{{Note: these books are marketed for adults and contain mature graphic content, as does the show that is based on the series, and I do not recommend them for the typical YA audience.}}
Barreled through the first one and am deep in the #2…well, I say deep, but really only a good 1/3 of the way (p. 269 of 1009). Incidentally, I am reading at almost the same pace as I was through the first, despite seeing the show prior to picking up book 1. It’s huge, so it’s hard to move quickly, but the short chapters do help give one the opposite impression. Switching between different voices (each chapter = diff. narrator) has proven invaluable in igniting my curiosity – while satisfying my questions about the next, I find I’m beginning to wonder about the other voices I haven’t heard from in a while. Anyway, I’ll save the rest for the review. Here’s what BN has to say about it.
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Publisher: Bantam Dell
Release Date: 1999
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire
“Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders–Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead…victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.
As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky—a comet the color of blood and flame—six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard’s son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King’s Landing. Robert’s two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.
Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel…and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.” (via Barnes and Noble)
Booknotized 