Review Me Twice - Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

We're reviewing Game of Thrones!  Which, everyone should have expected considering we're giving the book away. (You have until 11:59 pm tomorrow to enter!  There's still plenty of time for you to win.)

Hey, aren't we giving that away??

Martin's writing in this book is wonderful.  Mainly, his character development.  Just so you know this before you read, a LOT of people die.  I mean, a lot (though, let's face it, you probably already knew that.)  And what's worse, you care about so many of the characters.  When they die, you're heartbroken.  And if that were enough, you're then deathly afraid to LIKE characters, because there is a relatively good chance they'll end up dead.

The action scenes are great, though not as frequent in this book as in the later books.  However, there is a scene with Arya and her "Dance instructor" that just breaks my heart but I love all the same.  Pretty much I just love Arya and I'm crossing my fingers that she makes it through the series.

You're also torn on who to root for!  Daeneyrs wants to take over and control the Seven Kingdoms, the place where all the rest of our characters live.  In theory, I should hate her.  I should want the Starks to win everything.  But I don't.  There's a part of me that wants her to do it because I love her story!  You do choose a side in this book, but it has nothing to do with Daeneyrs.

Now, I will concede that there are a LOT of point of view changes.  Every chapter is a different person's point of view.  And it can be hard to keep track of the characters and whose eyes it is that you're seeing the world through.  The first time I read this book, I couldn't figure out who "Eddard" was, until half way through the book, I figured out it was Ned Stark's full name.  However, no one calls him that, so when the chapter headers have that name, I get confused.

And, the first time I read it, it was incredibly lost.  Even though the chapters are headed up with the people, you still have the thousands of side characters (some of whom become incredibly important in book two.  Robb Stark becomes incredibly important, and Stannis, the king's brother, doesn't even appear in book one.  But in book two, we see everything about him from one of his men (who has POV chapters, though we've never heard of him.)

Despite all the characters, and the confusion of having them, the story is still seamless, it's interesting, and it's utterly and completely nerve-wracking.

Full disclosure: I didn't finish the book. But that's not because I was like, "Ugh, this is terrible, forget this." It's because this is a really long book and I work seven days a week. I will be finishing it, but I didn't want to rush through it for today, because I wanted to enjoy it.

I usually get really distracted and/or confused with point of view changes, but Martin must have done a very good job, because I liked this one. (It probably helps that it's all still third-person, instead of switching from one character's first-person to another.)

There isn't a character I genuinely dislike. Oh sure, there are bad people that I would dislike if I had to interact with them in any way as humans, but they're all written so well, I enjoy reading about them.

Typically, if I cry at a book, it means I really love it (because I care enough about the characters to have a real emotional reaction when something wonderful or devastating happens to them). Like I said, I haven't finished the book, but I've already cried once. So that's a good sign. (To retain some dignity, I would like to point out that it was a solitary solemn tear, but it was quite real.)