Alyn Oakenfist Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 So there are a lot of reasons to like these book, what in particular made them click for you? In my case it would have to be the historical parallels. I'm a massive history buff, and trying to find all the parallels is super fun for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Putin Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 The most important reason is settings , that resembles medieval , knights ,honor , castles , kingdoms , kings , with little of magic and monsters. But the world Martin created is really big , rich with content , too many different characters and stories , nothing is simply black and white, story is unpredictable, no character is safe , so much plotting and conspiracy , its simply way too interesting world Martin created. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowen 747 Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 The characters. I truly love some of the characters and would like to know how their stories turn out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagini's Neville Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 A mixture of a lot of things. I have truly a lot of respect for GRRM as a writer. I just really love his writing style, I could read pages on pages of landscape descriptions or food lol (even though usually I hate food descriptions in books). I love that his writing isn't too flowery, but definitely not lacking of poetry. I love his use of classical story elements. I love all the symbolism, all the mystery and ambiguity in his language. What I think makes GRRM really stand out as a writer is that he is totally willing to risk the readers to misunderstand or misjudge his characters in order to keep it all realistic. We don't get characters like Tyrion or the Hound (or really any character) give cringe worthy, self-anaylzing monologues about how much they have suffered as a child and how that is the reason they behave the way they do now. GRRM shows us that through their actions and sometimes thoughts, but it also leads to everyone having a different opinion and a lot of ppl will have a different opinion from what GRRM intended. But I really respect him for not scarifying the quality of the story for that. There's a lot more, but I'm too lazy rn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagini's Neville Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 2 hours ago, Alyn Oakenfist said: So there are a lot of reasons to like these book, what in particular made them click for you? In my case it would have to be the historical parallels. I'm a massive history buff, and trying to find all the parallels is super fun for me. So are you one of the ppl, who believes it will exactly go like wars of the roses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Young Maester Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I have a special love for the Middle Ages. My favourite era after all. Especially for Western Europe which is what Westeros is based on. Any medieval fiction with very little magic is something that highly attracts me as well. Medieval Warfare is another thing I enjoy, which asoiaf is filled with. Despite George not being a good Warfare writer, the books still make up for his amazing plots and character creations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Oakenfist Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 6 hours ago, Nagini's Neville said: So are you one of the ppl, who believes it will exactly go like wars of the roses? Not at all. I just love the various historical references, but the story itself is a mix of so many historical events that's impossible to say that it's based on just one thing. Just off the top of my head we have FAegon who is inspired by Henry the Vth, Mathias Corvinus and Perkin Warbeck. I think that the most we can predict are individual events (heck one of the few thing I was able to predict before hand in the books was the result of the Blackwater). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsjj251 Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I heard about the Game of Thrones show in like 2010 and watched a quick summary on Youtube(it was spoiler free) I then found a fan wiki that broke down the houses(i liked the idea of Houses and political families/war). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szbszig Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 In short: the show. I heard the hype about it, started watching it, and fell almost immediately in love with it. It was somewhere around the third season, that I started reading the books also, and somewhere around the fourth season did I realise, that the books are even better than the show. At that point, I put the show aside, read all the books first, and returned to watch the remaining seasons only after finishing every written material available. I must also mention the worldbook, which was a lot of help to me. both in putting together the pieces and giving me many additional info helping to understand the historical, geographical, political situation even better; and it also made me fall even deeper in love with the world with its beautifully drawn maps and illustrations and with all the seemingly never-ending number of legends and intriguing backstories. Content-wise the things that got me first were 1. the medieval setting, the complicated political situation with many houses, kingdoms, noble families; 2. the complex characters who are not innately good or bad, but do good and bad things, tend to have both good and bad choices; 3. the highly unpredictable story, where anything can and will happen, even major characters are not invincible; 4. and the naturalistic and realistic portrayal of events, e. g. lots of violence, injustice, just like in real (medieval) life, and that even sex life of characters are not omitted. Although I must say, Martin tricked me a bit, because I originally expected a low fantasy setting with minimal amount of magic. This remains true for the first book/season, but as the story unfolds, it becomes more and more of a high fantasy with zombies and shapeshifting and shadow assassins etc. However, the way Martin introduces these supernatural elements is quite good in a literary sense, because they are just as shocking for most of the characters, as for us, since for generations they lived and believed in a world without magic, before the (re)appearance of dragons and the comet. Finally, in later parts, what truly amazed me, was the ever-increasing level of details and the endless number of references and cross-references throughout the story. You can dig in, and find motives for virtually every action performed by the characters, everything can be explained, there is logical reason behind every twist. It gives you the ability to create countless theories, which are almost as fun to read, watch and share than reading the books themselves. This is what keeps the story and my interest in it alive, many years after the last book was published. