Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. To the south, the king’s powers are failing—his most trusted adviser dead under mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king’s new Hand, an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones. Last Dance with Mary Jane #1) ☜ alternate cover editions can be found dblogspot.comhere Assassin's Blade dblogspot.comhere and dblogspot.comhere
Long ago Monday Memo: Creating Change in Early Childhood Education, One Message at a Time in a time forgotten Fearless Attraction a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime Níní trouble is brewing. The cold is returning Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell La leyenda de Sleepy Hollow; Cuentos de la Alhambra sinister forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. To the south Legends of the Batman the king’s powers are failing—his most trusted adviser dead under mysterious circumstances and his enemies emerging from the shadows of the throne. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell Cipinang Desa Tertinggal a family as harsh and unyielding as the frozen land they were born to. Now Lord Eddard Stark is reluctantly summoned to serve as the king’s new Hand Adobe InDesign CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release) an appointment that threatens to sunder not only his family but the kingdom itself.
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty Hawkwood in Paris A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies Stone Voices: Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei soldiers and sorcerers In Stone's Clasp assassins and bastards Tregime shqiptare 1 who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots Ali Kemal tragedy and betrayal minugbo alang sa mugbo og kalipay / shorts for the shortjoyed victory and terror minugbo alang sa mugbo og kalipay / shorts for the shortjoyed victory and terror Angela Merkel: Ein Irrtum the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance Smitten as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
Lopera di Rabelais e la cultur la Rabelais
Lopera di Rabelais e la cultur la Rabelais
There are plenty of fantasy authors who claim to be doing something different with the genre. Ironically, they often write the most predictable books of all, as evidenced by {site_link}Goodkind and {site_link}Paolini. Though I'm not sure why they protest so much--predictability is hardly a death sentence in genre fantasy.
The archetypal story of a hero, a villain, a profound love, and a world to be saved never seems to get old--it's a great story when it's told well. At the best, it's exciting, exotic, and builds to a fulfilling climax. At the worst, it's just a bloodless rehash. Unfortunately, the worst are more common by far.
Perhaps it was this abundance of cliche romances that drove Martin to aim for something different. Unfortunately, you can't just choose to be different, any more than you can choose to be creative. Sure, Moorcock's original concept for Elric was to be the anti-Conan, but at some point, he had ...
I really feel the necessity of a bit of personal backstory here, before I start the review. Back in 1996 when this book first came out, and I was about 14 or 16 years old, I saw the hardcover on a sale table for about $5 and couldn't resist a bargain (still can't, though I'm more cautious these days). So I started reading this book with the vague idea that it was a flop, and that may not have helped, but I got through 100 pages of it before feeling so crapped off with it that I shoved it in my cupboard and tried not to think about it. Page 108 to be exact. More on why later.
If you've heard of this book, or read it, you're probably aware that far from being the flop I assumed it was at the time (and I didn't know anyone who was reading it), the series has gone on to be one of the big Cash Cows of the fantasy genre. Computer games, role-playing games - there's even a board game that looks like Risk. Sooner or later there'll be a movie o...
Ten years and five hundred comments later and men still think I care if they disagree with me.
WARNING: If you enjoyed this book, even a little bit, you may not want to read this review. It will probably make you angry. Heaven knows that the book made me furious, and I intend to turn every bit of that wrath back on it.
Instead, I suggest you read {site_link}karen's review, {site_link}Brigid's review, {site_link}Joyzi's review, or any other of the gushing four and five-star reviews here. If video reviews are more your style, I suggest {site_link}Melina Pendulum's vlog about this book.
Realistically, I know a lot of you are not going to listen, which is why the edit is here. At least it will slow you down a little.
EDIT: adding one more thing because, despite the warning and the redirect links I kindly provided, I have indeed gotten the kind of sexist bullshit comments I anticipated. Before ...
A totally magnificent start to a seminal epic fantasy series. If you love watching the first season of Game of Thrones, you’re most likely going to love reading A Game of Thrones.
