Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.
The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.
I am not one much for Fantasy, I would not state it is even close to being my favourite genre, but I never write anything off. I'm sure there has been at least one book in almost every genre that I can say that I like, so I can't say that I dislike any genre. If I can't say that there is a book in a certain genre I like, maybe I just haven't met the right book yet.
However I can honestly say that I don't go browsing in the Sci Fi/Fantasy section at McNally.
I feel that this book is a complete mixture of several genres. It is clearly "mostly" fantasy, but there are elements that make it seem historical, but I particularly enjoyed the mystery aspect of it. There is this great crime that needs to be solved and there are clues given to the reader throughout the story, a detective-like character that goes and interviews involved persons, etc, etc. (the funny part is I'm not really a fan of Mysteries either) There is also a Horror element to it as well -- creatures similar to zombies are becoming more evident in the savage north while men of high honour are in the south playing politics.
Complaints I've heard about these novels are split between two reasons. The first is that Martin doesn't write anything that hasn't been done in a Fantasy genre before, and the second is that there are so many characters that it is hard to keep track of who is who.
The thing about complaining that it's nothing new in this book is that most of any type of book is not "new". Shakespeare was just rehashing themes that were already done in his time... so we are pretty much screwed for "new" concepts. Plus, having stated that I am not generally a fan of the Fantasy genre, it was new to me. So take that.
It is true that there are lots of characters in this book, and some of them have similar names (Viserys, Varys... Syrio, Semly... and many others), and they could be hard to keep track of, but I didn't have any trouble. This may have been because I read a lot, so I am more adept at remembering names, or it could be that because I knew that there was going to be a lot of characters to keep straight, I took more care in remembering whom related to whom and how.
Honestly though, it was a great book. Beware of the amount of violence and gore, but otherwise great for almost everyone.
On to book two!
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