing.
Did I love Game of Thrones? You bet. If you know me, I value good storytelling, and Game of Thrones had that in spades. Is Game of Thrones perfect? Nope. If I hear “winter is coming” one more time, I think I might be sick. It was stated a whopping 12 times. That is too much even if there are inattentive readers. Also, the ending was rather weak.
Overall, this is an extremely entertaining book, and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.