A Song of Ice and Fire

Arcane

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An ongoing series by George R. R. Martin and currently my favorite series. Four books have been written out of the predicted seven, A Dance with Dragons is currently being worked on.

The ones out by now are:

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows

The series (very basically) takes you through a civil war in Westeros. The author uses multiple viewpoint characters to tell the story from all sides, and is especially good and creating shades of grey in place of the clear black and white in some fantasies. There is almost always someone on the "enemy" side whom you follow and sympathize with, no one side is defined as "evil".

Another thing I really really like about the series is that the author is brutally realistic in his telling. War is supposed to be bloody and cruel and filled with death, betray, and deceit, stupid things do happen, and he leaves out none of it. What hits a reader really hard, what hit me really hard, especially when it's the first time (though it doesn't get any better) is his tendency to kill off some apparently "main" characters. He doesn't do the kind of BS story where the main characters always prevail, and you know they won't die. After the initial shocks, you're always on the edge of your seat, because you know that anyone can die, even those characters you've followed through pages and pages of the series.

Each book is pretty damn long, over seven hundred pages (and the versions I read were pretty big books), but they're well worth the read. Try it, you won't be disappointed.
 

DogOfHavoc

Future Tragedy
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Sounds interesting. Is it a fantasy type world, or more based in reality (humans rather than elves and whatnot)?
 

Seb!

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Did you get attached to likable or interesting characters?
 

DogOfHavoc

Future Tragedy
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This actually sounds pretty good, how would you compare his writing style to other writers?
 

Arcane

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It's fantasy, but the only sentient race so far is humans, and well the Others and the children of the forest if they count, they haven't had much screen time yet. There's not a lot of magic in it either, at least it's not obvious like "look there's a mage!". There are hints of magic and mystery, but no one actually throws a fireball or casts a spell or something. It's something more subtle, not "in-your-face" magic.

Yes, you should get attached to a couple of characters. He's killed off... one... two... main characters I really loved and a couple more including minor ones that I liked and mourned for regardless.

As for writing style... not quite sure how to answer that.
 

Dr.Jack

That's Cap'n to you!
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George Martin actually wrote the biggest political fantasy yet. He took the mini-genre a whole step forward.

One thing Arcane forgot to mention is that the books (especially the first ones) follow nobles. Lords and Ladies are the main characters of the book. Each one with his/her own interests and difficulties.

I too strongly suggest the books. There is not much other to be said. Search for reviews, I'm sure you'll find some good ones.
 

Ninja_sheep

Heavy is credit to team!
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I'm just reading it :O
And it's good and everything is fine

but

I have to make a presentation about it in school :>
And with all those characters it gets complicated as hell :(

But at least I dont have to read such old boring books like most of my class :eek:
 

undeadorcjerk

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Just got the first one yesterday. I wasn't expecting kickass out of it. I guess I should. Only on page 31 so things haven't heated up quiet so.
 

Kainami

New Member
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I'm on the second book, and I got to say it's been awesome. I can't help myself but skip the Dae chapters though. They're not very interesting, nor are the Bron ones.
 
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