Title: Completely disappointing. Read to learn how not to write.
Product review: Don't be misled by the high praise plastered across the cover of this book. The plot seems like it's going somewhere for the first 300 hundred pages, but the author manages to kill off all the worthwhile characters by the end of the book. The plot fizzles as Mr. Martin trumpets events that we're supposed to feel as significant but instead are yet more lurid, overblown escapades. We're left with a storyline that apparently is heading toward some cataclysmic "clash of kings," without a character I'd like to meet left. All the remaining main characters are immature, delusional, or outright perverted. In sum, "A Game of Thrones" is yet another sign of the malaise crippling modern fantasy: replete with gratuitous deviance and lacking in characters worthy of admiration (eg, Terry Goodkind and the later Robert Jordan books). Read only if you'd like to really know how utterly hyperbolic cover quotes can be.
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