George R. R. Martin's a Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, a Clash of Kings, a Storm of Swords, a Feast for Crows, and a Dance with Dragons

Great series, really good world bulding. Does get a bit complex and hard to follow as the various threads/stories go off in different directions. It is very much an unfinished story infact in many ways it feels that the story has only just about finished begining as several things which have been building for the last 5 books have only just got to events that have long been anticipated. The last book from the series was published in 2011 and there are supposed to be just two more books in the series I find it hard to see how all the various aspects of the stories are going to be brought together into a coherent and satifying "middle & end" to these stories in just 2 more books (2/7 of the total), given that it's taken so long to write the next book and the age of the author it seems likely that the series may end up as another unfinished saga, which is a real shame. Note I haven't seen the TV series so this may be different if you have.

Seriously, why have you not read this before? I got into Game of Thrones the TV series and was encouraged to read the books. I'll be honest, the size of them put me right off and, having already seen Season 1, I lacked motivation because I thought I already knew what was going to happen. I was wrong to put it off. Very very wrong. Whilst the TV show stays reasonably true to the books, some of the subtleties and nuances of the books are lost on screen. The TV show is the best show ever made. EVER. But the books are better...... For those that haven't seen the show and will be going inito the books blind, I envy you. The books are full of twists that you won't see coming and are actually better to read than see on screen. Book 3 (Storm of Swords) is probably the best book I've ever read. There are a lot of characters, and some are incredibly complex with lineage and family history a large part of the 'world' of Game of Thrones. But once you get your head around who is who, who likes who, whos doesn't like who, who pretends to like who, etc, you wil struggle to put these down until you've finished and wonder where the last few months have gone. Fantastic books. Enjoy them.

This is a lot of book for your money, it's great value for this much story and not having a huge chunk of shelf taken up the physical books is handy. I came to the books after the TV series started but that only helps to put some faces to the characters here. Given the multitude of characters I feel the story works even better on Paper and the names stick a little better. All of the punch of the sudden deaths of beloved characters is here on the page and the added detail to the history of the seven kingdoms and beyond really adds to the experience. Unlike some fantasy authors these books feel well written and anything but predictable. Seeing that each chapter follows one of the many principle characters at a time, makes it easy to see how this translates so well to the screen. If you've not read the books yet, get into them.

I have two confessions to make before writing this review. The first is that I am not a George Martin fan. Over the years I have tried to read a number of his books all of which I have struggled with. I love the genre but have never been overly happy with his style. The second confession is that I have had a Kindle for over three years and have never purchased a book for it - I have only uploaded free books. It started as an experiment and became a challenge. There are over 200 books on my Kindle, some very good, but they are all free. The first book I paid for was A Song of Ice and Fire, subsequently followed by A Game of Thrones: the Story Continues Books 1- 5. Having watched the first couple of seasons of HBO's excellent Game of Thrones, I decided to give A Song of Ice and Fire a go. I loved it! How much of that was due to the amazing way in which the first series of the TV show faithfully reflected the book or whether it was down to the writing I honestly cannot say. In fairness it was probably a combination of the two. I was so enthralled that I went and purchased my second Kindle book - A Game of Thrones: the Story Continues Books 1- 5. What I can say now is that I am further on in the books than I am in my TV viewing and am still absolutely enthralled. The story is epic in proportion but retains the individual detail. The characters are so well depicted that you almost feel as though they are acquaintances. The action is absorbing as are the relationships/politics. I strongly recommend this book (or collection of books) to everyone but if you are like me and spend a lot of time travelling, having 5,000 plus pages of pure escapism entertainment on a lightweight device like a Kindle is a godsend. Buy it and get absorbed, your partner will hate it as you will end up preferring to read rather than talk, work will suffer as you will not be able to put it down at night while you read those last few pages before sleep. If it weren't time to go to the airport I would be reading the book now. Luckily I have a 3 hour flight ahead of me so I will get my fix today! Alan R

The epic series A song of Ice and Fire is an anomaly. In the world of fantasy fiction that is packed to the brim with American teens with strange powers and an unusually uncorrupted moral compass comes forth a new and exciting idea. Where the characters are not sorted into two categories: good and evil, black and white but instead have a complex nature true of all people. This idea is suprisingly fresh and intriguing and for good or bad has completly ruined near all other novels in this genre for me. for instance i began to read 'A city of bones' as i have heard raving reveiws about it but when I started to read I found the characters dull and unpredictabe and the writing clumsy. The description was thoughtlessly dumped on the page and it was an utter parallel to Martins clever, intelligent and witty style of writing and the juicy, complex and unpredictable charcters he has created all set in this exciting and diverse landscape. Also I'm not old enough to watch the series on HBO but my sister has watched it and although it is amazing I dont think anything can match up to the depth of story you get with the books! I definatly reccomend them!

I've never seen the HBO series Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic for those of us in the UK), but I'd heard a lot about it, though I figured, like with everything, that the books would be better than the adaptation. It happened with Harry Potter (though the films are still good), it certainly happened with Eragon... the books were definitely the place to start. And I wasn't disappointed. It's the perfect blend of, well, everything really. It's not as light-hearted as Harry Potter, where everything ends happily ever after (oh, spoiler alert), but it's just as gripping, quite possible even more so. There's a multitude of characters, even more deaths, dragons... the amazing-ness of A Song of Ice and Fire cannot be described in words. Even if you've not been persuaded yet, think about this: you'll be able to grin happily when Game of Thrones airs, knowing that your friend's favourite character is going to die. While the world reeled from the disaster of The Red Wedding, think of all the people who read the books, grinning smugly in the background. You could be one of them. The only negatives about this include the slightly less interesting sections when all the characters are separated, and the slight issue that the series will take FOREVER to be finished at the current pace. The Winds of Winter is coming soon, apparently, but it's been that way for a while. And that's not even mentioning the final novel, A Dream of Spring... At least they'll be appreciated when they do eventually come out. Two words: get it.

A big tale in a big world with big character and big battles with big intrigue and big surprises. This big tale is finely written full of strong characters with wavering moralities. The book takes us to a world where life is cheap and power means everything. Winter is coming and the cold hold a fright are two for the fainthearted. This book covers many bases for many types. There is love There is action there is drama and of course there are dragons. This is Tolkien for adults. a whopper of a tale.

A Song of Ice and Fire is very long so it often does feel slow and you can easily forget who's who or exactly what's happened. But in that, it reflects real life. The characterisation is very life-like: these women, men, children and even creatures feel real, with flaws and virtues alike. There is thus much and more to learn from this saga which one could apply to one's own life: the treachery and deception of people, mingled with courage, stubbornness, honour, greed, lust, vengeance, humanity and much more besides. It's also clear that Martin has done much historical research: details such as curved towers having the advantage of weapons being more likely to glance off then are proof of this. The screen adaptation does closely follow the books but become increasingly divergent towards the end and, by the end of Series 6, is ahead of the books. For many people just watching Game of Thrones will be enough but, especially as the two sets of storylines diverge, I think there is still simply a lot of extra fun to be had from reading the books as well. So quite simply enjoy yourself a little bit at a time over a long time reading this very long story and, if you're like me, when you're done, you'll consider it a little achievement ticked off in your life!