A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of books that will, as it looks like right now, consist of seven or so books. So far, the first four books have been written and published, with the fifth planned for release later this year. The series is written by George R.R. Martin, an American author of sorts.

A Song of Ice and Fire tells the story of an entire world, in specific the continent of Westeros, and in a lesser sense the eastern continent I dunno the exact name of. Westeros is divided into seven 'kingdoms', governed by a single king at the start of the series. There are many houses on the land, each with their own castle, lands, etcetera. The series tells the story of the land, the houses, the kingdom, etcetera. It does so by sorta telling the story by one character's viewpoint in each chapter.

That's pretty much the structure. In other news, it is the best fantasy series of this moment, beating most books in terms of character development and such. I mean, there are probably hundreds of characters that are described in total, some only by name, others get their own chapters.

The genre is still in the fantasy genre, but only in the details - there are no evil orcs versus the good and hot elves, no teenager flinging stones with magic, etcetera. There's just a few dragons that don't do much yet 'cause they're tiny and it takes years for those to grow up, and only a bit of magic that is used sporadically. The story concentrates more on the people and their stories, the people in the continent, stuff like that.

It's a mature book, stuff like incest, rape, pedophilia, hard violence and stuff like that isn't shunned by the author. Which is good, btw.

Now, I could go and tell a bit about the story itself, but I'll refrain myself from doing so. Also check out the wikipedia page on the book at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_song_of_ice_and_fire.

Summary of what I just said: A Song of Ice and Fire is a series everyone, whether you like fantasy or not, should read. Peri0d.

I've gotta concur; this series is the best of its genre, probably beating even Tolkien for greatness. This is by far the most politically intricate fantasy series I've ever encountered, and the characters of all ages are well written, with a ruthless psychological realism you don't find in many other authors. There's also none of that horse**** with all the main characters surviving until the final book in this series; main characters are killed off early and continue being killed off throughout the series.

Started Game of Thrones today; didn't read much as I don't get a great deal of time to sit down and read. I'm enjoying the way Martin writes; though his narrative's kind of forced at times I think. He makes up his own analogies and phrases, and some of them seem a bit silly. Dialogue's good though, always important.

I like the fact that he makes up his own figures of speech. It lends more of an authentic flavour to the fantasy setting; characters who lived in a different world to ours would naturally think in different fashions.

I wonder if the HBO production is going to be any good.

It better be.

Ah, forgot to mention that in the first post; this is to those reading this thread for the first time: HBO recently acquired the rights to adapt A Song of Ice and Fire for television. Can't wait to see what they do with it ^_^.

And I approve of the figures of speech, titles, traditions, religions, and basically everything that defines the culture of the lands described in the series.

I'm reading book 4 at the moment, just got to the part where [spoiler]Arya arrives in Braavos[/spoiler]. There's obvious inspiration from Venice in that city though .

My room mate is reading these books right now and was telling me about them. When he's done I shall give them a read.

Reminds me a lot of the series I've been writing for 9 or so years now, and a lot of the game series Suikoden. It focuses on character development the most, and relationships, not just OMGAD WIZARDS N DRAGONS.

I'm a Waldenbooks manager so I'll definitely be having to utilize the discount for this

I also like the fact that it is geared more towards adults. Most fantasy series nowadays are geared towards teenagers, and it gets kinda annoying.