Like countless readers around the world, I probably wouldn’t have known about A Song of Ice and Fire without its TV series adaptation: Game of Thrones. I’ve been following the TV series since the release of its first episode; I was utterly captivated by the originality of the storyline and characters. Upon finishing the first season of the TV show, I immediately picked up A Game of Thrones, and honestly? I couldn’t finish it; I put it down about a quarter into the book. It wasn’t because the book was bad per se; it was because the TV show—at least the first season—did such a spectacular job of adapting the first installment of A Song of Ice and Fire. When my first entrance into a series is through a w...
yup.
nerds, now i am among you.
this is going to be a review where i just prattle on and on about meee meee meee, because let's face it - there are a million reviews of this puppy out there so i don't have to worry about doing a disservice to the book. you'll either read the book or you won't. but you should: it's got direwolves.
i wasn't going to read this. after years of watching hordes of desperate sad-eyed nerds coming up to me, asking "any news on the george r.r. martin release??" (like the bn computer knows more, somehow, than the internet. it doesn't) and i would have to tell them (not without some schadenfreude-glee) "nope - it has just been moved back another year!!" it gave me a solid sense of "there but for the grace..." like when you see a very young junkie and you congratulate yourself for dodging that particular bullet.
despite what i kept hearing about how awesome the books were, i just filed it away in the ...
I rated this in 2010. In 2017 it's time I actually use my words.
Here's my long overdue review of A Game of Thrones. I was looking at the current reviews. Here you have a book with a ridiculously high average rating, vast sales, and … the most liked reviews are three 1*s and an unrated comedy piece.
Do we love to hate *that* much? Apparently we do. Not only is knocking down easier than building, it’s also more fun to watch.
Well, sadly all I have to offer here is a less exciting set of praise for the genius and importance of this book.
The first bit of genius is that on paper GRRM writes in not only the opposite manner to me but in a manner I profess to dislike. Wait … I like how he writes on paper … you know what I mean.
Things he does that should annoy me:
I) Lengthy ...
Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark lives with his family in a world where the seasons are thrown completely off - summers last decades, and winters are equally long.Okay - I am SO incredibly late to this party but hey, I made it! And the hype was real!
His five children, plus his bastard son (Jon Snow) are on the way back to their home, Winterfell, when they stumble upon and subsequently adopt six direwolf pups (the symbol of the Starks), with the albino runt going to John. Upon returning home, King Robert Baratheon, an old friend of Ned...
3 1/2 stars. So in one weekend I finally finished the book I picked up and put down about ten years ago, and watched the final episode of the TV series I have loved for eight years. How odd that the book ended up better than I expected, and the TV show, um... didn't. Warning: I will be talking about the depiction of rape in this review.
I think I was more ready to commit this time around. I'd already watched the show and become invested in the characters, so reading 900 pages about them didn't seem so unattractive. I think it's quite well-written, especially the dialogue, which is where Martin shines. It's also just entertaining for the most part. The bloody vicious backstabbing kind of entertainment that, apparently, I do like.
It's also an amazing feat of world building. I was blown away by the ...
Reader Logic:
I HATE this book.
I HATE it so much I had to get a new hardback copy to read so I could underline all the parts I HATE about it so much and post them on Goodreads.
I HATE it with such a passion I also bought copies for all my friends and family, also in new hardback editions, so they could HATE it along with me.
When the TV series came on I was so fuming with rage I watched the entire season twice and bought six copies of the DVD, because I could not believe how much I could HATE something.
I had spent so much time discussing how much I HATE this, with all my friends, who HATE it too and who all bought copies, I decided to get a George RR Martin tattoo on my buttock to show how strong my HATRED for his work is.
There was such a collectivity at the time—like everyone uniting in HATING this together—that some of us formed relationships in HATE. I met my wife...
(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: A shocking story that breaks fantasy conventions, it's seven hundred pages of realpolitik and character development.
(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: A slow parade of entropy, it’s a panoply of pain: a delicate sweater, knit finely together, unraveled to a tangled skein.
I tried reading this a long time ago and gave up very quickly. I know many love it but I think from the start I knew it wasn't for me. Looooong fantasy series never have been, for some reason. HOWEVER, I have to confess that the TV series is such a guilty pleasure of mine. And, even though I will never return to this series, can we all just take a minute to admit that how I spent my weekend is kinda cool...
