I finished rereading the Harry Potter series (and yet again I'm still left underwhelmed by the ending/epilogue) and I have no library books. Even though I have a Nook and don't have to worry about space, I'm still not down with buying books. Andrew has the Game of Thrones series in epub format, so I can read it on my Nook.
Has anyone read it and liked it? There aren't a lot of genres that I flat out refuse to read, but I can honestly say fantasy is pretty far down on my list, so I'm hesitant.
Opinions?
1 comment:
I would highly recommend Game of Thrones and its sequels. Now, perhaps you might think this carries little weight since I perfected my pronunciation of Tolkien's Elvish in fifth grade and at various points have owned the technical manuals and encyclopedias for all the major sci-fi trends of the last thirty years.
HOWEVER, what I like best about Game of Thrones is that it's relatively light on the outlandish fantasy and heavy on plot and character development. While still the epitome of 20th century fantasy literature, Tolkien's characters are, well, somewhat one-dimensional, and the sides are pretty clear. Dirty Orcs versus clean and noble Elves, a Dark Lord versus sweet and innocent little halflings, with dwarves thrown in for comic relief. GoT characters have many more facets, and they're fleshed out over the course of the books to where you can never quite be sure that the bad guys aren't capable of some virtue and the good guys of something reprehensible. There are many twists and turns in the plots, lots of intrigue and maneuvering, and Martin has no qualms about suddenly killing off major characters when you least expect it. And, being fantasy, there's still a good chunk of magic and mystery waiting to be explored at the fringes of Martin's world. Over the last three months I've plowed through the 4000-odd pages of the first four books and only stopped because I'm waiting for the paperback edition of the newest one to come out so it matches the rest of my collection. You don't have to learn fake languages or try to picture a multitude of bizarre races. If you like strong characterization, plot twists, the politics of power, and enough mystery to make things interesting, I think you'll like Game of Thrones.
Post a Comment