book review; A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) by George R. R. Martin

4/5 stars

This is the first book in still ongoing series of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. In this book, they’re multiple third point of view from Eddard Stark, Catelyn Stark, Bran Stark, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen.

I listened to this playlist while reading https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4u9UWkFjbkbx7BQq5bDdEX

From Goodreads,

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 and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is 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; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Strengths

• I adore each characters’ point of view, the author really never failed to write such a realistic cast of characters.
• The world building is so detailed, it had been told from the story of folks about the origin of Westeros and also how each city in the Seven Kingdoms distinguished from one another.
• The dynamic interaction between characters proved well from their dialogue, gestures, and also the thoughts we read from the point of view.
• This is a story where honour and decency couldn’t help you survive, it’s such a brutal world and it seems so unjust, but that’s how reality worked.
• The core of the story reflected the harsh truth. It felt close to us and how we could easily relate to it. A piece of fiction become powerful when it mirrored reality.
• It’s refreshing for me to watch the tv series first, the book truly helped me in adding up layers by layers of the characters.

Weaknesses

• Because of multiple point of view, I found it hard to focus because I kind of forget where the character left on the previous scene.
• Some scenes I wished it would be much better to read through from another point of view, in adding up the emotion.

An appreciation post to the Starks.

I adore an honourable man like Eddard Stark. How he was a successful leader of his family. Whenever Catelyn (his wife) needed strength, she would remember the husband. And it’s so inspiring when Sansa Stark (the eldest daughter) regained her strength by recalling how her mother would do if fate had put her in such dire situation. Robb (the eldest son) reminded Catelyn to her husband when life had forced him to grow up becoming a man to lead several hosts under Winterfell’s banner.

A Game of Thrones, will always be my favourite story. I literally rather spent my entire life in awe with each character (the main or even minor). They are all seems real enough to me ❤