A Game of Thrones

There is one thing you should know about me: I AM A HARD-CORE FANTASY/ SCI-FI FANATIC. Harry Potter is my holy text and Lord of the Rings is my life. Reading His Dark Materials changed my life forever. Tamora Pierce's books were what got me through the rash of terrible Young Adult books ripped off that even worse book Twilight. Terry Pratchett is my inspiration and Neil Gaiman rules my world. Ender's Game and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gladly hold prime positions on my book shelves, and if I talk about The Old Kingdom Trilogy  or The Hunger Games I'll die from excitement. Now that I've given you my credentials, I will move on to the subject of this post.

I finally cracked open A Game of Thrones. What can I begin to say about it? Mind = Blown! It was brilliant. Not only was the plot and world intricately created, the characters themselves were incredible. Each character is fascinating in their own way. And what was best with the characters was that the story was told from so many different viewpoints. At the beginning it kind've felt like Starks were Gryffindors and Lannisters were Slytherins, but the line between good and evil is blurred. The only way that could've been so successfully executed was from the multiple viewpoints.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the politics that governed the game of thrones. The politics were intricate and complex, which I found gratifying. Many times in fantasy books with revolutions and wars the politics that caused them are too simple. Remember, I'm a history nerd. I need something like the causes of WWI: MANIA (Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Imperialism, Assassination). A Game of Thrones created a realistic web that the characters could become ensnared in.

Now I'm dying to see the tv show, except I have a have a feeling the story will be overshadowed by the rampant adult material. Whatever. I can spend that time reading the rest of the books in the series. Goodness knows that I'll need the time to work my way through the next couple of books, each of which is about a bazillion pages long. Looking back I'm amazed that I found enough time to read this one while in IB mode.

Do you like Game of Thrones, too? Have you read a good book recently? Feel free to share in the comments.