Sean Randall reviewed A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
Review of 'A Game of Thrones' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I had read the prologue of this book twice and the opening paragraphs of the first chapter once, and yet not persevered beyond that. Something about it failed to appeal, but I thought I would persist with it, as many others have found these books to be brilliant.
Sadly, I am not one of these. I can appreciate the work gone into such a large and epic tome; the worldbuilding and genealogy are grandiose. Yet for all that, I found an overwhelming lack of anything to be surprised about in the eight and a half hours or so it took me to read the book. The combat scenes were quite exciting, but obvious, just to illustrate by example. Picture an entrenched, large force of soldiers, expecting combat and set upon by a smaller, tired, less disciplined force. Forward to a small, stealthy unit, laying an ambush for an obviously oblivious …
I had read the prologue of this book twice and the opening paragraphs of the first chapter once, and yet not persevered beyond that. Something about it failed to appeal, but I thought I would persist with it, as many others have found these books to be brilliant.
Sadly, I am not one of these. I can appreciate the work gone into such a large and epic tome; the worldbuilding and genealogy are grandiose. Yet for all that, I found an overwhelming lack of anything to be surprised about in the eight and a half hours or so it took me to read the book. The combat scenes were quite exciting, but obvious, just to illustrate by example. Picture an entrenched, large force of soldiers, expecting combat and set upon by a smaller, tired, less disciplined force. Forward to a small, stealthy unit, laying an ambush for an obviously oblivious opponent. It takes no great mind to work out which are to be victorious in both these encounters, in fact it was so obvious that I had no concern about losing the thread of who was going to win or lose because there was, in my mind, no doubt.
Some of the description is well written, there are plenty of interesting characters, some of whom I quite liked reading about. Nonetheless, works of comparable style and tone have bestirred me, rather than left me feeling a little apathetic, and so I'm afraid that I'll be holding off on the second book until a lack of other worthwhile material.
