Before I jump into the books I have to admit I would have never read them if my girlfriend hadn’t told me to watch the HBO series. A few years ago a couple of coworkers told me about the books but the way they talked about them seemed terrible. They sounded unapproachable for a casual reader and they never mentioned the Night Watch, which is my favorite part. After devouring the series in a couple of days (seriously set some time aside if you haven’t seen it and marathon the show.)I decided to check out the first book.

A Game Of Thrones is the first book and even though I mostly knew what was going to happen because of the television show I was sucked in from the start. George R. R. Martin writes in a very accessible way that doesn’t put the book out of reach of casual fantasy readers like myself. Each chapter is written from a different characters point of view giving the reader a very good feel for the characters, their feelings, and a bit of insight into their true feelings for other characters in the story.

The first book establishes the characters and their homes while the following books follow them as they all spread out and move away from each other. It seems that in each book the characters move further and further away from their beginnings but everything that happens keeps me wanting them to stay away from their homes.

The world that Martin establishes is huge and spans two continents. Westeros is the main setting and home to the Seven Kingdoms. Across the sea is Essos which begins as the home of one character but through each book more characters set out for cities across the sea. The various gods and lands all shape the characters as much as the trials they encounter.

I read through all these books in a month and I can’t begin to imagine how fans from the start have dealt with the time between books. The first was released in 1996 and the most recent A Dance With Dragons was only released earlier this year. While I’m sure the waiting between books is miserable I’m glad that Martin spends so much time making sure the story has the quality he strives for. After writing such an enormous book Martin split it in two giving us A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons. A Feast For Crows covered mostly new characters and left readers wondering what had happened to their favorites. Originally Martin planned 2 years between the books and ended up having to throw out much of his work and start over ending up leaving a much bigger gap of 6 years.

There are two more books yet too come and who knows how much longer we will have to wait. These books are a great epic journey that will have you questioning characters motives one minute and rooting for them to die or succeed the next. You can find various sets of the books and I would buy a few at a time so you don’t have to wait before continuing on with the story.