First off, I'm a heavy duty fan of GRRM. I've read over a 100 different fantasy authors in my time. Took about 5 years off from the genre b/c I felt it was all getting too formulaic and cliched. So, when I came back to fantasy I read the usual: Goodkind, Jordan, etc. and then someone told me about GRRM and man, that was the kicker!
{site_link}
Here are the reasons to choose GRRM. I've also listed the reasons not to choose him to make it fair b/c I know their are certain personalities who won't like this series:
WHY TO READ GRRM
(1) YOU ARE TIRED OF FORMULAIC FANTASY: good lad beats the dark lord against impossible odds; boy is the epitome of good; he and all his friends never die even though they go through great dangers . . . the good and nob...
{site_link}You can find the full review and more about this book on my blog!
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN,YOU FREAKING GENIUS!
To be honest,I never thought I would read this,not because it is something I don't like(it is something I most like),but it is so huge.But now I thank the gods and the kings for making me read this.I can't explain how much I admire this book.It has been a part o...
Okay so I read it again. I didn’t quite get chance to last year, so I squeezed it in right at the start of this one. Plus, it gives me chance to share this review once more and tell my personal reading journey to any followers I might have picked up since 2015.
Original Review
A Game of Thrones changed my life. I know that may sound sad, but it’s true. Prior to reading it I had no interest in books whatsoever. I was on course to be a forensic psychologist; however, I began reading this wonderful series. Suffice to say, it threw me of course ever so slightly: I am now studying a degree in English Literature. One day I'd like to teach it.
A Game of Thrones kindled a fire within me that erupted into a love of books. I began to read other nove...
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. Ther...
هذا أساس اﻷغنية ،أغنية الجليد والنار، وأنشودتها اﻷولي 'لعبة العروش' الملحمية
حيث عرش الملك محاط بخيانة ومؤامرات،وبينما يلعب الحكّام لعبة عروشهم لا يدفع إلا الشرفاء الثمن
وبأنشغال السادة بلعب�...
And thus I'm back to the beginning and hating and loving people all over again!
And the dumbass King ruins it all by having a wicked witch for a wife, but if not then it would just be some other wickedness to get the party started.
There are so many characters I love in these books and the wolves of course. And all who kill wolves can have their head on a pike!
Even for someone who has watched the HBO series, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is an engaging and enjoyable read! The strength of Martin’s writing shines through in these pages. Each chapter is well-crafted. You know exactly how to picture the setting and you feel the desires and discontent of each chapter’s (POV) character. Watching how Martin develops characters, with all their flaws, keeps the story going as much or more than the ‘game of thrones.’ If you’re looking for new information in the book; however, you’re not likely to discover much. Definitely nothing that one could really classify as a surprise.
In fact, it distracted me (for a while) that the two were so remarkably similar (scenes, dialogue, action all seemed to match). When there was a small conflict with the series, I found myself noting the difference. This often had to do with the age of the characters (they are younger in the book) or the descr...
I have finally done it! I have joined in on the fun that is A Game of Thrones. It is 2018 and I managed to make it all the way here without reading a page or watching a minute of the show. Now, it is the nature of the internet to keep me from being completely in the dark on this one, but I think I did a pretty good job of avoiding hearing or seeing too much about it.
Is this a great fantasy book? It really is quite good. The plot and the characters are well thought out. Comparing it to other fantasy books I have read, it is right up there or better.
Yeah, but since this has been taking the world by storm it must have blown your socks off!? Um, no, not really. It was good, but not, "OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!" good.
How about mainstream interest? So many people say they are not fantasy fans but they love this series. This has to be 95% because of the show. This book is SOOOOOOO fantasy, ...
Minimalist magic for maximum character badassery
Letting the story unfold without much caring about establishing complex magic or fantasy fraction constellations
Martin does what´s the possibly hardest thing, writing suspenseful and credible characters, dialogues, and power struggles without wasting too much time with elves, dwarfs, or wizards, just some dragons, and ice zombies. His writing is so incredibly absorbing that I´m close to saying that he´s the best at blending characters with plot, but at the same time circumventing the problem of implementing too complex hard magic systems. That´s kind of
Unique to the genre
Most fantasy lives from showing how the magic characters deal with the pros and cons of their talents, abilities, and ethical dilemmas that come with throwing fireballs and mind controlling friends and foes. It´s also possible that I simply still haven´t read enough genre fiction, but from...
