A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

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Submitted by Anonymous 
(Jun 02, 2009)

When I picked up and read A Game of Thrones for the first time (a recommendation from my brother) I was completely drawn in. The characters are well developed, and the story line is interesting. I liked it so much, I stuck it through the second book, A Clash of Kings. I even made it halfway through the third book. If you are like me, please don't let yourself be sucked in. Just don't even pick up the first book! Although Martin has a well described world and great characters, A) there is no true discernible plot, and B) He kills off all the good characters! I kept reading, hoping for some gratification, and none came. More good guys died. Bad guys continued to live and win. I can take a beloved character dying, but killing off every good character is infuriating and cliche. No one wants to see the bad guys win, especially when you take such care to write true good characters and true evil. And as for the realism you will hear from some reviewers, it's a load of BS. The characters Martin writes are nowhere near realistic, and to top it all off, he hates women, and writes them all in as fools and whores. The only "realism" praise comes from evil winning EVERY time. If you can call that realism. Do yourself a favor, just don't read it.

It is clear that George R. R. Martin's ASoIaF series has a unique place in the fantasy literature, be it the moral greyness of the setting, the many points of view, the realism, or the sympathy it can provide in the reader for several characters which are antagonistic to each other. The writing is very fluent, descriptions are not boring, and the pages seem to turn by themselves, as you cannot lay the book aside even for ten seconds to answer a question from your friends. These positive attributes raise the series to a very high status among hundreds of fantasy novels and series that don't distinguish themselves. While all this is true, there are several aspects of the book that I did not like. I wish to discuss these shortly.
First of all, there are "good" characters in this book, and "evil" ones. Yes, we develop a sympathy for these characters as we read along and get a chance to look from their points of view, and see their reasons for doing the things they did, but this does not make them any less cruel or less egoistic. Almost every reader will favor House Stark above others, and hate House Lannister as much as they like House Stark. Though there are likeable properties of for example Jaime, another Lannister character, Cersei proves to be impossible to be liked. Many readers' positive observations from these series include the sympathy one can have for single characters which plot against eachother, but I couldn't find this sympathy in me for several, like for Tywin or Cersei Lannister, or the Mountain or Vargo Hoat. The latter two seem so cruel that they are almost implausible. Cersei Lannister's vanity is almost as disgusting. The point I am trying to make is: This book DOES depict the ancient battle of good and evil, in the form of Stark and Lannister. The good and evil is just not magical and ancient, that is all it distinguishes it from other fantasy series.
Second point, some of the women characters, like Catelyn and Sansa Stark, or Cersei Lannister, show so stupid behavior, that they become implausible. One almost has the feeling that George R. R. Martin wanted to show us that even the few women who played central roles in this story of blood and war had no business being there. They mostly don't understand things, make unlogical moves, are vain, and cost lives of others. I'm still waiting for a woman character that will spark the sympathy in me. Arya Stark doesn't count, since he could just be a boy as well. Just change the name and the minor details to fit.
Third, this story doesn't seem to go anywhere. I am reading the fourth book by now, and nothing happens anymore, that is interesting. It's like everything is over, everyone fought and had losses, no one really got what they wanted, though the things are in favor of the bad guys. The suspense of the first three books is gone, leaving its place to long descriptions of several small old places in the continent of westeros, as relatively unimportant characters go from place to place while nothing important happens to them. The whole thing has come to a halt, and I can't imagine anything interesting happening anymore. Almost every travesty we have seen, the crown has changed twice, the hand I don't know how many times. Even the Iron Men capturing the Iron Throne would only make me yawn I think. The focus should have been on new interesting characters and or new accomplishments of them which the reader can sympathize with. For example Beric Dondarrion and his pack, Asha Greyjoy, Bran becoming a shapechanger, or Arya becoming and assassin. There are so many interesting plots, but George Martin chooses to dwell on Cersei's plots and Brienne's travels. Both uninteresting characters.
One last point: George Martin disappoints the reader too easily. He just gives a nice little victory, then he kills the most liked character and rips the heart out of the reader. During the first three books I did not know if I liked the series or hated it. No matter what everyone says, no reader likes so much injustice being done to his heroes. When you finish every book you lay it down and are filled with anger and dissatisfaction so large it eats you up. I don't know if this is positive or negative, it certainly makes you want to see the bad guys tortured and killed, and makes you emotionally very strongly involved in the happenings. But from some point on it you avoid to develop emotional bonds to the protagonists, because you are afraid they could die any second. And you expect to happen bad things every time so you don't get crushed when it does. This does take much of the surprise element and the thrill away. Maybe that is why the plot has become less interesting for me.

