A Game of Thrones | George R.R. Martin | Chapter Review

Hello Bloggies!! It has been far to long since my last post and for that I apologize. How have you all been? I personally have been thriving, just not doing a whole lot of writing. I have been reading though! Specifically I picked up Game of Thrones, from George R.R. Martin. I fell in love with the world when I was in college and started watching the HBO show, and have tried a few times to read the books but didn't get very far due to my attention shifting to new fixations, damned ADD.

Game of Thrones for the few who don't know, starts in the far north of Westeros at the wall, a giant landmark made of ice that divides the 7 Kingdoms from the true north, and in the process separates the citizens of the 7 Kingdoms from the Wildlings north of the wall. We meet three men of The Night's Watch, who we learn early on is a brotherhood of men who have dedicated their lives to guarding the wall and the 7 Kingdoms from those north, primarily the Wildlings. While searching for a band of Wildlings, our group instead encounters the others, beings that are clearly not human, and are clearly part of the magic in this world. The two groups have an altercation, and unfortunately it looks like no one in the group we are following survives.

Martin writes in a way that reminds me of reading Harry Potter, where it is written in third person, however you are closely following the thoughts of a specific character. I love reading this writing style, as I find reading a novel in the first person to be jarring, but still want to know what is running through the mind of the character I'm following. Martin's level of description is in my opinion the perfect level, and I am able to easily visualize what he's describing to me in clear detail. His writing reads almost poetic at times, and I feel myself flying through the words on the pages quickly.

The Prologue for A Game of Thrones does a wonderful job of setting the stage for the world we are in, invoking feelings of annoyance at the unfairness already described in the first chapter, a feeling of unease for Winter and the cold in the north that is to come, and curiosity for the secrets surrounding the others. I am excited to see what else the magic of this world will gift us avid readers with, and am looking forward to how that will mix with the realism already shown in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.

The characters we where introduced to in the prologue where an interesting group, with the commander Waymar Royce being shown as young, arrogant and inexperienced through the pov of Will, yet also being shown to be quite capable when distancing yourself from the pov, through the words actually coming out of his mouth. In my own opinion there is not much to touch on with the other two characters shown, Will and Gerald. They are both shown to be experienced men of the Nights Watch, with the knowledge that experience grants, while missing facts that Ser Waymor points out. They are both quite clearly unimpressed with their commander, and view him being their superior as being solely sue to the fact that he is a lord's son, when I'm not sure that's quite the case. Unfortunately we will not get to figure out if Waymor would have won them over, as he is dead, Gerald is dead and I suspect Will is also dead.

I am very excited to get back into this series, as it's been years since I've tried to read it and i honestly don't remember much. I remember the show very well, and was thoroughly disappointed with the final 2 seasons. I can't wait to get into the heart of the story, and meet the book versions of all my favorite characters to see if it changes my opinion on any of them. Until next time bloggies!