Rating: 
Summary: Good Book - But a Tad Over-hyped
Review: This book is a pretty good read, but I really don't understand where all the praise is coming from. After the first 100 pages there isn't much mystery left in the world. It also seems like most of this book drags on for pages, then greatly advances the plot in just a few paragraphs. I suppose most fans of the genre aren't used to the 'shocking' sex exploits (poorly written IMO) and graphic combat so people give it extra credit for that kind of stuff.If you have high expectations on the book you may be dissapointed, otherwise it is better than most fantasy books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: The King of Fantasy
Review: A GAME OF THRONES is the opening volume in George R.R. Martin's massive A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE saga. This is epic fantasy at its very best. Dark, realistic, detailed, gritty and not for the faint of heart. Martin offers real depth instead of pseudo-depth invoked by lousy exposition and info-dumping. Believable characters who have to make hard choices and a setting that is brillantly evoked, this series is a masterpiece that will join the ranks of LORD OF THE RINGS, EARTHSEA and MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN.
Rating:
Summary: Play This Game!
Review: I do not give five stars lightly, particularly for fiction books. Out of over a hundred fiction reviews, this is only the third book to ever receive five stars. Why does this one merit five stars? Intricate plotting, fully developed characters, an interesting back-stroy, and prose that perfectly balances description, action, and dialogue. A Game of Thrones is, in many respects, a retelling of the War of Roses, and owes a great deal of its greatness to Frank Herbert's Dune and even Le Morte d'Arthur. It is a tale of a once heroic king in decline, of a noble family's treacherous rise to power, and another family's attempt to maintain honor and dignity in an increasingly corrupt world. There is, to be sure, a minimal amount of traditional "fantasy" elements, although there are both dragons and un-dead wights enough to satisfy most fantasy fans. Those who enjoy hefty historical tomes like Shogun will adore this one as much as those who worship Tolkien. If there is any bothersome flaw, it is that the perspective changes with each chapter, and each chapter is emblazoned with the name of the character featured in it. Some may find this change in perspective irritating, but I found it refreshing. 800 pages of the same viewpoint would be too much. Nor is Martin a Harry Turtledove, who stays with a character for four pages, not to return for another 50. Readers should also be warned that the violence and sex is graphic at times, but less so than most Hollywood movies or romance novels. All in all, this one is a keeper. The negative reviews have me scratching my head. I have seldom read a book that fires the imagination as much as this one has. Recommended without reservations.
Rating: 
Summary: Overhyped Fluff Reads Like a Cheesy Movie Script
Review: George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series, of which the Game of Thrones is the first of a projected seven volumes (the fourth of which is due to be published in mid-2004), is the most overrated fantasy series of the day. The poor writing and the lack of likeable or believable characters combine to create an unworkable mess. Martin's show-biz mind comes up with numerous ludicrous moments. His "heroes" are impossible to take seriously because they keep doing impossibly dumb things such as putting themselves and their families into the hands of their enemies. His "villains" are impossible to take seriously because they are incapable of successfully assassinating a middle aged woman, or, for that matter, a young child. (The fact that Martin's characters are generally trying to commit such deeds makes for extremely unpleasant as well as frustrating reading). The scare quotes two paragraphs above indicate the moral ambiguity of Martin's universe. He does not really believe in heroism or villainy, which makes for an extremely blah story. Granted that two-shaded, black or white storytelling is _almost_ as mindless as writing gets, Martin still does not improve on this. He actually falls short of even that low standard. His one shade of gray in the middle for everybody is even more mindless. It also creates a story that is inherently uninteresting - why should the reader care who "wins" when one character is as good/bad as another? Like horror movie protagonists, Martin's characters are often defenestrated, throat-slashed, thrown into the river, or set on fire - yet they just keep coming. The extremely graphic violence would be less unbearable if it weren't all so ineffective. The motivations and actions of the characters are completely unbelievable. How much familial loyalty would a real man have left if his father had the young man's girlfriend raped by an entire company of soldiers (including the young man's brother) because she was unworthy of their family? That Martin revels in such moments is bad enough. That his characters' responses to them are so flat goes far beyond the bounds of credibility. Fantasy setting or not, people are simply not like this. No author who understands human nature so little can have much of interest to say. Martin believes that he has single-handedly discovered a major flaw common to almost all other writers: that their major characters inevitably survive to the end (or close to the end) of the production. He does not understand that he is putting the cart before the horse, and so missing the point entirely. Of course other authors have "mortal" characters. However, other authors are simply intelligent enough to realize that the major characters of a work (or a real-life episode) are generally to be found among those who are alive for a significant part of it, and to construct their storytelling accordingly. By repeatedly focusing on characters who shortly thereafter meet their demises, Martin succeeds only in punishing his readers with a series of unproductive false starts. Martin's writing is similar in many ways to that of another very flawed writer, one whose many faults are more widely recognized: Terry Goodkind. Martin shares Goodkind's penchant for violence and sex, though Martin's versions are even more graphic and unappealing (he does, fortunately, lack Goodkind's particular brand of sappy smarminess). Nevertheless, the comparison ultimately favors Goodkind because he can at least wrap a story up, something Martin, like Robert Jordan, is incapable of doing. Goodkind is under the disadvantage of having published eight books with which to annoy readers, as opposed to Martin's three (in this series). To compare Martin to Tolkien, or to Herbert or Donaldson, is to lose all credibility. Donaldson at his 25 year-old, strained-vocabulary worst was infinitely the better writer. Thrones and its successors should be avoided at all costs. Instead, go with Tad Williams, Michael Scott Rohan, Jack Vance, or early Raymond Feist.