A Game of Thrones (Game of Thrones Book #1)

I lied about the historical fiction book being next. This was maybe about ten times more interesting and so I went with it.

While I was planning for a couple of long plane rides, I remembered that I have 12 hours on a plane with nothing to do. Rather than playing mobile games the whole time, I ended up bringing this book with me. I had originally started reading it in March because my friend found the series and we ended up following it together. Then I got busy and didn't get the time to read it all the way through because of school.
I've always wanted to read this book. Apparently Game of Thrones (especially the TV show) is a big hit all over the world because I know people from everywhere who love it.
However, I have decided pick up with the show where the books leave off because I like the style of the writing and will find a way to make the time to read.

The Cover:

(There are multiple reprinted versions of this book since it is about a decade old but this is the version I got)

 Summary: ((Beware, it is long, but I tried to make it as concise as possible. Besides, a summary for an 800-ish page book has to be long and complicated, or those 800-ish pages were wasted.))

There are two main continents in this world: Westeros and Essos. Westeros is "civilized" and holds most of the action, while Essos is home to the Free Cities, the Dothraki and not much else.

Westeros is extremely varied as far as weather goes, starting from the high north pole, having a mid-region and ending with a hot southern end. It is divided into two distinct areas: The land of the Seven Kingdoms and the land beyond the Wall. The majority of the action happens within the Seven Kingdoms and the only things beyond the Wall are the "Others"/ "White Walkers" (creepy zombie-like things that are much stronger than humans) and "Wildlings" (tribes who never joined the kingdom of the North).

• A major source of conflict (in Westeros) is which house sits on the Iron Throne. It is said that the one who sits on the Iron Throne is the ruler of all of Westeros. Prior to the events of the book, it was held by House Targaryen until the other houses (namely Stark, Baratheon and Lannister) came together to overthrow Aerys II Targaryen and killed his son, Rhaegar to stop the Targaryen bloodline. Little did they know that some Targaryen sympathizers had smuggled the other two children (~5 year old Viserys and infant Daenerys) out of the Crownlands and to the Free Cities, where (at least Viserys) plotted their revenge.
• Out of the ten major houses, I'm going to try and give a rundown of who is good and who is bad just so you have a basic idea. (Their loyalties keep shifting all the time so even I'm not really sure) 
• House Stark is widely accepted to be the "good guys" of the series. Basically every not so evil and messed up character in this series has to be or at least related to a Stark. They're always doing what's right for everyone and just being very virtuous people in everything that they do. Most notably allied with them is House Tully (through the marriage of Catelyn Tully and Eddard (Ned) Stark), House Arryn and House Baratheon (at least Robert Baratheon).
• House Lannister is widely accepted to be the "bad guys" of the series. They commit every crime possible, from hiring assassins to straight up incest. I have a theory that the fact that they come from the Westerland, a land known for its overflowing riches, at least plays a role in their hunger for power that obviously stops at nothing. Overflowing riches is usually attributed to extreme greed, which is stated clearly in most religions/belief systems as a sin. I feel like House Lannister's greed that stayed for generations finally surpassed the material realm of gold and silver and entered the possibility of controlling masses of people to further their agenda of amassing as much wealth as possible. As of right now, I can't really think of any allies that they may have, but they do have Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer and that in itself I think is enough.
• And then there's what's left of House Targaryen. The way I see it, they're not really good or bad. They don't like any of the houses of Westeros, but I can imagine that's because their father was murdered for the sake of reclaiming power.  

 Essos is the largest continent and the weather grows hotter the further south you go. It is home to:

• The Free Cities (nine independent cities on the west coast)
• To the east of the Free Cities lies the grassy plains called the Dothraki Sea which holds the barbarous Dothraki people
• The Slave Cities
• To the extreme east are mysterious lands that aren't really elaborated on

My Thoughts: (Plot descriptions ahead, but no major spoilers)

• I would like to start off right away by making it clear that the characters are actually a lot younger than you would like to think they are. It's hard to believe that Daenerys Targaryen is actually thirteen years old when she gets married to Khal Drogo (who I believe is in his late 20s but his age is never stated) and is pregnant only a year later. Jon Snow is fourteen when he leaves to join the Night Watch. Heck, Bran Stark is only seven when he is thrown off one of the towers of  Winterfell, shattering his legs and rendering him crippled for the rest of his life. That's probably the one thing I feel I will have to overlook as an issue of relevance, more than creative liberty. 
• BTW: I checked and it turns out the show aged up all of the children by 3 years which still makes none of what happens socially acceptable but it makes the oldest of the kids 17. They're not "technically" adults in today's world, but if you didn't know their age, would you really be able to tell? (Just throwing in my own two cents: I think I find Jon Snow a lot more attractive when he's not younger than me...) But realistically, I think you lose the harshness in a story like this with adults (or almost-adults).

