A Game of Thrones. 20th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

What prompted me to re-read George R. R. Martin’s unfinished series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’? On the one hand, the sheer detail in the world in which the story is set. Secondly, I wanted to refresh my memory, especially as it’s been over ten years since the fifth and final novel was published (and you never know – perhaps ‘The Winds of Winter’ will see the light of day after all). At the heart of the first volume, ‘A Game of Thrones’ from 1996, is the Stark family from the north of the continent of Westeros. The head of the family and Lord of Winterfell, Eddard Stark, is appointed Hand of the King by his childhood friend, King Robert Baratheon. The previous Hand, their mutual childhood friend Jon Arryn, has died. Together, they had brought down the Targaryen dynasty, which had ruled Westeros for almost 300 years before Robert’s accession to the throne. The Stark family splits up: some remain at Winterfell – including Bran, who has just become disabled – whilst others travel south with Eddard to King’s Landing, and his bastard son Jon Snow goes even further north, to the Wall, where he joins the Night’s Watch. The premise: according to a rumour, the late Jon Arryn was murdered by the Lannisters, the family of the King’s wife. Eddard sets out to investigate the matter. Meanwhile, on the neighbouring continent of Essos, Daenerys Targaryen and her brother Viserys are in exile – the last two surviving Targaryens.

If you like fantasy, you MUST read this book. It's even better than the series, although that one is pretty good already (at least until season 7). This books contains a huge cast of characters and has a totally epic scale. There are dragons, there is intrigue, there are battles and there is war. This book contains everything a classic fanatsy hit has to have. But not only that: This book is really special because Martin writes about politics as if they were real. There aren't really good guys and bad guys, it's just full of morally grey characters and most of the villains aren't just evil monsters but humans and some even humans with wounds from the t´past, which led them to be "Villains". If you like huge, epic scale fantasy, read thsi book. If you want a finished series, better watch the show (aöthough the end isn't really satisfying) because I doubt Martin will ever finish the series

I stared reading this after watching the series and I have to say: the series didn't even come close to the books. The different character pov's, you really felt like reading the views of said ones, like daenerys, up to bran, totally different writing styles. The build up of the whole fantasy world, felt like switching to different parts of the world. Martin's writing is fantastic and so well spoken. Definitely one of the best fantasy series I've ever read.

The first volume of „A Song of Ice and Fire” is introducing as to a great new fantasy world. The typical rules of a year with for seasons do not apply here and so a summer can last for decades and so can the following winter. But winter is coming and nobody knows it better than the Starks of Winterfell whose head Lord Eddard Stark is the warden of the north. King Robert is however looking for a new hand and he wants no one else besides Ned to fill this honored position. For Ned this is as much a curse as it is an honor. Life at court is full of intrigues and everyone is only looking out for themselves. Now the Stark family is split apart and has to fight against the treachery while being separated. At the same time the Dragon king living in exile is claiming his right to the throne. I don’t think there is anything new I could add to the thousands of reviews already out there but since I review almost every book I read I did not want to make an exception here. To be honest I have no clue why I waited so long to finally start reading the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. With all the different characters it took me a while to understand who is who and how they are all connected. But once I got a hang of it I kind of flew right through the story. So far I have not watched the tv show yet because everyone keeps telling me to read the books first. Therefore I can not compare the two at all but I also do not think that this is necessary. While reading this book I really enjoyed the style of writing and also the great world building. I loved to have so many different POVs so I could really learn a lot about this world and all the characters and families in it. Although some characters are more important than others I would not say that there is one main character and therefore it’s not like most books where you can really watch one protagonist grow and change throughout the story. As the series progresses I hope we will see more developments in the main characters though. “A Game of Thrones” is probably not the best fantasy book out there but it is a story that I really enjoyed. Therefore I am really looking forward to reading the other books in the series as well. In my opinion it’s a great start of the series and I will definitely continue reading the next book soon. 100% recommendation from my side.

The first volume of „A Song of Ice and Fire” is introducing as to a great new fantasy world. The typical rules of a year with for seasons do not apply here and so a summer can last for decades and so can the following winter. But winter is coming and nobody knows it better than the Starks of Winterfell whose head Lord Eddard Stark is the warden of the north. King Robert is however looking for a new hand and he wants no one else besides Ned to fill this honored position. For Ned this is as much a curse as it is an honor. Life at court is full of intrigues and everyone is only looking out for themselves. Now the Stark family is split apart and has to fight against the treachery while being separated. At the same time the Dragon king living in exile is claiming his right to the throne. I don’t think there is anything new I could add to the thousands of reviews already out there but since I review almost every book I read I did not want to make an exception here. To be honest I have no clue why I waited so long to finally start reading the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. With all the different characters it took me a while to understand who is who and how they are all connected. But once I got a hang of it I kind of flew right through the story. So far I have not watched the tv show yet because everyone keeps telling me to read the books first. Therefore I can not compare the two at all but I also do not think that this is necessary. While reading this book I really enjoyed the style of writing and also the great world building. I loved to have so many different POVs so I could really learn a lot about this world and all the characters and families in it. Although some characters are more important than others I would not say that there is one main character and therefore it’s not like most books where you can really watch one protagonist grow and change throughout the story. As the series progresses I hope we will see more developments in the main characters though. “A Game of Thrones” is probably not the best fantasy book out there but it is a story that I really enjoyed. Therefore I am really looking forward to reading the other books in the series as well. In my opinion it’s a great start of the series and I will definitely continue reading the next book soon. 100% recommendation from my side.