A Game of Thrones (George R.R. Martin)

Came very late to this party and just finished reading this book.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a book so much - such vibrant characters, great intrigue and so many twists and turns.
Well conceived, written and I know which books I'll be reading next.

DON'T READ THIS BOOK! If you do you will end up buying the next three in the series. Halfway through the second book you'll realize that the series isn't finished. You'll still carry on reading because you've checked the publish dates for the last two novels on Amazon and its only next year. You'll then look on the author's website which tells you the dates are inaccurate and that he's not even finished the fourth book.

By this stage you'll be so hooked that you'll finish the third book. You'll then go back to the author's website, see that he's still not finished the next book, read the online sample chapter, then kick the cat.

This book draws you into the story immediately and keeps your attention throughout. Each character tells a bit of the story from their perspective. Most of them are undesirable types with their own selfish agendas. Their relentless pursuit of their own ambitions adds to the mystery and intrigue. This is the first in a series and after reading this book, I immediately bought the next one.

George Martin writes fantasy just like I want it to be! His world, Westeros, is very involved and incredibly detailed, giving us the sense that we live in it while we are in his hands as readers, but it's kind of similar enough to the past of our own world that we don't feel all at sea. He writes characters well - they're all allowed to have their own hopes, fears, emotions and agendas and some of them are so sly and smart that it sometimes seems that they could outsmart the author and climb out of the book if only they desired to. This book and its sequels are a cracking yarn very well told, and I urge any serious fan of fantasy to give it a whirl. The best fantasy novel I've read. As an afterthought, I'd also like to say that Martin's character names are among the best I've seen in fantasy - they're like slightly skewed forms of everyday "normal" names. This is part of what helps the realism along.

A massive epic with more in common with I, CLAVDIVS than Lord of the Rings. Interesting political intrigue. The only flaw is that a lot of the characters are written as though they are much more mature than they are meant to be. Arya for example is only 8 but comes across as much older.

Almost deserving of five stars, this is the first part of a massive fantasy epic and you feel at the end of it that you're only just scratching the surface of what's going on. Not really well enough concluded to stand alone I had to go out and buy book two the moment I'd finished this to find out what happened to a few major characters that were hanging on a knife edge at the end of book one.

The characters are the main selling point of this story (don't go buying this if you're looking for elves or goblins or magic rings), and what characters they are: Evil, manipulative, sneaky and backstabbing... and that's just the nice ones!

One note of caution though: Only books 1 to 3 are out at the moment and we may be waiting a while for the rest of the alleged 6 planned.