Gritty, violent, smart, sexy, and real are all adjetives that come to my mind when trying to describe a song of ice and fire by George R.R. Martin. Fantastic, excellent, amazing, and brillant are some others that spring to it as well. That being said Mr. Martin has created a world that is like a breath of fresh air, this in my opinion is the very best that fantasy has to offer. The only series that rivals it would have to be The Lord of the Rings and I think that when the last sentence is written in the last book of this series if all goes as well as it already has this may be hailed as even better than Tolkien's master piece. I know that some that read this review will be skeptical of that statement but then you just have to read it to see what i mean now won't you? The characters are just like anybody you may meet in real life the only difference is of course is that are set in a medieval time frame not a modern way aside from that they read like real people, and not like prince charming, Cindarella, and the wicked witch of the west. So if you like me enjoy real people, politics, a bit of a dark tale, and an intelligent read as opposed to the stale cliche read about the evil wizard who strives for chaos and world domination for no plausible reason and is brought down by a knight in shining armor who they faces death ten million times only to survive at the last second, can fight and kill ten thousand opponents with one armed tied behind his back and his trusty magic sword then this is the series for you. If you like dry cliche works without a touch of realism then i suggest you stay away from this series.

I heard about the Song of Ice and Fire series a year ago, so I went out and bought the first book, "A Game of Thrones." Immediately after finishing it I ran to Barnes and Noble and bought the second book, "A Clash of Kings." Then, as you can imagine, I raced back to the store to buy the third book, "A Storm of Swords." However, halfway through the middle of the third book in the series I started getting the feeling that the series really had no point. Martin gives the impression that he just makes the chapters up as he goes along. I do admit that the writing itself is very captivating, and kept me turning the page. I also applaud his decision not to have the generic fantasy theme of "good v. evil." But the story just keeps dragging on. It is difficult to gage the end. Yes, you get the feeling that a major war is in the future, but a preview of the journey would have been nice. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is long, yet the reader knows up front that the story follows the quest to bring the ring to Mount Doom. Even the "Harry Potter" series, also 7 books, structures the story for seven years of school to fight Voldemort in the end, allowing the reader to know how far she/he has journeyed through the story. The "Song of Ice and Fire" series sets no structure, which gives the impression that the story development is very weak-minded. It feels reminiscent of "Quantum Leap" or "The Fugitive," where the formula for each episode can be repeated indefinitely. Where some may see the writing as possessing several "gotcha" moments, I imagine many readers will become unaffected by the random "surprises" after becoming desensitized to the "twists." This is how Martin's story unfolds, like a roller coaster that has no track in front of it. The track is placed a second before the coaster gets to that point. Sure, there are several big "drops" in the story, but half the fun of big "drops" is looking forward to the fall. In this instance you have no idea where the coaster is going, or even if you'll ever be able to get off for that matter. I also wish Martin did not include the traditional science fiction/fantasy "Duke Leto" character in the form of Ned Stark. Again, Martin writes each page well, but he does not write "the big picture" well at all. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, it's unclear if there is even a tunnel at all.

This series is a hard read, both frustrating and rewarding in the best possible way. There is no good and evil, no overbearing evil ruler to vanquish. War is in not some romantic getaway. Magic is mysterious and frightening. The prose is tight, the plot realistic which often leaves it muddled, but it is the characters that keep you reading. They are well written and each one of them develop as the series with progresses.

It can be frustrating at times having to jump around from different points of views, but at times the way plot progression is done in this matter is brilliant.