Upon the completion of my degree I have once again discovered the joy of reading for pleasure and not necessity (although I can hardly claim to have found my uni work un-interesting). And so it was I found myself in Waterstones on a trip that began with me looking for a single book and ending up leaving with three...
And so the first of these three, and the maiden blog post on The Paper Elephant is a review of Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.
To begin with even George R. R. Martin's name evoked the same feelings I have looking at a J. R. R. Tolkien book, and the cover boasted a T.V. series produced by HBO. In my experience this has generally had favourable results due to HBO's discerning choice in source material. With these two in mind I scanned the blurb and promptly purshaced the book.
I was initially dissapointed, the Maps span four pages, making everything very hard to place for someone like me who has very little visual memory. In addition the book started slowly, with the first three chapters jumping disjointedly between narrators, locations and plot lines. I battled through however (no pun intended...) and by the fourth chapter everything began slotting into place and the rest of the book flowed well. The individual plot lines are so heavy that Martin's inter-weaving of them allows relief for the reader as well as keeping them captivated.
Martin also creates characters for whom you feel geuine affection, loathing or dissapointment among other descriptive emotions. I found by the end of the book I was desperate to know the fate not only of my favourite characters, but also of the one's I dissliked and even the one's I hadn't sussed out yet.
Quite simply, without giving spoilers, this book left me wanting more, and if Georgre R. R. Martin can repeat this over the rest of series then I will be deeply impressed.
This is a fantasy epic that will not dissapoint. Happy reading...
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