This series has been on my to-read list for over five years, but I jus t never got around to it. With the tv show beginning, however, I knew I had to just sit down a nd read it. After all, I don't watch movies if I haven't read the books (assuming there's a remote chance I'll ever read the things) and I wasn't going to pass up a chance to watch Sean Bean act.

At any rate, I'm glad I finally bit the bullet and read the first book. The novels themselves are well plotted, with reasonably believable characters (I'll forgive the stilted dialogue; nobody's perfect) and, most importantly for me, I gained a much better understanding of how the last decade of fantasy has developed. Martin's emphasis on the humanity of his characters and story, and his obvious debt to the histories of the European nations, England in particular, comes out in this novel and makes me look forward to the rest of the series. And, since the book is well written enough and rarely slides into either purple prose or bad writing, I have no complaints.

Definitely worth picking up, especially with the reward of Sean Bean at the end. How come there aren't any sex scenes with him?

One of my favorite books ever.

I decided, recently, that it was time to buckle down and start reading classic science fiction. Heinlein landed first on the list (possibly because I saw it first) and I don't regret reading him. I am, however, rather annoyed that I had to finish the book.

The first two thirds of the story was astounding and the chronicles of how someone who was human and not human at the same time was trying to make sense of a world for which he has no reference or comprehension was amazing.

And then Mike became superman, capable of everything and I got supremely fed up with the story and wanted him to die.

So much for wish fulfillment.

Not that I enjoy piling the dislike on the first novel written in English (actually, that's a lie), but this book is at its best/most useful when it works as an object lesson in novel aesthetics and how what we once appreciated in a book is entirely different from what we currently appreciate.
It's difficult to discuss whether this is a good book or not, given its popularity when it was first published. Yet I found the style of storytelling to be entirely at odds with the conventions I am used to, as though Defoe deliberately set out to spend too much time on the boring bits and downplay the excitement of being shipwrecked on a desert island, surviving and going to battle.
But, as I said, aesthetics.