• I was talking to a friend about some of the characters in the series when we got onto the topic of what makes some of the characters so loved and so hated. For example, she told me in an interview with Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon/Lannister/You-know-what-who-cares-there's-only-one-Joffrey-in-this-series-anyways) he said something about how when people see Kit Harington (Jon Snow) or Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) in public they give them hugs and kisses, while he has never gotten a positive reaction. I guess in his case, that makes him a really good actor if he could play a hated character and be hated for it.

I recently rediscovered MBTI types (the Myers-Briggs Personality Test) and have found myself fascinated by the personalities of fictional characters (and real people). This section has nothing to do with MBTI, I just wanted to discuss personality traits and character archetypes. The heroes (or at least main protagonists) of this book have so many different personalities that I just have to talk about a few of them!

• I see Jon Snow as being another addition to the common zero-to-hero type of character. Being a bastard child, he does grow up with somewhat less privilege compared to the other Stark children, but he makes up for it with his strong determination to rise above his label. What's not to love about a boy who can be strong and determined when he needs to be and loving and a really good brother when he also needs to be? Because honestly I feel like some (MOST) of the characters are suffering from some kind of bad emotional issue that's kind of ruining them.
• I'm going to go on a whim here but I feel like at least some of the positive response to a character like Arya Stark comes from the fact that her life goal to become a warrior is a major smack in the face to every traditional gender role ever. I feel like more people like a female character who doesn't try to hide her masculine energy in today's society where female empowerment is everywhere. In my opinion this isn't a bad thing, and if anything Arya's embodiment of these traditionally masculine personality traits such as bold courage and a quick temper make her a more lovable character.
• I just have to point out one interaction between her and her father when he goes to comfort her after she gets in a big fight with her sister and locks herself away in her room. I feel like that this was one really cute moment in an otherwise heart-wrenching book. Obviously her father is shocked and very angry when he finds out that Jon gave Arya a sword before he left. In his anger, he asks her something like, Why do you have a sword? Do you even know the first thing about sword fighting? To which she just calmly replies, Jon told me like one thing before he left: You stab them with the pointy end! And her father is all like, Sure, I guess that is the essence of it. But after that he does get her a proper teacher.
• Is it just me or do people just feel overwhelmingly bad for Daenerys in this book? Absolutely none of her situation has been explicitly caused by her and she is always the "vehicle" of her brother's plans. She was married off to Khal Drogo because Viserys wanted an army so he could take back the Iron Throne. He's completely deluded himself (and Daenerys too, to an extent) that they are "blood of the dragon" and that they're so high and so mighty that they rightfully deserve the Iron Throne, even if that means they have to slaughter people to get it. This attitude is also what leads him to hurt (physically/emotionally abuse) Daenerys whenever he feels like she is "getting in his way".

Age Rating: 16+

• You've got to have a lot of mature understanding if you're going to read this book. In all honesty, it's very violent and sometimes unsettling in its details. There's really nothing "good" about this series as far as positive role models go. As perfectly summed up by the Common Sense Media review for this series (which I go to for an approximate age rating before I write this section), "even the good characters make plenty of iffy choices". But the bad characters, they are bad. 
• I would also like to put it out there that this book is somewhat heavy on adult content. However, it's not adult content for the sake of adult content and actually has importance to the plot. It does sometimes move from your usual relationships into the perverse (which I will not go into detail about). The Lannisters are the main culprit of this, strengthening the fact that they are the "villains" through all the disgusting things they do. And believe me, it's not pretty. I would like to think this is something you signed up for when you went to read this and can find complaints about basically everywhere on the Internet so I'm not going to waste my time.

On the emotional side of things, I just want to let you know that you will probably feel a lot of different emotions while reading this and I think that's the beauty of the writing. At certain points I just had to put the book down and cool my head because things were going the opposite of the way they should and the characters were getting themselves into even worse messes. And at certain points it was so gripping that I spent about three hours in a row just reading.

I would like to leave you with one final judgement about this: Nothing in this book (and I'm going to jump to say the entire series) is ever okay. Everything and everyone is always a total mess. 
Winter is coming.