A Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin
835 pages
published in 1996
I’ve always had a weakness for epic fantasy, not so much Tolkien as his imitators, happily reading my way through long, long series of books as thick as my fist: Donaldson, Feist, Eddings, Jordan, I’ve read and enjoyed them all. They may not have been very good, but as long as there was even a hint of a sufficiently epic story, I read them. As long as I could get my kick I was happy. Fortunately, not all epic fantasy is crap these days, as several excellent writers have turned their hand to it. George R. R. Martin is one of them. Until he started his A Song of Ice and Fire series, he was better known as somewhat of a cult science fiction writer, having written some excellent novels (Tuf Voyaging comes to mind) as well as short stories (Sandkings, The way of Cross and Dragon). With this series however Martin moved from being a well respected science fiction and fantasy writer to being a still respected but bestselling science fiction
and fantasy writer. He deserves it, as this is easily the best post-Tolkien epic fantasy series I’ve ever read.
There is a downside however. Writing good fantasy takes time, which means the wait inbetween novels has been long and getting longer. The first one, A Game of Throne came out in 1996, when the idea was that this would be a proper trilogy, three books, no more. Instead the series has become a proper fantasy trilogy: four books and counting. Currently it seems the whole series will eventually be seven books long, but who knows if that remains the case.
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