Having a kobo means I can explore new titles without playing more for a hard copy. Sometimes for fantasy, at least for something like The Game of Thrones, this can also be really annoying because you can't really continually flip to the maps in the front. At any rate, the maps in the front are too small to really make out.
Luckily, there is the internet for things like this, particularly if the series is as popular as The Game of Thrones. So overall, not a great loss.
This series fills me with very mixed feelings. Martin is essentially a character writer - while there's a plot, it's concealed so well I can't find it. The book ends before any real climax or plot conclusion happens, and while intensity varies throughout the books, overall it seems to have a plodding pace. Martin separates his book into chapters, and each chapter is named after a character and is told from that character's point of view. We get to know the plot of the books through many characters eyes', but at the same time this really fragments the book - different things are happening to different characters all the time, and when one character is experiencing a really intense climax in his story, another character is nowhere near that point. Martin chooses the characters he wants to show the story through carefully - there are some characters on all sides of the war, so in a way there's no true good or evil. There are characters you absolutely despise, and characters you're totally confused by, and characters that you adore. They're not the same depending on who reads the books - I absolutely adore Arya and Daenerys, but I don't like Sansa. Tyrion gives me ridiculously mixed feelings, but a friend loves him. In a way, you dread reading what comes next because sometimes it's easier to just see the enemy as totally evil - you don't want him to be humanized. But you also can't stop reading because you want to know what happens to your favourite characters!
The book isn't typical fantasy or sci-fi. It feels much more like the later Ender's Shadow books, where the science fiction turns into political intrigue. Which is great, but if you want a high-tailing classic fantasy, this isn't it. It masquerades as one pretty well, but it isn't, which is likely why it has such public recognition and acclaim. It's more like a soap opera in terms of your emotional attachment to the characters. But if you're okay with non-typical fantasy and have spare time to read it (because you won't stop after the first book), I would definitely recommend it.
Luckily, there is the internet for things like this, particularly if the series is as popular as The Game of Thrones. So overall, not a great loss.
This series fills me with very mixed feelings. Martin is essentially a character writer - while there's a plot, it's concealed so well I can't find it. The book ends before any real climax or plot conclusion happens, and while intensity varies throughout the books, overall it seems to have a plodding pace. Martin separates his book into chapters, and each chapter is named after a character and is told from that character's point of view. We get to know the plot of the books through many characters eyes', but at the same time this really fragments the book - different things are happening to different characters all the time, and when one character is experiencing a really intense climax in his story, another character is nowhere near that point. Martin chooses the characters he wants to show the story through carefully - there are some characters on all sides of the war, so in a way there's no true good or evil. There are characters you absolutely despise, and characters you're totally confused by, and characters that you adore. They're not the same depending on who reads the books - I absolutely adore Arya and Daenerys, but I don't like Sansa. Tyrion gives me ridiculously mixed feelings, but a friend loves him. In a way, you dread reading what comes next because sometimes it's easier to just see the enemy as totally evil - you don't want him to be humanized. But you also can't stop reading because you want to know what happens to your favourite characters!
The book isn't typical fantasy or sci-fi. It feels much more like the later Ender's Shadow books, where the science fiction turns into political intrigue. Which is great, but if you want a high-tailing classic fantasy, this isn't it. It masquerades as one pretty well, but it isn't, which is likely why it has such public recognition and acclaim. It's more like a soap opera in terms of your emotional attachment to the characters. But if you're okay with non-typical fantasy and have spare time to read it (because you won't stop after the first book), I would definitely recommend it.
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