What was your "hook" into the series?

[Nerevanin]

I first came to contact with the story when I randomly watched a few episodes from season 2 without knowing anything about the story. I got attracted especially by the introduction of Brienne, Renly's death and Arya's storyline in Harrenhal.

I suppose that the thing that really "got" me about the book(s) is how the story is told from the point of views of several characters instead of having one main hero. That's really the best thing about the books in my opinion. Even though I started to slightly dislike some of the main characters as the story progress (Dany and Tyrion) and I've never really liked some other ones (Catelyn, Bran, Sam), all the characters are just too well written to hate them.  

[Dorian Martell]

Most of my family read the series. They told me I should read it when they found out it was going to be made into a show 

[Aerys Frost]

I found the show before I knew about the books. I prefer the books. Ned actually dying had a huge impact.

 

Then, I knew I had to know more of the story and kept reading.

[Lord Parker]

6 hours ago, Lady Arya's Song said:

My health is not good and I do wonder if I will ever get to read the last book.  Hoping the author writes like the wind.  

For your sake, I really hope you get to as well.

[Equilibrium]

Bran discovering twincest and getting pushed from the window.

I was like, fuck dude, it was amazing. I really thought Bran is chief protagonist. I was a bit disappointed when we found out he isn't dead and a bit more when he woke up, as it significantly cheapened the shock, but by then it was too late as I already got intrigued by politics of Westeros.

[HoodedCrow]

I saw the book in the staff recommended section of a brick and mortar book store. I liked the title and the fact that it didn't have a garish cover.

Since I read a lot of non fiction history, I was intrigued by Martins blending of historical events, reimagined historical characters, and fantasy. The world building is vivid, and the events are carefully set up. The subversion of tropes and standard expections caught me. He killed Lady. Bran was crippled. I loved the presence of great, flawed, varied female characters, as well as male characters. I didn't know what he was going to do next. Still don't.

[Ser Leftwich]

It was something very small and subtle, all the conflicting accounts of where Robert Arryn was going to be fostered.

It is a simple, but great way to convey unreliable narrator and what we think being the truth is only true, from a certain point of view.

[The Arthur Smith]

Reading descriptions about Ramsay Bolton (mostly his brutality and saidsm) on the wiki and Tv Tropes is what initially got me into the series. I know, that's kinda low of me...

I'm aware that there's a show, but knowing the source material is always better than the adaptation, so i jumped into the book. I attempted reading the first book. However, i was unable to follow the complex writing and story. So then i delayed the reading and decided to watch the show so that i can get a better understanding of the characters, setting, and the story. I was very pleased by it as i got hook with the show, so then i returned back to the reading, and fortunately i can comprehend more than before when i dropped the book series. I understood what's going on in the text and learn the great meaning in each. 

[Quillon]

Was in a roleplaying guild in a mmorpg; our guild leader said something like "I'm excited for tonight, GoT series starts" etc then gave a brief explanation, how good the books are, Sean Bean's involvement etc. Started watching the show, before the season's end started reading the books.

[Sigella]

Dany with dragons.

Arya's serial killing-issues.

 

I'm hoping one of them survives the series.

[LokisRaider]

My friend showed me the first episode and was like you will love this show. Books are always better than movies/TV shows in my opinion and I bought them the next day.

The part of the 1st book that got me was the in isght into the characters. I hated show Sansa but loved book Sansa, love show Catelyn hate book Catelyn. GRRM does such a great job making you feel for characters that in any other fantasy you would normally just hate (I'm looking at you Jamie). He makes you want excited to see what happens next, and actually having the balls to kill off main characters is something you do not get to see that often.

[girlfrommonday]

"Game of Thrones" was recommended for me at my "local" (not english) kind-of-Goodreads website. I bought it, because it was soooo long and I was preparing for a very long flight  It was year or two before the TV version.

I was hooked in the very beginning, when Jon gave his little speech about five puppies and five Ned's children. I remember I was enjoying Jon's chapters, but I was realy engrossed in King's Landing and kind of confused why I should pay attention to the beyond-the-wall part of the world (oh, silly me  ). But I waited a year, I didn't want to read "Clash of Kings" because I was all WTF cliffhangers?!? I hate when books/tv series at the end of the season do this to me (I know this is pretty much standard right now) and I don't want to be involved in that game. Oh, well..... 

