A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1

First of all, these books are a great read. They're well written with elegant articulation and beautiful descriptions. The plot is thought out and complex just like any good book should be, the characters have a lot of personality like any good character should have, and there's enough of a storyline to keep a very lengthy book interesting. I like that there are so many character POVs but nothing seems overdone at all. Each storyline and each character has their own separate life that the book portrays and they all have enough scattered chapters through the book that you never forget what's happening with a certain character.That being said...I have read books 1-5 and pretty much the only thing that has disappointed me - and greatly - is the injustice to the protagonistic family done by the antagonistic family. We'll call them family PRO and Family ANTI for protagonistic and antagonistic. The Anti-family has done atrocious - and I mean ATROCIOUS, not just running a dog over and urinating in your soup atrocious but I won't use specifics as to spoil anything - things to this family. These are devastating things that make me sympathize with the Pro-family, things that make me loathe the Anti-family and yearn for justice yet... it seems that the Pro-family just keeps suffering and the Anti-family continues to flourish gaining more power, wealth, and malice. The pro-family sees tragedy after tragedy for standing up to Anti-family. I keep waiting for the Pro-family to get at least a little bit of justice, just to make the books tolerable. Just a morsel, a smidgen of reprieve from this horrible life they've been condemned to but after five books they've had almost all their opportunities to get the right amount of injustice taken away from them. For them to get their much-deserved retribution they'd need to have A, B, C, D, E, F, and G killed, maimed, humiliated, overthrown, mauled, slaughtered, flayed, (enter your own ideas of the most horrific scenarios and enter some explicits and you might have an idea of what this family needs - and me too, to be satisfied) but with so many events chances of justice and ways that they deserve justice has been reduced to only options A and B. Seriously, I'm so disappointed at how the things I've been looking forward to reading in this book keep getting ripped out of the Pro-family's (and my own) hands.Other than that, though, this book moves fairly quickly, the plot furthers at a decent speed, there is just enough action and plot to keep it from being overdone or underdone.WARNING, SPOILER ALERT: I'd like to add, too, that my favorite part of the book is the Others and they've been only a minute part of this book. I watched the pilot of GoTs before I read the books and the very first five or so minutes when they showed the White Walkers hooked me and easily became my favorite part, and this has only been about two percent of the book. I'd love to read more on these things. Being that book six is supposedly the last one, and the really wicked things haven't even really made their debut I'm wondering if they'll get to do so in book six. They're like a threat that's been looming over human-kind unbeknownst to them, and no one believes they're going to be making their much-awaited appearance to the whole world. No one believes they'll be coming back.So, if I had the chance to beg anything of the fantastic author, it would be to give the family their much-deserved revenge and make the Others a huge part of book six. Please! Please!

If you like the HBO series, you will not be disappointed here. This first book corresponds to the 1st season of Game of Thrones. It is nearly exactly the same with a few interesting differences which I liked, and there is more details on the history of Westeros. The sex scenes in the book are somehow more graphic than the show but nothing that an adult can't handle (not for kids)!So I am not a big reader. I hated it when I was forced to read in school and have done a good job of avoiding serious reading save for magazines and news articles. It probably has to do with the fact that I am a slow reader. When I learned there was a book series that the TV show was based on I was interested to look into it. But when I saw just how long the books where, I just knew darn well I wouldn't read it. But the further I got into the show, the more interested I got in the maybe giving the books a try. Finally I downloaded the Kindle sample and it didn't take long to be hooked.For those that haven't seen the show but are interested in the books:The setting is a place and time like medieval Britain. The story follows a handful of great and formerly-great houses in their struggle with love and honor and power. It is a fantasy, but that is not the major part, at least not in this first book. The characters are humans and their life-struggles are those of all humans. The fantasy element is somewhat on the fringes but is there, so it may be more accessible to those weary of learning fantasy worlds like Tolkien's, like myself. The sex and violence is quite graphic and Martin's descriptions of battles is wonderfully vivid, something Tolkien skimps on in The Hobbit; I haven't finished the Lord of the Rings so I can't comment on the comparison there. If you are someone like me who got bogged down in the first book of the LOTR series, this is much easier to read and more engaging throughout. There are multiple stories line occurring all at once and Martin switches between them with every new chapter so it takes some getting used to but they are now hard to follow. The prologue was very confusing (and I've seen the show) so get through it because it sets a scene and you will understand it later. And WARNING, as I was warned prior to watching the show or reading the books, Martin has no loyalties to characters. You will love Martin one minute and curse him the next. If you want a story where the main character/hero triumphs of evil, honor over dishonor, do not read this book. But that is what makes the story so interesting: it's like the real world we live in, evil often triumphs.As for the Kindle edition:I have the both the Kindle and the paperback editions. I always have my phone on me but not always the hard copy so they serve 2 different purposes. I am someone how does like the feel of a book (I know, I know. I said I don't read... Nonetheless). As far as I can tell there are no differences. Even the art at the beginning of each chapter is the same. I switch seamlessly between the two.So in summary, I loved it. I would recommend it to everyone, even to adults who don't read much. It's a great story covered in sex and war… what's not to love!