Rating: 
Summary: Best of the Best
Review: George RR Martin's book, A Game of Thrones, is one of the best. It is a wonderfully written story that grabs a hold of you and keeps you throughout all three books, and you can't wait for the fourth. His story is gripping and the characters, both good and bad guys, are great. You will not be disappointed, and like everyone else I know who has read the first, you will be hooked.
Rating: 
Summary: REFRESHING, MOSTLY ORIGINAL, BUT LACKS BACKBONE
Review: Look at the back of any Robert Jordan book, and they'll compare him to Tolkien, Brothers Grimm, The Stand, etc. But A Game of Thrones is only compared to one book--T.H. White's The Once and Future King--and rightfully so, too, because that's its closest match. So in that respect, AGOT is VERY original. You won't find the Tolkien Formula in this book, folks. This book is clearly a character-driven story, as each chapter is from a separate character's POV. It will remind you a great deal of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, in that respect. Like one reviewer pointed out, the good guys aren't always good, the bad guys aren't always bad--in fact they can be quite likable. The prologue in this book is nothing new, though. Personally, Jordan's prologue in Eye of the World was far better--and it was written earlier, too. In AGOT, each chapter is a diamond. The dialogue is witty, characters are sometimes interesting, and the book is--for the most part--well written. Suprisingly enough, I did not finish this book, even though I tried twice. I got about halfway through. Um, so how is it that I'm giving it 4 stars? Like I said, it's well-written, except for a few flaws that I'm sure other fantasy readers would overlook. In a way, choosing a fantasy series to stick with is like choosing a religion. For me, I'd already attached myself to the Wheel of Time series, making that my standard. This book just didn't exceed my standard. Martin's biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to make his story FLOW. I finish one chapter, but I find very little reason to turn the page and read the next. You find yourself liking some characters and hating others. You'll find yourself saying, "Oh man! I have to read ANOTHER chapter from the POV of Sansa!" That was just an example, but you get the point. If I did finish this book--which I might--I honestly can't say that it would be worth the effort. It lacks the urgency that one finds in traditional fantasy novels. And although Tyrion Lannister--my favorite character--is funny and witty, the humor is only equal to that which can be found in John Myers Myers book Silverlock--written in 1949, mind you. To wrap things up, this book is like a bunch of diamonds, but there is no cord to connect them all together.
Rating:
Summary: MUST READ
Review: This book, and the following series, are truly excellent. For anyone who loves those big doorstop series, you cannot miss this one. Every time I think I've figured Martin out, he tosses something new into the mix. Everything is lavishly described, from the physical to the political to the legendary. For anyone else getting slightly bored with The Wheel of Time, this is it.
Rating:
Summary: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)
Review: George R.R. Martin has written the very best fantasy series that I have ever read, and I have read them all! This story is so far above anything else that is out there - including the much applauded Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind series - I cannot recommend it more highly. Superb writing on every level; character development, plot, readability, etc. A must read for every fantasy fan.
Rating:
Summary: Reality Fantasy
Review: With the hundreds of fantasy novels that I have read, and have become makeshift door stoppers, its great to finally read one that is wothy to sit next to Book one of the Wheel of Time. George Martin is one of those phenomenal writers that not only tells a tale, but makes the reader feel at one with charcaters. Characters that experience so much pain and tribulation that the reader wants to jump in and save them form their most certain peril. Fantasy books have been becoming stale over the last couple of years with so many copycat writers changing character names and settings yet sticking to the same plots weve all read time and time agian. Martin destroys the prefabricated storylines and places his charcters in situations where they can not survive and live happily ever after and where honor and dignity are not always one in the same. Basically, a fantasy story that has a real life twist. A job well done on a magnificent piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: From a Wheel of Time-fan's point of view:
Review: This book was nice. I liked it. I am a Robert Jordan-fan myself, and became curious of this series after seeing in several discussion groups that they compared ASOIAF to WOT, some liked it better and some hated it, but the majority preferred Martin over Jordan. The comparison is somewhat unfair, since this is a series of so far only 3 books, while Jordan's is now 9 and counting. If people instead of comparing ASOIAF to the latest WoT books compared them to the first ones, it would be a whole other story. Martin has yet to prove that he is better than Jordan over a big span of books. The discussion of which series is better than the other is IMHO pointless until both series are complete. This may seem like a bashing, but it's not. It's a great read. Not better than RJ, but still a great read. It's very different from WoT in storyline and so on. The chapters are named after the person whose PoV the chapter is told from. It's annoying at the beginning, but you get used to it. The most significant difference from WoT is that here good guys actually DIES from time to time. And as for not ripping off Dune; Ned Stark vs Duke Leto Atreides, anyone?
