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lizbethandthelifeinbetween 's review for:
A Game of Thrones
by George R.R. Martin
2.5
Like what Goodreads says about the two stars, this book was okay.
Okay so I'm finally writing this up. First of, there was not much fantasy. It was much more of a political Sheids & Swords, not an Epic Fantasy, book with heavy and interesting mythology, but no real magic and fantasy until the very end.
My biggest issue with this novel is A Game of Thrones is that it's a leap backwards in the literary world. There was no one to aspire to be. The female characters were objectified and cared not. They were happy in their positions in society, submissive to their husbands, and not forwards thinking at all. The only smart woman was painted as the villain, because she had goals that disagreed with the men. There's an argument that this makes the world believable for the time period and that forwards thinking would degrade the novel. I strongly disagree. The Symphony of the Ages series by [a:Elizabeth Haydon|57461|Elizabeth Haydon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1276103913p2/57461.jpg] is a perfect example of how this can work. The world's in this series are extremely similar to the one Martin writes about. Her Main Character Rhapsody is extremely forwards thinking. She does not tolerate womenizers, child molesters, or anything if the sort and routinely deals out her justice to them. The books are made better by it.
It was annoying how much was not accomplished throughout the pages of this book. The only story that moves at a reasonable pace was Daenerys' and she was the character we saw the least of. It seemed as if Martin wanted us to experience the same moment from every character in every second of every scene. It was not needed. In 100 pages, I felt like the only thing established was what everyone was doing at the moment the book started. Also, the characters moved around a lot. While they specified which character's perspective we were reading, it was hard to track where they were. In Rhapsody, every time the prescriptive is changed, a little snipit of the map was shown with a dot indicating the location of the incident. It makes for a wonderfully uninterrupted reading experience because there was no need to flip between two page maps and the text.
So if that's all why not one star? This book had one saving grace: the mythology. It was interesting, it kept me turning pages. It will probably be the only factor to convince me to continue on in the series, as I have very little to no attachment to the characters. Had the characters been even slightly better, the mythology would have helped this book earn a 4/5 star rating even when we ca tor in the fact that this was not very fantastical until the end.
Like what Goodreads says about the two stars, this book was okay.
Okay so I'm finally writing this up. First of, there was not much fantasy. It was much more of a political Sheids & Swords, not an Epic Fantasy, book with heavy and interesting mythology, but no real magic and fantasy until the very end.
My biggest issue with this novel is A Game of Thrones is that it's a leap backwards in the literary world. There was no one to aspire to be. The female characters were objectified and cared not. They were happy in their positions in society, submissive to their husbands, and not forwards thinking at all. The only smart woman was painted as the villain, because she had goals that disagreed with the men. There's an argument that this makes the world believable for the time period and that forwards thinking would degrade the novel. I strongly disagree. The Symphony of the Ages series by [a:Elizabeth Haydon|57461|Elizabeth Haydon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1276103913p2/57461.jpg] is a perfect example of how this can work. The world's in this series are extremely similar to the one Martin writes about. Her Main Character Rhapsody is extremely forwards thinking. She does not tolerate womenizers, child molesters, or anything if the sort and routinely deals out her justice to them. The books are made better by it.
It was annoying how much was not accomplished throughout the pages of this book. The only story that moves at a reasonable pace was Daenerys' and she was the character we saw the least of. It seemed as if Martin wanted us to experience the same moment from every character in every second of every scene. It was not needed. In 100 pages, I felt like the only thing established was what everyone was doing at the moment the book started. Also, the characters moved around a lot. While they specified which character's perspective we were reading, it was hard to track where they were. In Rhapsody, every time the prescriptive is changed, a little snipit of the map was shown with a dot indicating the location of the incident. It makes for a wonderfully uninterrupted reading experience because there was no need to flip between two page maps and the text.
So if that's all why not one star? This book had one saving grace: the mythology. It was interesting, it kept me turning pages. It will probably be the only factor to convince me to continue on in the series, as I have very little to no attachment to the characters. Had the characters been even slightly better, the mythology would have helped this book earn a 4/5 star rating even when we ca tor in the fact that this was not very fantastical until the end.