A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by George R. R. Martin (1996 - )

“Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'
'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.” 
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

I have made it. I have finally conquered the beast -- or, should I say, the dragon. It was extremely long and incredibly gruelling, but I have finally completed A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, insofar as it has published books. Five books, 4,669 pages, 300,000 words, and one girl, who is feeling mighty good about herself right now. I have always been intimidated by long books, and I’m not especially engrossed by high or epic fantasy, so having read A Song of Ice and Fire is a particularly astonishing feat for me. Alas: I have done it. Since finishing the first book over a year ago, I have been waiting on tenterhooks to write a full series review, and I am delighted to finally be able to bring you that review today. I will try to keep it briefer than George R. R. Martin kept A Song of Ice and Fire.

The story begins with A Game of Thrones, the shortest book in the series and an excellent introduction and thorough initiation into the world of Westeros and beyond. The character establishment and development in this book was fascinating, particularly where my homegirl Daenerys Targaryen is concerned, and it was in this book that I fell in love with most of my favourite characters: Sansa Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow (although Jon only gets really interesting in book five). I want justice for Ned, I want the Stark family to be happy and reunited in Winterfell, and I want Joffrey to eat shit and die. Only one of those wishes was ever answered, and I had to wait until book three for it. Regardless, this was an excellent start to the series. A Game of Thrones made me excited about reading a series of novels in a way I have not been since Harry Potter was still releasing books.

Book two, A Clash of Kings, is my second favourite book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga. The thing I loved about this book was the unpacking of the relationships and characters we were only introduced to in book one; it was super exciting to watch the characters grow out of what I already knew about them from spoilers I had seen online. It was nice to finally and truly be surprised by ASoIaF. Tyrion, of course, continued to dazzle me, just as I knew he would, and I found Sansa’s storyline so sad and awful and riveting; her fall from grace was deeply compelling, heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. My sweet, sweet daughter. Someone please just treat her right. Also, the Battle of the Blackwater was insane. I find battle scenes relatively dull and uninteresting, so writing about how I loved a battle scene is not something I ever thought I would do, yet here I am.  

I read  book three, A Storm of Swords, in two parts: Steel and Snow in March 2016, and Blood and Gold in July 2016. Steel and Snow was absolutely incredible, and is my favourite book in the series by a country mile. It introduced my final favourite character, Jaime Lannister, who is devious and despicable and delightful all at once, and it also started Jon Snow down his path to finally becoming supremely fucking interesting. I enjoyed this so, so much. It gets all the stars. Blood and Gold, however, was the first book in the saga that I awarded only four stars to. It was definitely not my favourite in the series, but looking back at the status updates I logged on Goodreads as I was reading, I still hugely enjoyed it. So much goes down in this book. A few Goodreads status updates on Blood and Gold that made me giggle as I was re-reading them, all from July 6, 2016:

• I read ahead a little bit to see what happens to Sam after his first chapter in this book and I spoiled so much for myself but WORTH IT BECAUSE I KNOW WHO DIES IN THIS BOOK AND I AM DELIGHTED ABOUT IT
• I'm two chapters away from the Red Wedding BYE
• The Red Wedding is in the very chapter I'm about to read and apparently the Purple Wedding is 100 pages away and I'm not ready. I'm not prepared. Nope no thanks I'm good can we just push these two massacres apart a little bit please so I have time to BREATHE IN BETWEEN THEM because I am going to LOSE IT

Clearly, this book made me feel a lot of things. And type in caps lock a lot. Justice for Sansa.

Book four, A Feast For Crows, was a challenge. Devoid of Tyrion’s witticisms and featuring far more Petyr Baelish than I will ever be willing or prepared to deal with, A Feast For Crows marked the end of the War of the Five Kings and our entry into the heart of King’s Landing politics. Cersei has her first POV chapters in  A Feast For Crows. My boyfriend loves Cersei. I do not. This was also the book in which, I hate to admit it, Sansa got kind of tragically dull. I love the girl, but damn, George. I also found myself skipping chapters for the first time in book four, which I’m kind of ashamed to admit, but damnit, life is too short to put up with the Iron Isles when you just don’t care about the Iron Isles. I didn’t love A Feast For Crows, but I still enjoyed it as a contribution to the Westerosi world.

A Dance With Dragons. Oh, A Dance With Dragons. This book took me the longest to read, partly because it is the longest book in the series by three hundred pages and partly because it is over a thousand pages long holy shit why. As much as I enjoyed it, A Dance With Dragons was definitely my least favourite book in the series. Granted, Jon did get insanely interesting in this book, and granted, Daenerys finally started showing cracks in her regal façade that made her a fascinating ticking time bomb to watch, but those extra three hundred pages could, in my opinion, easily have been trimmed off -- there was so much warbling and babbling that I felt we all could have done without. This book also hurt my feelings. Jon finally gets interesting, and then he gets STABBED?? FOUR TIMES?! WHAT THE HELL, GEORGE! NOT COOL! This is definitely not my top pick, but like all the books, it still pretty enjoyable all the same.

A Song of Ice and Fire is an immensely dense series of novels that is, amazingly, simultaneously character-driven and narrative-driven. Richly textured and enormously engaging, the geography of the world spans dozens of lives and stories that all somehow intersect, stories of wealth and poverty, power and ruin, love and loss, life and death. Some of the characters grow, and some of them don’t; some learn from their mistakes, and others die because of them. They are flawed, desperate people, selfish and scared, rarely wise and always living every day as if it could be their last -- as it very well could. These books are brutal. They take on people without a measure for what makes someone good and bad -- in Westeros, it seems that good people don’t exist, only bad people who occasionally do good things. Yet they endure. To the bitter end, they endure. As did I. Reading this series was a huge accomplishment for me, and I’m beyond proud of myself for doing it. I may have started reading A Song of Ice and Fire purely because I wanted to be able to say I had read Game of Thrones, but I honestly ended up enjoying this series so, so much. It felt cool to finally be able to participate in the global Game of Thrones discussion, and I felt pretty smug whenever I got to correct my boyfriend on his spelling of Westerosi cities, since he hasn’t read the book and thus wouldn’t know that Dorne isn’t spelled like the time of day. Yes, I am that kind of annoying girlfriend. He seems to enjoy it, at any rate. Now, I lie in wait. Book six, The Winds of Winter, was supposed to come out around the time I started reading A Game of Thrones, and yet we still don’t even have a release date. I know this, because around the time I started reading A Game of Thrones, I also started getting Google alerts sent to my phone to let me know when The Winds of Winter was coming out. 500 Google alerts later, it is still not out. I’m waiting, George. I’m watching.