My leisure time for reading isn’t what it used to be, but I have finally finished A Game of Thrones. George R. R. Martin has a gift for descriptive character development and vivid setting detail. I only wish that I had discovered his work sooner!

This fantasy adventure book is the first in a series of five tales of the Seven Kingdoms. Family vs. family, brother vs. brother, good vs. evil … this book is suspense, adventure, romance, war and tragedy all wrapped up in one intricately interwoven package.

A Game of Thrones is not all rainbows and faeries. In fact, there are no faeries. There are, however, The Others — evil creatures that lurk in the forests beyond the Wall. As you might expect in a novel about kingdom-claiming, victorious warriors engage in plenty of pillaging and woman-snatching. Betrayal and conniving are strategies of the game, and (as in life?) it is difficult to know who you can trust.

My favorite characters so far are Ayra Stark and Jon Snow. They are half-brother and sister, but they have taken divergent paths in life. Both are struggling with their places in the world — coming to terms with tragedies they are powerless to circumvent, learning their lot in life and how to find the path to which they are called … perhaps I see a little of myself in both of them.

The summer term is a nice respite from my usual studies (I’m taking two electives), and I’m looking forward to starting the second book in the series, A Clash of Kings. I have to ration it, though … I still have a book review to write about education policy before mid-July. 😉