THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY

A Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin 

As a general rule I steer clear of Fantasy novels. There are too many of them and every goddamn Fantasy writer cannot think in terms of writing a single, self-contained novel instead of spreading things out in three, four, or more novels. Frankly, I find that extremely irritating. I mean, when the first tome of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga is actually longer than the three-volumes Lord of the Rings, you know you're in for a whole heap of trouble.

So why A Game of Thrones? Because of the TV show, of course! My room-mate at the time was an avid fan of Martin's cycle, so when we learned there was going to be a TV show about it, he had a monster of a nerd-gasm. So watching the show became mandatory. Initially I wasn't impressed (me being no lover of Fantasy) but I gradually got caught on. And even though my roomie pestered me to read the books, I had no intentions of doing so.

Then came the third season. I found it extremely frustrating, compared with the first two. For me, it merely consisted of people telling other people was they were about to do instead of, y'know, actually doing it onscreen. So when the season ended, I decided to give the novels a chance. So far, I've only managed to finish the first one (the second one is still a going concern so I'll probably review some time later...don't hold your breath, though, as I'm a very slow reader and currently reading something else. So there.

• Anyone who has seen the show's first season will find the book remarkably similar in matters of plot, characters and the like. On the other hand, the world presented is (of course) immensely more fleshed out than what was seen on TV (though the DVD extras do explain explains a lot of things). It's basically the same plot: Ned Stark is asked by King Robert to become his next Hand (something of a Prime Minister) on account of the King's previous Hand biting the dust. Ol' Ned reluctantly accept and moves the family to King's Landing, the Capital. Almost immediately he finds himself in a hornet's nest of epic proportions and finds his senses of honor, loyalty and justice sorely tested. When King Robert dies and his insane son Geoffrey takes the crown, all Hell breaks loose and the continent of Westeros finds itself torn apart by civil war. As for Ned, anyone who has seen the show knows how well things go for him. 
• I must admit, I was rather taken in by all of this. The main selling point being that this is a low Fantasy setting: magic exists, but its mostly done by complicated rituals and is considered evil by most. Magical beasts also exists (mainly dragon and the ice zombies known as the Others, though in the series they are called White Walkers) but are considered extinct and no longer a going concern. Westeros is comparable to medieval England, with other lands comfortably standing in for Continental Europe and the Middle East.
• It is clear that Martin has a thing for institutional celibacy, the novel has no less than three special orders requiring its members to keep it in their pants: the Night's Watch, keeping thins cool at the Wall, the Septons (priesthood of the Seven unnamed gods of Westeros) and the Maesters (professional scholars each bound to a particular House). He also has a thing for murderous children, judging the behavior of Arya Stark and Geoffrey Baratheon.