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megorova Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 First I watched the show, but Jon was the only character that I liked, and from the very first episode I figured out that he is Lyanna's and Rhaegar's child. This sort of hiden prince or destined child theme is totally my thing. So of course I went and read the books. All of GRRM's characters turned out to be significally more interesting than what D&D did. But what totally and completely hooked me to ASOIAF is that George is a master of writing encrypted messages. His books are like intellectual puzzle, reading them is a good workout for brain, even better than playing Sudoku. I like smart books, and ASOIAF-series is one of the best there is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Peres Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I was going through a phase... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Lannister Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 I was comparatively late to the scene. The show had been out for four seasons, I had instantly dismissed all the hype as just sheep mentality and left it at that. A friend of mine had been trying to get me to read the books for years but I just shrugged it off. A weird quirk of mine was always that I'm hesitant to take the plunge on new author and the show's sensationalism didn't really warm me to the theme. I just figured it'd be Harry Potter all over again, interesting but way overhyped. That friend handed me his copy of AGoT and told me he'd give me 20 bucks if I read the first three chapters and wasn't instantly hooked. I figured this was an easy twenty so I was prepared to be as harsh and skeptical as possible regarding this. Before I knew it, it was 2 am and I was halfway threw the book. I plunged through all five in less than a month and ended up here not long after. To me what set ASoIaF apart from other fantasy novels is that the fantasy elements were the least interesting part for me. I mean sure, Dragons and Others and the such are great, but it was the world, the characters and the intricate political maneuvering with historical parallels that really drew me in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Oakenfist Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Lord Lannister said: I was comparatively late to the scene. The show had been out for four seasons, I had instantly dismissed all the hype as just sheep mentality and left it at that. A friend of mine had been trying to get me to read the books for years but I just shrugged it off. A weird quirk of mine was always that I'm hesitant to take the plunge on new author and the show's sensationalism didn't really warm me to the theme. I just figured it'd be Harry Potter all over again, interesting but way overhyped. That friend handed me his copy of AGoT and told me he'd give me 20 bucks if I read the first three chapters and wasn't instantly hooked. I figured this was an easy twenty so I was prepared to be as harsh and skeptical as possible regarding this. Before I knew it, it was 2 am and I was halfway threw the book. I plunged through all five in less than a month and ended up here not long after. To me what set ASoIaF apart from other fantasy novels is that the fantasy elements were the least interesting part for me. I mean sure, Dragons and Others and the such are great, but it was the world, the characters and the intricate political maneuvering with historical parallels that really drew me in. This is a bit uncanny, cause my story is very similar. I too shrugged off both the books and the show and just considered them hyped up T&A. It basically took a friend of mine to bet me that I will like the book in order to read it (though I kinda had to pay him 20 bucks, it was still worth it). Read through the whole series incredibly quickly and reread it again just for good measure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Anna Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 The diverse types of characters and the structure of the books makes it really interesting and addicting to read (i would say it has a cinematic quality to it, like every chapter is a different scene of a script; George has experience with that). But mostly the characterization. I think GRRM is an excellent character writer, above all. Also I apprecciate that the names of places and characters aren't too fantasy-ish and more like real life names, as well as the similarities of the events to real world events. I think that helps in the immersion of the story. The historical fiction angle really makes it unique. And then when you re-read and find out details you totally missed......it's just a very rewarding experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khal Rhaego Targaryen Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Daenerys Targaryen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big P Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 44 minutes ago, Prince Rhaego said: Daenerys Targaryen. Dany is my favorite too. I began to like this story from her first chapter. The arrival of her dragons sealed the deal and I became determined to follow the story. Quote What made you become a fan of ASOIAF? Dany's chapters and the dragons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eternally_Theirs Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Bran. That's all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagini's Neville Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Eternally_His said: Bran. That's all. Didn't you forget someone there? the one... the only... the Young Wolf SWEETIE Robb Stark!!!! Btw same about Bran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eternally_Theirs Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, Nagini's Neville said: Didn't you forget someone there? the one... the only... the Young Wolf SWEETIE Robb Stark!!!! Btw same about Bran That wasn't the case initially. He only grew on me because I reread everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Über Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 The POV structure and desire to find out more about deep lore. Specifically the Others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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