LordEden

* How did you experience the book? Beyond whether you simply liked it or not, what were your initial reactions to it?

I was given this book with great admiration and was told, "Don't fall in love with anyone... ever." I was tried of "single shot" fantasy books and was getting restless with WoT, so this book was a breath of fresh air. The families, the characters, the lands, the places, the stories, I loved every single character in this book. This book showed me what real fantasy should be like, it was like I opened my eyes to world of fantasy for the first time. I fell into the book and I don't really think I made my way back out of it.

* Are the characters convincing? Who are your favourites? Least favourites? What were your favourite actions? Motivations? Feats of valour? Turns of deceit?

Every character GRRM wrote played their part to the tee. The villains were evil enough to be convincing but not over-the-top black mustache villains. What "good" guys there were, they fit perfectly in the story line without sticking out like a sore thumb. I loved that characters had life spans, no "1 HP left" heroes here. When edward stark died half way through the book, I knew I had sold my soul to this author and would stick with him through thick and thin.

Everyone seems to list the same three characters as their favorites, which I do agree with those choices. Jon Snow, Arya Stark, and Tyrion Lannister are all wonderful characters and I love Tyrion as my favorite throughout the series. In a land that is ruled by the strength of your sword arm, a misshapen dwarf shines brighter than all of them. Smart, cunning, witty, ruthless with a heart of gold for cripples and whores. He had some of the best lines in the book and the interaction with his family members gave birth to some of the best great conversations.

"They followed me home father, can I keep them?" [in reference to the "army" of Wild Men]

There is one character that I love the most that no one seems to love, and that is Jamie Lannister. I can't go into detail why I love him so much but he is up there in my top 3 favorite characters. I'll talk about him later when we get to other books.

* What is the central conflict? What are the major themes running throughout?

Greed, honor, ambition, wrath, love, life and death all have equal footing at this dinner table. I loved when different themes mixed together to form such deadly hybrids that sucked you in and kept you reading.

"The things I do for love."

* What do you make of the plot? How do the events unfold and fit together? What drives the book?

Twisted and deadly like a bag of poisonous snakes. Characters that you thought would be around forever, die in an instance. Characters that I just knew would die in the end, they last forever.

* What do you make of Martin's world? What resemblances do you see?

I don't know of any comparisons to any other world like GRRM's world. I do like (just like WoT and LotR) that you can point at any place on the map and know the type of person that lives there, who rules it, how they speak, and who they are loyal too.

* Is the ending satisfying? Was it predictable? How well does it set up the rest of the series? Are you hooked?

Hooked isn't the word. I saw later on the foreshadowing about the rebirth of dragons but I didn't catch it the first go around. His books always setup for the rest of the series. Hooked I say, Hooked.

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Vice-President of the CinnamonGirl Fan Club - The Meat of the Zombiesquirrel and CinnamonGirl Sandwich