I just started reading this one...
It's fantastic.
I'm no big fan of this genre, though. I read LOTR, and never having read anything like it, I was utterly amazed. And instantly hungry for more. First thing I found was Gormenghast, which was too heavy for me, and also I disliked that everything happened just inside a dang castle. That everyone were strapped down in crazy routines and rituals and suchlike feel very oppressive and dark -- as I said, very heavy.
Next thing, Wishshongs of Shannara, but that tale was so close to LOTR, I was pretty disgusted.
From those two series, I did learn one thing though: Tolkien had too much details for my taste -- or at least, he focused on details in areas that I didn't care about. Tolkien's work is custom-made for obsessive fanboi nerd culture.
First books I found after Tolkien that I liked, was Michael Moorecock's Elric series -- and basically anything else by him. He was still kinda weird and somewhat gloomy, but preferable to the simplistic world of Shannara though.
That's pretty much my background in this genre. But I'm always interested in trying it out, cos well, I think it CAN be a great genre.
And this Game of Throne truly is great. I spoke about it to a friend, who reads a ton of this stuff, and he had a few other books by the author. And then he went out and bought this book, which I promptly pilfered off him since he has just as many unread books as me <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">
What do I like about this book?
- The character development is great. There are all sort of types there; good, bad, and most important of all, characters that are neither, or both -- and you can't tell which. Like in real life, whether a person is good or bad, depends upon your point of view. One friend's friend is not necessarily one's own friend. The king has six children; he loves them all -- but the queen only loves five of them, because one is a bastard. She treats him like shit. The five other children treat him well; some love him, some are at worst just neutral to him. There's no black and white. Also, characters change in a realistic way.
Sorry to diss Tolkien again, but Bilbo and Frodo were hobbits who stay at home and never have any adventures, but then suddenly they have the world's destiny on their shoulders -- and it's just a given, that they will rise to the challenge, sorta. How predictable. So far in the book, I've seen one 13 year old girl who has spent her entire life being scared shitless by her conniving, sceming brother, get married away to the equivalent of Gjengis freakin' Khan, but then I've seen her gain self-esteme and strength. I can see where she might go from here -- but I still don't think it predictable; I mean, I never saw this coming -- but now that she has taken the first few steps, I can imagine... I've seen two sisters who although very different in characters, and not particularly close, at least they were never unkind to each others -- but events beyond their circumstances have created a rift in between them, and one of them, who is essentially a good person, might one day do something bad... Excellent. Another diss on Tolkien is of course the matter of female characters, which didn't exactly have a major part in his works... That was as much a sign of the times, as anything, but still, I'm no feminist, but I do notice it. Game of Thrones has the female characters do important things, but not in a silly, contrived way, that people sometimes do, to make a point. It flows naturally. The Tomboy who wants to play with swords is not a political statement. She's just who she is.
- The pacing is excellent. It does not linger excessively on any one character. In some books, I end up longing to skip ahead to read about an interesting character or situation -- not only because I'm so eager to learn what happened to that character, but because the current story has gotten uninterest. That's never the case here. It's one beautiful, interesting, facinating scene after the other.
- The hierachy of the courts, the social structure seems "real" or realistic. I'm a geek for this kinda stuff, in the sense that I want to know how an alehouse in a frozen northern land can serve ale if they have no vinyards, and are isolated, with no trade with countries that do. I want to know who collects the taxes, and decides how much taxes are owed. Do you know at what point in our real life history, postal service was introduced, and how messages were carried across long distances prior to it -- and how expensive it was, and thus who could afford it, let alone have access to it? I like this kinda detail.
Only complaints I can think of is, there are far too many characters to easily keep track of. There is an appendix that lists the major houses, but there are so many characters, that you'd kinda need an alphabetized list to keep track of them all.
In short, an excellent book so far -- about 1/3 through it.