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Some thoughts on Game of Thrones

Writing this now because it’s all fresh. I jumped on George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones pretty late. My reading of the book only outpaced the HBO show two days ago, and I only finished it last night. Enjoyed it, looking forward to picking up the next book. Some quick thoughts from someone who is not much of a swords-and-sorcery fan (no spoilers):

• I wouldn’t call Game of Thrones high fantasy first, necessarily. It’s more like a political thriller that happens to take place in a high fantasy world. 
• It’s a lesson in brevity. After the beginning you rarely get descriptions more than a few sentences long. No long passages about a knight’s armor or the king’s robes. This brevity also lends itself to
• Pacing. Fantasy novels often spend a lot of time on moments of heroism, danger, etc. In Game of Thrones, things happen fast. The pace is brisk. People die within the span of a sentence, whether they’re major or secondary. A nice way of
• Flipping expectation. The book takes a lot of fantasy expectations/tropes and skewers them. 
• Characters are easy to empathize with. Young characters are allowed to be childish. People rarely care about the good of the kingdom - more often they’re concerned for their brother, sister, father, mother. Also the only fantasy story in my memory where family bonds play a central role. 
• Strong female characters. Fantasy worlds like this are usually short on them. 

My favorite characters are easily Arya, Tyrion, and Jon Snow. 

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6. a-necessary-fiction reblogged this from ananthymous and added:

   The same reasons I like ASOIAF, but more concise and less boring. I’m only done with the 2nd book, so Jon Snow hasn’t...

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9. mirzadeh reblogged this from ananthymous and added:

   … yes. all of this, yes. 8l

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20. mayor-letao reblogged this from ananthymous and added:

    Okay, gonna read/watch it now. For real this time.

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22. friendlystray said: Everything. Just…everything. Feel exactly the same way! 8D
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25. bigbetterirish said: This is me smiling because you’ve only read the first book XD And that is all I will say. Tyrion’s casting was the best thing to happen to the show and I can’t wait for all of you who are just starting with the series to catch up so we can all cry.
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38. pirateskates reblogged this from ananthymous and added:

    I’ve only just started...after picking up (and racing through)

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    A lot of this is what makes Game of Thrones an excellent introduction to the fantasy genre. It really doesn’t read like...

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46. moreanimalia said: I haven’t finished the first book yet because I found it so fast, so political, so unkind to it’s characters! I guess I’ll finish it when I’m not looking for a more comforting and positive read. It is quite well written though, which is refreshing
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