A Song Of Fire And Ice, 7 Volumes: A Game Of Thrones/A Clash Of Kings/A Storm Of Swords; Steel And Snow/A Storm Of Swords: Blood And Gold/A Feast For Crows/A Dance With Dragons: Dreams And Dust/A Dance With Dragons: After The Feast (2000)
About book A Song Of Fire And Ice, 7 Volumes: A Game Of Thrones/A Clash Of Kings/A Storm Of Swords; Steel And Snow/A Storm Of Swords: Blood And Gold/A Feast For Crows/A Dance With Dragons: Dreams And Dust/A Dance With Dragons: After The Feast (2000)
Spoiler alert: I am going to mention a few of the things that happen in the series. Therefore this review is really meant for people who want to see how others reacted to the series after they already read it. I would rate the first three books with five stars, but the next two were not as good. The series has very vivid characters and the setting is extremely well defined. Even some of the evil characters have their good points, making them three dimensional. The action scenes are spellbinding. The problem with the later books is that the reader is very invested in the main characters, and then the author goes on and on about new peripheral characters, making you want to skip chapters to get to the good stuff. The very lengthy story about the Iron Islands is a case in point. I also disagree with a few things that happen. First, Catelyn is portrayed as an intelligent, savvy woman. It makes no sense for her to release Jaime. If the author wanted to portray her as foolish, he should have had her do some foolish things to lead up to this. Otherwise it seems way out of character. When she falls into a trap (the Red Wedding) it is also an example of bad judgment but the ground work hasn't been laid for her to exhibit such bad judgment. Some plot devices are overused. For example whenever anyone goes on a trip, they are always kidnapped. This is overdone. Similarly, whenever there is a duel, the underdog always wins. This is also overdone. It happens much too often that people who are thought dead are really not dead. That is overdone. And too many people get maimed instead of being killed. It seems overly gory. On this last point, I would like to say that the part where Tyrion's nose is lopped off, and he goes through life without a nose, seems ridiculous. In history, for example, Tycho Brahe lost his nose in a duel, and he wore a leather cover over it. Certainly Tyrion could have done the same thing. In spite of all these criticisms I enjoyed the series and would read more of it because the characters were so well done, the setting was very real, the action was exciting, and the imagination used to create this world was of an exceptionally high order. I enjoy the series on television, so I thought I would give the books a try to have a better understanding of the show but it turns out that I would rather just watch the show. My favorite sections of the book are of Tyrion and Arya. If there were separate books just focusing on these two characters I might be more interested. I made it about three quarters of the way through and figured Id just shelf it and stick with the show. I have other books that I want to read.
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