(It's completely different kind of story, but I always enjoyed HP books with both their neat endings and things to ponder).

[The Prince Of Tatters]

The prologue. The prologue to AGOT has to be one of my favourite chapters in the whole series.

But I also loved the last sentence that GRRM finished each chapter with, examples include:

Jon - "and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king."

Tyrion - “Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,” he said, “you wound me. You know how much I love my family.”

Eddard - “You are slow to learn, Lord Eddard. Distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve done since you climbed down off your horse.”

[corbon]

As a military history fan, and gamer (toy soldiers, rules and dice, back in the day, before computer games) a fellow gamer recommended the series as being a low-fantasy series similar to the WotR setting our group was currently playing a campaign in. He had the first three books (this was before AFfC) and everything about them was awesome, characterisation, realism, plotting, subtlety, layers, worldbuilding (at least the sociopolitical side - GRRM deliberately keeps the physical side rather over the top and vague, but thats fine too because the vagueness and ott-ness compliment each other)
They just kept getting better with rereads too.
And then, after finding this site, you find out the completely different ways and reasons other people love them, showing the books are even better than you first thought...

[desire]

Got dumped needed something to take my mind of it

[Direpuppies]

Someone actually left the first book in drama class in my last year of high school- it was just before the show started airing so i'd kinda heard of it and was basically intrigued. Bought my own copy and from the second Ned beheaded the deserter i was hooked. The changing narration was what really kept it interesting, and characters like Jon, Arya and Daenerys grabbed my attention. When Ned died I was so shocked. it really was such an unexpected and brilliantly brutal twist, that i knew I had to read the rest of the series. I think the reason i'm still so obsessed with it is because the world is so intricately thought out and so massive, and even secondary charachters so fascinating, that there's always some new area to explore or discuss. Also all the mysteries and theories keep it exciting. 

I love the show too, but not in the same way as I'm obsessed with the books.

[DasallmaechtigeJ]

I actually didn't find the first book that exciting. I really liked how the characters interacted and how the world was built, but I also found it boring to a degree. Clash really got me hooked to read the rest of the series. 

[Elisabetta Duò]

On 26/4/2016 at 2:43 PM, SevasTra82 said:

I wasn't sure if I should post this in this forum, or in the GOT Reread sub-form, so feel free to move it needed.

So I got to wondering, what was it about the first book A GAME OF THRONES that got you hooked into ASOIAF?  I'm specifically talking about the 1st book.

I know we all started this series in different fashions (some started with the show, some started after a lot of the books where already out, etc), but I'm curious what it was specifically about Book 1 that made you continue reading, and/or what you thought "worked".  And on the flip side, what about Book 1 did you not like and/or turned you off?

I'm doing a study on how ASOIAF got to where it is today and how it became the beast it is.  It would be nice to hear some opinions from people who read the book back in 1996 (when it first debuted, and before all the HBO hype).
 

To answer my own question, what I enjoyed the most and that hooked me was the subtle world building throughout, and it all sparked my curiosity to know more.  I think human beings are naturally curious and want answers to questions, and IMO, GRRM did a fantastic job of this in the first book, and it made me want to keep reading to get answers.

As for what didn't work for me, the one thing that comes to my mind was the Dany/Drogo scenes.  I wasn't too keen on reading about a grown man putting his hands between a 12 year olds thighs.  In hindsight, I understand why he wrote it, but even so, the line between sex and children was blurred a little bit.  

How about you guys?

A friend of mine told me that I should give the books a try, we share similar tastes because both don't usually read fantasy books and be both loved Harry Potter for the same reasons  (and it was the only time that both of us enjoyed something with 'supernatural' elements in it), so when she told me I might like ASOIAF because the characters weren't too stereotyped and the dialogues were good, I trusted her and started the books even if I'm not into dragons and stuff.