Rating:
Summary: i liked it so much i'm writing this
Review: This is my favorite epic fantasy work (so far), and one of a handful I am reading more than once (Tolkien and Gene Wolfe have written others). I can't cover all the reasons why I like it, but if you skim through the other reviews, you're sure to find them. What puts this saga in a class of its own is that while it remains clearly an epic fantasy in the best of traditions, borrowing elements from history without coming close to representing history (I think that the Arthurian legends are a close literary parallel, though it also calls to mind War and Peace which is more historical), it is, more than any other modern fantasy I can think of, a story about people. The Others notwithstanding (and I pray Martin manages to bring them in gracefully when they really start to make an impact), the plot is driven by the interaction of human values, not alien menace. It's a parable of reality that dispenses with a lot of the more simplistic archetypes. True, Martin walks a fine line between pulpy and literary, but by God he does it well! A particular instance of the principle stated above is that, as more than one reviewer has made me aware of, Martin consistently, relentlessly defines the difference between good and evil for us. With the one big exception, there is a real dearth of inhuman monsters in these books, but a plethora of human ones. Good and evil are not a chess game where everyone lines up on one side or the other, but they are made up of the experiences, values and choices of each individual. Cruelty, vanity and greed are more useful terms than evil. Things can get a bit raw in Westeros and beyond but, of course, not as raw as the nightly news. This story is hardly overloaded with sex and violence (try William S. Burroughs). Again, there is a fine line to be walked between appropriate and gratuitous, but Mr. Martin is apparently writing with a charmed pen. Who knows if you'll like it? It is fantasy, and it is for fun. Personally I'm just grateful for having had the chance to read something which has brought me so much enjoyment. I'm just starting in on a slow reread which should take me up close to the next publication. After the phenomenal "A Storm of Swords", part of me is actually quite nervous that Martin can't possibly sustain this level of quality while continuing to develop such a multifaceted plot with so many supernatural threads waiting in the wings. We all know how easy it is for writers to stumble in the second half (gratuitous football metaphor for my amusement). I must believe! A final note: heroes with the capacity to die may be upsetting, but isn't it amazing how much it makes all the characters come to life? There's food for thought: would you be alive if you could never die? Ivo
Rating:
Summary: First In An Awesome Series
Review: Simple: Buy it -- it's great and the sequels won't let you down. Adventure, action, intrigue, great characters, & a plot that twists and turns.
Rating:
Summary: A Game of Thrones
Review: This was an exceptional book. I picked it up thinking I was merely starting on another mediocre book, but this passed my highest expectations. A Game of Thrones is so interesting and complex that it is destined to be a classic, at least in the world of fantasy. To say that he is following in Tolkien's wake would be absurd, since they are so different, but Martin was definitely able to bring me in and hold me like few authors have done before. The characters well amazingly well played out, and so coldly realistic. The plot was cool, and had massive amounts of twists and turns that just made this book enjoyable. Though there really wasn't even any fighting or real action for quite a while(except for about the 2nd page, but that was rather mysterious) I was never left bored or lost in this book. Just wanting to know the next careful step to be made by one of the high lords, or what was going to happen to Stark children was enough to keep me reading. One thing I liked about his writing was that each chapter discussed a separate person, so I had to keep track of all the different sub-plots going on at the same time. Yes, he sometimes didn't get back to a particular character as much as I would have liked, but I certainly liked it better than having many subsequent chapters on one person in particular. A Game of Thrones is not to be taken up with a light heart or queasy stomach though. He tells the story so graphically and with such insensitivity that at times it was rather disturbing, but he was able to accurately portray good and evil(well, at least evil, I don't think there was really any pure good in this book) in their rawest forms. He didn't have basic fairy-tale characters, he had realistic and amazing people, as well as history that was believable and such, but only because of his delivery of everything was so accurate to what life can be like. Martin is most assuredly an impressive writer and I am hoping the following books are as good as th
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but not a fun read
Review: I have to say that when people recommended this book to me, I expected another fantasy epic. I was sorely disapointed. This author seems to enjoy nothing more than torturing his characters, beyond the point where we would see their suffering end, even in real life. None of them have hope for a happy future, nor does any character have the least shred of dignity or honor. I have to say that if I lived in the world of the Starks and the Lannisters, I probably would have killed myself long ago. Why does anyone want to read a fantasy epic where nothing good ever happens?
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