I know no one reading this knows me much (well some of you may) but I DON'T reread books. I usually read a book once and its quite well locked into my brain. As much as I've enjoyed many books I've read, they just don't require a second read for me. I read them, now its time to move on. "A Game of Thrones" is different. I loved this book and its characters so much, and crave the world and narrative so much that I couldn't wait for Martin to get the newest installment out. So I started rereading the first book I've ever reread.
Let me just say that I didn't find ANY of the characters boring. Even the characters that I would find an anoying personality type, are deeply engrosing in this tale. And those types of characters number just 2 for me in this book. There are so many characters, with such a broad range of personalities that there is someone to match everyones likes. Yet even the characters I initially found myself repulsed by, gro...
“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”
This took me quite a while. First, because I already knew what happened from the show, second because I guess you just cannot rush through this book that fast, and third because I dreaded all the horrible things and painful deaths that were going to happen.
Sometimes I wish I could forget everything I knew about a book/show and just start anew. Maybe I would have read this novel faster if I hadn't known everything already? Because A Game of Thrones is very close to the first season of the show, only with more detail.
So GRRM is a great storyteller, but also a cruel one. You just never know what is going to happen next and you really fear for all the characters you love. This whole series is just so big. And awesome. And I really don't know where this is all going to go and how it will end but well...Hoping for many dead...
there are about a billion reviews of this one so i doubt i have anything to add. the only thing i feel truly compelled to say is TYRION THE DWARF IS AWESOME! my God, i haven't read a character who is so different and so enjoyable in years. many-layered and consistently surprising, hero & antihero, generous & spiteful in equal amounts, as capable of high-handed miscalculation as he is of clever deduction, brave & loyal & vindictive... just overall a superb creation. Tyrion, you are the tops! and now you're going to be played by the studliest dwarf actor in the business. GO, TYRION, GO!
the novel itself is fast-paced and fun, featuring lavish and completely enjoyable world-building, a narrative that is widescreen in scope but often intimate is scale, some nifty twists, and strong & vivid characterizations. this is not a novel with much idiosyncratic "style" but there is a very literary feel to it nonetheless. it is co...
WE MADE IT!!!! WE HAVE EMERGED VICTORIOUS!!!!
this book was exhausting and knowing that all the other books are bigger terrifies me but the writing and world building in this book is so vivid and even though I chose favorite characters quickly, the ones that I thought less interesting still had very important story lines and every character has a distinct, well-written personality. Basically I am in love with Daenerys, and I also adore Jon and Arya and Sansa, and even Tyrion. Reading this makes me super interested in the TV show and i've heard so many people telling me to watch it that as soon as I have the time (which might not be for a while lol) I will definitely be looking into that! At this point i'm too exhausted to even consider reading the sequels; i'm giving myself a break after reading this hahaha. geez louise it's a commitment, but it was worth it.
Also sidenote- the audiobook is great. I'd say I listened 3/4th ...
HOLY HELL.
I really can't review this, the story is way to complicated to even begin to do that.
So glad I reread this! I loved it even more this time and it just reaffirmed that this is my favorite series
Well, I made it friends. This made for one of the most odd reading experiences I've ever encountered. I was completely enamored with the story, as the world building and intricate detailing into the politics of the seven kingdoms is exquisite, yet every time I picked up this book it felt like a chore to read. This could be perhaps due to the fact that, after waiting 900 years to read these books I've already encountered most of the twists and spoilers, which takes away some of the anticipation. Either way, I respect what George R.R. Martin has created here, and despite my slow going, I'm interested in continuing on.
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1), George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones is the first novel in A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on August 1, 1996.
The novel won the 1997 Locus Award and was nominated for both the 1997 Nebula Award and the 1997 World Fantasy Award. In January 2011 the novel became a New York Times Bestseller and reached #1 on the list in July 2011.
At the beginning of the story, Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark executes a deserter from the Night's Watch, who has betrayed his vows and fled from the Wall. On the way back, his children adopt six direwolf pups, the animal of his sigil.
There are three male and two female direwolf pups, as well as an albino runt, which aligns with his three trueborn sons, two trueborn daughters, and one bastard son.
That night, Ned receives word of the de...