So Many Books

In the past month, (since my summer break began) I have managed to read four extremely interesting books. I shall review each of them in their own turn. The first that I finished was The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my supervisor at the library I work at forced me to read it. Interestingly enough, I greatly enjoyed it.  It is what I would call an historical fantasy although that is not accurate. I thought that this could actually have happened (minus the dragons, which incidentally is the reason for the fantasy label). The Game of Thrones is centered in a place called the Seven Kingdoms (Westeros) which has a king and each of the seven high families is lord over a particular portion of the Seven Kingdoms. The main characters are from the Stark family, who are “wardens of the north.” The majority of the book is basically about finding the truth regarding the rightful heir to the king’s throne (this is a HUGE understatement, but I am tired. If you want to find out more about the book, go to Wikipedia, or just watch the HBO show).

Now for my thoughts: I felt as if it had a lot of suspense. One thing that kind kid of stunk was the overall confusion that I felt at the beginning of the book. Martin just jumped right into his story without any kind of backdrop. After about 50 pages or so, the confusion just kind of wore off and I just became immersed in the book. The books jumps from different viewpoints, which would normally bother me, but I felt as though it just increased the suspense. My favorite viewpoint was Daenerys Targaryen, the sister of the king that was usurped about 15 years or so before the story takes place. The end of the book was a giant cliffhanger, so I am very eager to start the next book, but I have way to many other books to stick to one series for too long.
The second book I read was the Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. You all must be thinking WHAT!! You haven’t read The Hobbit? What is wrong with you? And my answer is that I was just never interested in reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and prequel) after I saw the amazing movies. I still do not plan on reading the trilogy, not because I didn’t like The Hobbit (because I loved it), but because the movies ruined any kind of surprise that the book may have offered. I definitely underestimated Tolkien. I loved his witty writing style. I found myself chuckling along with the story. There were a few boring parts to it, but it was really quite good.

The rest of my reviews are forthcoming.