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: As the Lord of the Rings phenomenon is now winding down, and people are looking for something else to fill that void, this series will not only ease the sense of something ending, but make people pray that the era of fantasy movie-making doesn't stop with LOTR. The cast of characters is long enough to give the general reader pause, but the story itself gives reason enough to follow your favorites, wherever they may go. If the reader allows it (and this is not a burden to accept lightly) each book will give the emotional response of having lived through the words. I cannot describe the feeling of surviving (or not) the treachery, barely making it through a 10,000 man battle, or playing the Game of Thrones, but I know that I have lived it, just by reading these books. Now, everything I read merely serves to bide the time until Book 4 comes out. And when it does, nothing else will be read until I have pored over every word more than a few times. 5 stars doesn't even begin to describe the quality and depth of this series.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Wow, I just finished this book and my head is still swimming. Simply put, this book is simply amazing in every regard. The characters well developed and are not totally "good" or totally "bad." More than once I found myself cursing a character... only to cheer them on later in the story. As a matter of fact, more than once I openly cursed the book. I havent felt like this about a book since I read the 1st book of the Wheel of Time. Martin has mastered with Jordan has started. I do not look forward to jumping back into "Randland" after I've been treated to this feast of literary perfection by Mr Martin. Brilliant. Utterly refreshing. Totally deserving of 5 stars - I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I rushed out and bought this book after reading the reviews on this site only to be very disappointed. A novel is meant to be about somebody and something. This book changes viewpoint so frequently between a cast of unsympathetic or shallow characters that I could not relate to any of them. Though Martin's writing is well above average for the genre (except for the POV changes), this story is like watching a movie through a strobe light. For mine, Robert Martin's 'shades of grey' book just created a grey cheerless book. If he'd have written the story, as good novels do, with at least 70-80% of the story through a single character it might have salvaged the novel. I certainly won't be tracking down book 2. If you're new to fantasy, stick with Tolkien, early Fiest and Eddings, and Tad William's Dragonbone chair series. Newer authors like Martin and Erikson write unsympathetic characters and the less said about Robert Jordan's never ending story the better.
Rating:
Summary: Please do not believe the hype
Review: This book was suggested to me by a fellow fantasy buff, who claimed this series was "better than anything out there," much like many of the reviewers on this site. Not so. Do not believe that this is "historical fantasy," a term many fantasy fans seem to label this series in order to lend it credibility. Just because this book lacks the use of magic does not make it "historical." There are dragons in this book, however, but hardly any of the reviewers mention this when calling it "historical." In truth, this book is nothing more than a well-written romance novel told from several different P.O.V.s. The reader is treated to hilariously overwrought sex scenes designed to shock the reader. Just because the author chooses to include the sex lives of disfigured midgets and an S&M dragon-mistress (shades of Anne McCaffrey) does not make it shocking or worthwhile. Martin uses laughable lines like "her loins ached" after a sex scene and repetitive descriptions such as "sickening crunch" several times throughout this first book. Again, these are details Martin fans never seem to address in their reviews. Simply put, this is a series enjoying some hype because it includes a little graphic sexuality, and Martin is not afraid to kill off characters. Imagine Nora Roberts writing with Robert Jordan; this series is geared towards the female fantasy fan, with many descriptions of "oiled wooden pillars" and sweet-smelling incense and draperies. Strong female characters, but most of the men are just Hamlet knock-offs. This first book is eye-rolling poor and quite obvious in its attempt to make fantasy "gritty."
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling Historical, Political fiction
Review: I usually shy away from fantasy, but I read this one and the next book in this series because of all the shining reviews posted here. I have yet to be sorry, so thanks everyone! for their reviews encouraging me to read it.
At the center of the story lies the Stark family in the North, who are tied very closely to the King of the Iron Throne. The books title pretty much sums up the very basic plot. Who should continue to sit on the Iron Throne is a matter of dispute between several houses, and continues on in the next book "A Clash of Kings".
A few of the reviewers here are disappointed with the book because of its lack of fantastical elements. I agree with them, there is little fantasy here in the way of dragons, magic and things like that. The places are obviously made up, but that aside I think this book reads like a historical fiction novel. It's very political and this coupled with the overall missing fantasy is what made me really like this book.
I also think it is really clever of Martin to switch points of view throughout the book. Each chapter deals exclusively with the thoughts and situations of a different character (Martin has several he switches out) as they struggle with not only political problems, but personal ones as well. This form of writing manages to keep the plot working smoothly.
If you like lengthy, disciplined reading that isn't literature, then you will probably like this book.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome.
Review: Great book, whoever complains about it not having enough "fantasy", shouldnt be writing a review. The fact that this book lacks hobbits, elves, and magical purple faeries, yet keeps a sense of fantasy(The Others..dragons etc.) makes it even better. It's hard to start the book, but once you get used to the author's unique style of writing, it consumes you. It's just awesome, go read it right now.. RIGHT NOW OMFG.
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