Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #787 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Synopsis
First volume of a brilliant new fantasy trilogy: the most powerful, original and absorbing new epic since Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The first volume of George R R Martin's glorious high fantasy tells the tragic story of treachery, greed and war that threatens the unity of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall. Martin unfolds with astonishing skill a tale of truly epic dimensions, thronged with memorable characters, a story of treachery and ambition, love and magic. Set in a fabulous world scarred by battle and catastrophe over 8000 years of recorded history, it tells of the deeds of men and women locked in the deadliest of conflicts and the terrible legacy they will leave their children. In the game of thrones, you win or you die. And in the bitter-cold, unliving lands beyond the Wall, a terrible winter gathers and the others -- the undead, the neverborn, wildlings to whom the threat of the sword is nothing -- make ready to descend on the realms of men. A Game of Thrones begins the most imaginative, ambitious and compelling fantasy epic since The Lord of the Rings.

Thronged with memorable characters, it unfolds with astonishing skill a tale of truly epic dimensions. There have been many pretenders to the throne of Tolkien: now at last he has a true heir.

About the Author
George Raymond Richard Martin was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Sept 20 1948. He began writing monster stories as a child, and by high school was contributing fiction to comic fanzines. His first professional sale, short story `The Hero', written while he was in college, appeared in Galaxy February 1971.Martin graduated from Northwestern University (BS Journalism 1971, MS 1972). A conscientious objector, he worked for VISTA at Chicago's Cook Country Legal Assistance 1972-4. From 1976-8 he taught journalism at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, and spent another year there as writer-in-residence 1978-9. He has been a full-time writer ever since.He was story editor for CBS's The Twilight Zone series in 1986, and worked as writer, executive story consultant, producer, co-supervising producer, and executive producer on Beauty and the Beast from 1987-90. He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Martin won his first Hugo for the novella `A Song for Lya' (1974). In 1980 he won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for novelette `Sandkings', and a Hugo Award for short story `The Way of Cross and Dragon'. Martin won a second Nebula in 1986 for `Portraits of His Children', a 1988 Bram Stoker Award for `The Pear-Shaped Man', a 1989 World Fantasy Award for novella `The Skin Trade', a 1997 Hugo for novella `Blood of the Dragon', and is a 10-time Locus Award winner.His novels include Dying of the Light (1977), Windhave (with Lisa Tuttle, 1981), Fevre Dream (1982), The Armageddon Rag (1983), Wild Cards VII: Dead Man's Hand (with John J. Miller, 1990), and three novels in A Song of Ice and Fire sequence: `A Game of Thrones' (1996), `A Clash of Kings' (1998) and `A Storm of Swords' (2000). He has several short story collections, notably A Song for Lya and Other Stories (1976), Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977), Sandkings(1981) and Portraits of His Children (1987), and has edited a number of anthologies, including volumes for the New Voices in Science Fiction and the Hugo-nominated Wild Cards series.

Customer Reviews

Don't hold your breath
An incredibly absorbing read, characters to rival any by Tolkein, Hobb or
Gemmel.
Unfortunately the wait between books is really dissapointing.
I would wait until the series is complete before embarking on this epic journey. The wait between episodes is so long that the hunger for more of the same becomes almost starvation and one looses interest.

A different kind of fantasy epic.
As in it is more epic and less focused on one character. At first many fantasy readers may find these books a little daunting but the quality quickly shines through the awkward nature of having so many characters and different views on the same situation. Good and evil is a little shady and some obnoxious characters are the most fun to read.
A great saga, well worth checking out.

Good but over-long...
From the off I'll admit that three stars doesn't quite do this book justice, I certainly enjoyed it and I'll quite likely take a look at the rest of the series. On the plus side this book is brimming with fascinating characters and all manner of political intrigue. For those bored with the many billions of turgid swords and sorcery Tolkein rip-offs in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of your local book store then this is a cut above the rest. It's a wonderful mix of a Medieval Epic and a Shakespearean political tragedy. The characters are well fleshed out and interesting. Martin is undoubtedly a good writer and the book is well and deeply researched and crafted.

On the negative side, somebody might have informed Mr. Martin that just because one 'can' write a 700 page tome, does not mean one 'should' write said tome. The book is far too long and I find it hard to understand how an editor could have allowed so much fat to make it onto the printing press. Long, pointless descriptions of even longer, more pointless journeys fill up page after page. What we really have here is three or four novellas fused together.

That said, it's well worth a read if you have some free time on your hands.