Winter is coming...The Hand of the King is dead and the stability of the Seven Kingdoms is hanging by a thread when Robert Baratheon, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, rides North to Winterfell to ask his old friend Lord Eddard Stark if he will take the dead Jon Arryn's place. Although loathed to leave his home and family, Ned begrudgingly accepts when word reaches Winterfell that the circumstances surrounding Arryn's death are believed to have been more than a little suspicious. The kingdom is crawling with secrets, yet knowledge comes with a price. For when you play a game of thrones you win or you die.
It's always going to be hard to read (and review) a book objectively when you've already seen its counterpart on screen. Before I began A Game of Thrones I knew that one of two things was going to happen; either 1) it was going to be as good as, or even more spectacular than the tv series and I was going to love it, or 2) it wasn't going to live up to the high expectations generated through watching the programme and it was going to be a huge disappointment. Luckily the former prevailed; this book was amazing and I absolutely adored it! As it turns out, the tv adaptation had stuck surprisingly faithfully to the original story so I found I had to use little imagination to picture scenes and settings clearly, and it was probably even a benefit in helping to negotiate the many characters that crop up throughout this epic saga! I didn't feel as though this hampered my enjoyment of the story in any way, though it would have been very interesting to have read this without being able to preempt the plot! Although mainly set in the fictional land of Westeros, I found that its similarity to Medieval Britain made it easier to connect with the story, and with battles and sword-fighting and kings and tournaments, it almost read like a piece of historical fiction as opposed to fantasy. The plot itself was rich and luxurious, unfolding through the viewpoints of eight of the main characters in their own eponymous chapters, making a book which was wide in scope feel remarkably intimate. Despite its length, I was completely hooked for the entire 864 pages and can hardly wait to get on to the next one! A Clash of Kings, I'm coming for you!!
RATING: ★★★★★
Lou x
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