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[twunny]

Well, here we are. I'm apparently late hopping on this bus (I just skimmed a very long discussion thread about this book from '06)

But the series was recommended by someone up in here, and I needed a new Epic journey, with Harry Potter being over and all...

Ao like I said, here we are. I really enjoyed this book, eventually. The language was tough to get used to, and all the characters were flying at me pretty fast. (There was a sentiment in the '06 thread that keeping all the supporting characters straight was distracting, but you just had to trust that the author would remind you of the important info when they resurfaced.) I mean, you learn interesting things about someone, and then they disappear for a few hundred pages, or are killed off. It's a little frustrating. And some of the characters I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to care about, I kind of don't. Catelyn, for example. She doesn't do it for me. But the book has so many levels and characters that I was also riveted by the events and invested in some of the people to a delightful degree. And then some of those events didn't seem to pan out. And some of those cool characters were killed off. Or turned out to be a-holes. Or something dramatic happened, and then we never get around to them again before the book is over. (Half of the reason I'm going to keep reading the series is to just find out what happened to Arya.)

A hell of a cliffhanger to end this one. He really wants to keep writing these books, I can tell that already. I got used to the language eventually. I just kept telling myself that my first attempt through "The Lord of the Rings" was like walking through knee-deep mud, but that kind of turned out okay.

If you haven't read "A Game of Thrones" already, and you like things like Stephen King's "Eyes of the Dragon" or Frank Herbert's "Dune" I believe you should pick this one up. Great story, complex characters, and a well-developed universe.
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