Zachary Leonard Game of Thrones Review

A Game of Thrones is the first book in George R. R. Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire. The 1996 novel has gained popularity in the past two years and has even inspired an ongoing HBO series.

The book is set in a world where summer can last decades, and winter for a lifetime. The point of view of four highborne families, the Starks of Winterfell, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Baratheons of the Stormlands, and the surviving members of the fallen royal house of the Targaryens. Each family is fighting to rule over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, united under the Iron Throne.

Deanerys Stormborn is the 13 year old heiress to the fallen Targaryen Dynasty. Her character is the embodiment of justice and the female spirit. The young Targaryen girl uses every resource she has, though they are few, to cross the narrow sea from Essos, the continent to which her and her older brother fled, back to Westeros to reclaim the Iron Throne. Despite being in a foreign land with no one but an abusive brother who sold her to a barbarian king as a wife, Deanerys becomes the book’s symbol of determination through her refusal to give up what was taken from her family.

Despite being a medieval-themed fantasy novel, A Game of Thrones is not written into the stereotypical “fantasy” mold. Martin writes more on politics, secrecy, and war rather than magic and mythical creatures. Power is a theme in A Game of Thrones that never remains absolute. It continually shifts and changes and is always ready to be taken and held by another.

A Game of Thrones offers interesting reading, an addicting storyline, and characters that will inspire hatred and love. Martin changed the mold of the genre and proved himself as a writer. A Song of Ice and Fire is a five book series with two more books on the way that is completely worth anyone’s attention.