A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read GoT about fifteen years ago, and my feelings on it have evolved over the years.
For me, Game of Thrones is like a bad-boy romance you had in your teens: exciting, thrilling, and edgy at the time, but a little bit cringe in hindsight. GoT wears cool clothes and swears a lot, and you’ve never met anybody so different from your usual. Awesome, you think, as he sweeps you off your feet and tells you he’s better than the rest.
But as time goes on, he doesn’t progress or mature–and you do. All that cocky behaviour starts to get irritating, and as you meet more and more people (books), you start to realise poor old GoT isn’t that special. He’s all promise and no pay-off. He can’t give you what you need so, eventually, you just move on.
Every now and then you check up on him, like FB stalking an old ex, only to confirm that nothing’s changed: he’s still turning circles, not progressing, not doing anything, not going anywhere.
Good riddance, and cheers to better lovers (books).
(Nota bene: For all that, I do think the first book in this series is very, very good for a variety of reasons. But it’s all downhill from Book 2 onwards.)
sunyi dean 