What had me hooked was Tyrion (since his first appareance) + the political mysteries/intrigues (who lied? who killed whom? what is everyone's purpose?). I am a crime novels reader so I found the mysteries within ASOIAF fascinating, plus I adored Tyrion's character, with his qualities and his flaws, his wit, his harshness and his compassion and his complexity.. and I kept reading because I wanted to know where his storyline would end.

Now, I kinda regret it (I have a very distict idea about where his storyline will end...at least in the books. I think now that he has stripped him of any hope, Martin will make him darker and more morally grey and in the last book he will make him die from belated greyscale, so that his mouth will indeed be the death of him, as stated since book I (he opened his mouth to curse people and swallowed black water) ...I hope i'm wrong because I would like a better ending, whether he lives or dies, but there is foreshadowing about it, for example an ambiguous dream he had in ACoK where he dreamt he had no mouth and smooth seamless skin covered his teeth (that looks like greyscale) but it's too late, I'll keep reading.

Everytime I find myself drawn to a series, it's usually because there is one or two characters that stand out to me, I seldom enjoy just 'the whole thing'. All I need is credible/witty/not-too-stereotyped dialogues, tridimentional characters and a complex plot where you have to pay attention to details. When I read Harry Potter I was already +20 and I wouldn't keep reading if I didn't find myself hooked by Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, clever dialogues (especially if you think it started as child books) and the unfolding of the plot.

This time, I even held higher expectations... given some of the things he said in interviews, I thought that Martin would break all or almost all the genre stereotypes ... now that we are 70% done wth the books, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed here, he didn't match my expectations.

Generally speaking, it's true that he created complex characters, but it's also true that most of the genre stereotypes - even some I am personally 100% fed up with - hold in place. The handsome young brave man is the hero (Jon), the ugly halfman is the villain whose morals fell because nobody loved him, like half of Batman's enemies (Tyrion), the hot handsome hero and the young brave princess have the highest chances to be sitting on the throne or die heroically (Jon & Daenerys), there is some 'beauty-and-the-beast' (those scenes involving Sansa and The Hound, clichè as hell ... and unbelievable if they ever end up together) and of course the eunuch dresses gaudily and is slimy as in every other book ever written (Varys) and you also find the stern father (Twyin), the honorable father (Ned), a couple of classic black villains with no shade of grey in them (Jeoffrey, Ramsay, kinda Littlefinger) ... etc.. So even if I still think it's a great sage, I am a bit disappointed here.

As for the TV series, I'm enjoying it as well. It's more 'black and white' than the books are, but I never expected it to be as complex and 'grey' as the books are because it's a commercial product with a different aim, so I'm not complaining..plus the actors are all good and a few of them are great.

PS: sorry for editing it more than once, english is not my mother tongue as you may have gathered.

[Maester of Valyria]

18 hours ago, The Prince Of Tatters said:

The prologue. The prologue to AGOT has to be one of my favourite chapters in the whole series.

But I also loved the last sentence that GRRM finished each chapter with, examples include:

Jon - "and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king."

Tyrion - “Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,” he said, “you wound me. You know how much I love my family.”

Eddard - “You are slow to learn, Lord Eddard. Distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve done since you climbed down off your horse.”

I'd add to that list: 'And in their hands, the daggers', and 'He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold…'.

But I agree that the chapter endings are one of the best things about the series.

[Faereth]

I remember hearing about the tv series and when I was channel hopping saw it was on and stopped to watch a few moments of it, (it was the part where Sean Bean was decapitated(!) Seriously, that was the only ten seconds I saw. I had no idea at the time whatsoever who his character was.) I told my friends I wanted to read the books before I actually watched the series properly (I always prefer reading the books first)

Anyway my friend duly bought me Game of Thrones, except it was a new release so had an updated cover....of Sean Bean sitting on the throne wearing a badge in the shape of a hand..... needless to say I kind of knew what was coming for him from the off! Even so I remember being so stunned by how his death came about, just reading it I just couldn't see how it could happen like the show had shown me it would. Stupid Joffrey

Anyway with the books what really drew me in was the first appearance of the white walkers, the interaction of the Stark kids (i include Jon here) and then what really cemented it was the chapter when that man tries to kill Bran when he is in bed after his fall and Catelyn and Summer fight him off. The writing got my hook, line and sinker.