I started reading the series because both a friend and my boyfriend told me how awesome it was. I was skeptical at first because I hadn’t really heard a lot about it, so I really didn’t know what to expect. Now that I’m done with the first book, I definitely want to read the next one. Oh, and watch the HBO series, which I have already heard is very similar to the books (a fact that makes me very happy without even seeing it).

My first impression of the book was that it’s slightly similar to Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” series. Only better because of two reasons:

1. The first book in The Wheel of Time series took FOREVER to get interesting. I practically fell asleep reading the first 14 chapters, because it didn’t get interesting until chapter 15. Where in Game of Thrones I was interested right away.

2. I refuse to read any further in The Wheel of Time series. I’m sure the rest of the series is good, but I just felt like there was nothing left prodding me to read the next one. Where in Game of Thrones you get left with no closure at all. So you have nothing but to read the next installment.

I loved that the book switched between characters. I think the characters Martin chose to follow were strong choices, and helped keep the plot going. Even if I only liked one character in the entire series I would keep reading in order to find out what was going to happen with that character. You also know a writer has very strong characters when you are first introduced to a villain and you automatically hate them.

The plot was also very strong. It’ll keep any reader interested because Martin put in a lot of twists and turns. The writing also helped the plot because the wording of sentences and speech helped set the time period and launches the reader into another world. And like I said before, the ending has no closure, so the reader has no choice but to read the next installment if they want to know what happens next.