on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4/5
Pages: 694 (34 hours)
Started: 30 March 2024
Finished: 14 April 2024
Summary:
Daenerys is the daughter of the dragon, and she knows its her duty to marry Khal Drogo and gather an army to take back her homeland. But what she is not expecting is for her hatred and fear of the strange man to turn into something far more.
Eddad Stark did not want to become the Hand of the King--he wanted to stay in Winterfell, with his children and beloved wife, ruling his lands in peace. But when King Robert asked him to sit by his side in the capital as the kingdom began to lean toward war, he had no choice but to agree.
John Snow is a bastard, and as much as he wants to stay at Winterfell, he knows his only fate is to join the Black Guard to keep his kingdom same from the world outside. Yet strange things are stirring in the woods North of the wall, things that won't stay still--or won't stay dead.
Tyrion Lannister always keeps his word. Three feet tall, he knows his disadvantages aren't minimal, but he also knows that his intelligence and his wit are considerable, as is his family's purse. Regardless of whom captures him or where he is bodily taken, he is determined to let his word and his family's wealth take him to safety--or to war.
Winter is coming, and the land is heading to war. And each person's bravery, their determination and their wit and their prowess with a sword, will be put to the test.
Thoughts:
There were some things I loved about this book, and some things I could not stand. I have to acknowledge that this is a really intelligent and epic book. The plot is sweeping but it all connects and comes together, and the characters are all diverse and round and interesting. There are even different female characters who fall into different heroic archetypes (the waiting wife, the determined warrior princess, the vengeful queen) which is very cool, since male-written fantasy novels often just provide a single female character to fill all those roles. There were also lots of interesting and exciting heroic moments and moments of brotherhood that made me very happy to read. The violence was effective, the battles were suspenseful, and the knightly honor was grand.
But the sexual violence was overwhelming and so gratuitous. There was so so much rape, graphic to a degree that I could barely stand to listen to it. Furthermore, all the women were so aged down that even vaguely consensual sex (like between Daenerys and Kahl Drogo) was entirely non-consensual (Daenerys was 13 when she got married, which is insane). I really wish Martin had written less rape and aged up his female characters; if he had this would have been a really good book.