Book Review: A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones by, George RR Martin.

I'm confident most of you have seen or heard of the HBO series "Game of Thrones." The show is engaging and gruesome, the perfect recipe for entertainment if you ask me, which is why I've picked up the book and finished it recently. I will start by saying that the show follows very closely with the movie, highlighting all the important parts and showing very acute detail for all the characters. I also benefited from watching the show first. Some might argue the opposite but watching the show gave me a face to every name. The casting for the show was spectacular. As I read descriptions of each character in the book, the corresponding actors' faces, clothing, personality all appeared in my thoughts. I was very excited to begin the book but soon realized it is 800+ pages. However, this did not hinder my progress.

The story takes place in a fantasy world probably during the Middle Ages or even before that, I'm not sure. Here, The Seven Kingdoms is ruled by King Robert Baratheon who overthrew the previous king, the Mad King. Robert's right hand man, Jon Arryn, died of sickness so he looks to his friend Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, to replace Jon. Stark soon finds out that Jon Arryn was poisoned and sets out to find out who killed him and why. All the while a mysterious threat broods in the North and the offspring of the Mad King is preparing to come back and reclaim the throne.

What I thought: The writing is very detailed with descriptions of characters and precise in keeping track of lineage of each name. It is at times explicit in presenting gruesome or sexual events. Sometimes a little too much detail is shared. But this is part of why I liked it so much, the unapologetic style of writing that is able to paint a picture in your mind as you read each word. When the author describes the mountains, the plains and the king's city my mind creates worlds based on the words, almost like Inception when DiCaprio created his own world with his wife. It's almost like I'm directing my own movie based on the book and creating landscapes as I see fit. A great book can free the mind. Overall the book is wonderfully written and the action is nonstop. I had a hard time putting down the book at chapter ends but loved the exhilaration of picking it back up and reading on.

I’ve gotten a lot of views from searches for ‘Christian reviews of Game of Thrones’ so: With respect to Christian themes being portrayed in the book, I believe it was present in some parts but to say that this book is purposely written for a religious audience is at best a stretch and at worst dead wrong. That being said, I believe there are Christian themes like the obvious unknown evil that broods beyond The Wall. To me The Wall is something that blocks people from things of the past: Evil things that used to be relevant but no longer are. They are easily blocked away; out of sight and out of mind. This could represent sin and humans’ desire to escape it. They build a wall to block it away but don’t realize that sin cannot be caged. This is evident through the unending feuds, war, hatred and rivalry displayed in King’s Landing and elsewhere. While the focus of the people turn to their own desires they are blinded of the sin that they have blocked away, but is rising yet again. This is the most I could get out of the book so far, and the comparison is a stretch. However, this is only book one. Perhaps as more of the story is unveiled we will see more clearly what George Martin is getting at.