Will I love A Game of Thrones?

This was the first fantasy book that made me afraid for its characters and helped me understand that fantasy is allowed to feel realistic.

Up until this point, the types of books I was reading were very paint-by-numbers, but here the stakes felt real because no one was safe... not even the ones who seemed typical fantasy rules were untouchable.

What stuck with me wasn’t the true-to-form fantasy bits (dragons/battles), but how human the characters felt. In this world, loyalty is a death sentence... love is dangerous, and power always comes with a price.

Years ago, long before the TV series, I was looking for a book to while away the ferry crossing from Plymouth in the south of England to northern Spain. My young neighbor Robbie recommended A Game of Thrones, a nice chunky volume that looked up to the job.

Well, as it turned out when we docked at Santander, I was very annoyed at the interruption and had to put the book down to get back behind the wheel. The rest, as they say, is history.

The book and its successors are also well worth re-reading. Shame about the yet-to-appear… show more.

No real reason. This book represents a divergence from the genres I normally would pick up on my own, but I was pleasantly surprised... enough to begin work on my own fantasy novel.

This is a fantasy novel about noble families competing for control of the Iron Throne in a world filled with political intrigue, betrayal, and war. As alliances shift and conflicts arise, a supernatural threat from the north begins to emerge, adding to the chaos. 

If you love Epic Fantasy, this is a must-read. The story offers complex characters and unexpected twists. Fun fact: I'm an ENFJ personality type, the same as Daenerys Targaryen.

Game of Thrones, right? This author has created so many characters that fit this category, and they all handle their situations in a different manner. I love the three major ones, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, and Daenerys Targaryen, who could not be more different from each other. Sansa and Arya have grown up in privilege, but one scheme to be a pampered lady, and the other would be happy sleeping in the kennel with her dire wolf.

Daenerys has been hidden much of her childhood to protect her, and suddenly, she is thrown into the game with her arranged… show more.

As an editor, I don’t really get much time to read for fun. The ASoIF series had come highly recommended to me, and I was captivated. The cast is large, but I found it easy to keep track of who was who and part of what house. It also helped that there is a “dramatis personae” in the back of the book, which I referred to a few times.

I loved the idea of Ned Stark as a protagonist - not your young adventurer, but a father who gets wrapped up in a mystery. Being presented with different points of… show more.

As one of the first books that introduced me to the world of dragons, this is very near and dear to my heart. The intricate world-building drew me in, and while I did find myself far more attached to Dany and her dragons than anyone else, I cannot express how deeply I feel for each character. 

Like the other books on my list, there is nothing I can say about this series that hasn’t already been said by everyone else on the internet. But what I liked most about it is the intricacies of the family histories and how lineage drives the enthralling narrative. 

Of course, ‘most’ of the characters are fascinating, and their individual journeys, which sometimes intertwine, will keep you glued to the pages throughout this fantasy epic.

There are two things I love about the books in this series. Characters and lore. George RR Martin weaves a dense tale in both, sometimes to extremes. It’s a template I’ve followed (albeit more simply) in my own Songbird series, and attempting it only gave me an exceedingly deep admiration for how Martin pulled it off. Maintaining consistency in the lore from chapter to chapter and book to book when juggling dozens of different characters is a hugely complicated task.

All the characters also have distinctively different voices, giving you insight into their motivations and an inkling into where they… show more.

There is a reason the TV series performed as well as it did. Even though this book series hasn’t been and may never be finished, please let me tell you why I think you should read it anyway.

The story that captivated the world and put epic fantasy back on the map is even better in bookish form. Yes, the world-building of Westeros is iconic, but the use of each character’s perspective left me awestruck. Throughout the story and across the different perspectives, the “truths” of the world are revealed in their own intricately conflicting ways—a subtle reminder that history… show more.