Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

MY. MIND. IS. BLOWN.

I speed read this book on my flight home for vacation. As in, after the miserable first leg of my red-eye flight, I sat for 3 HOURS! in the Dallas airport at 5am and read this book. My mouth was open the entire time.


I want to write about everything that happened in the book, but that would be so unfair to everyone who wants to read the book (and hasn't seen the season finale of the show). Long story made verrrry short: A king comes to his best friend and asks him to be his right hand man. The best friend really doesn't want to take the job, but knows that if he doesn't then that will make the king mad and possibly endanger his family (he's got 4 kids + a bastard son). Not to mention, there are some rumors going around about how the king's previous right hand man died. The queen and her family (she has 2 brothers and one is an "imp") really doesn't like the king's best friend. Hijinks ensue.

Meanwhile, across the sea is a posse of soldiers who love horses (Dothraki). The head horseman marries a 14 year old dragon princess. The dragon princess's dad used to be the big ruler of the lands until the current queen's brother killed him. The dragon princess wants to go back and see her homeland. She and the head horseman fall in love and hijinks ensue.

There are so many more stories than the above...but those are the main plotlines. There's a wall that guards all the land and keeps really scary monsters out! Incest! Dragons! Double-crossing! Death (of people you don't expect to die)! War! Parts that are kinda funny!

I'm really excited to read book 2. But I was so wrapped up in Book 1 that I need to take a brain break before I start the next one.

Rank: A

Also, per my previous blog post about this book : if you're anything like me and have a hard time keeping characters straight, I recommend watching the first 2 episodes of the HBO show to get faces with names. There's lots of families and lots of action. Sometimes the story can get lost because you're trying to keep up with all the different people.