I tried to read a book.

A few weeks ago, someone dropped the books from A Song of Ice and Fire on the free books table near my office. The table is for students, and I contribute several books every semester, but when I saw these I snagged them. Everyone loves them, right? They're fantasy. It should be great.

I started A Game of Thrones this weekend. It turns out I don't like A Game of Thrones and have no desire to the read the book. I actually wanted to stop after the first page, but I thought I wasn't giving the book a fair chance, so I read 200 pages.

I mean, that many people can't be wrong, right? Wrong. That many people can so be wrong. They were wrong about Twilight, after all. Fair chance given; I still don't care. I put them back on the table today.

First, the misogyny. If I'm going to read something misogynist  there better be a reason for me to put up with it. We all know how I feel about rape in fantasy.* It is not a plot point, nor should it occur solely for men to feel rage or to create a hierarchy of bad dudes.

Next, the characters are all horrible. Not just as in everyone is despicable, but also as in everyone is a flat type and only has emotions because that is the emotion that goes with that type. I was led to believe there would be complex characters that are neither evil nor good but flawed. Flawed, yes; complex, no.

The shifting point of view is poorly done. There really isn't much difference in narrative voice between chapters, and the only chapter where I actually recognized a shift in focalization, saw a purpose behind it, and enjoyed it was Bran's chapter when he is, ah, injured. Maybe this gets better when there is more plot to be viewed differently by characters, but I am not impressed.

Nothing happens for pages and pages. I like plot-driven books. I like character-driven books. I don't like politic-driven sagas, and that's what this is.

There are others things I don't like (poorly written sex scene, anyone?), but basically this is just not the series for me, and I really don't get the appeal (dragons? I like dragons.). I'm sure the books get better, but I have no desire to invest in them. And I went to read the Wikipedia summaries to see if there's some big payoff to make it worth it. Nope. Everyone dies a horrible death and characters change alliances.


Disclaimer: I have strong opinions about books, but I have changed my opinions about books before. I try to be fair, but there are just too many good books in the world to spend time reading something I don't enjoy when I'm reading for pleasure. If you like these books, I do not think you have poor taste or are stupid (much like I still respect my friends who like Twilight and other books I think are ridiculous, and I still take reading recommendations from them because we do have overlapping tastes). I think the books are stupid, but we are simply different readers.


*Somewhere in the blog is a post about how frustrated I am with rape in fantasy novels and how ohmygod can we please stop with rape being a freaking necessary part of the fantasy trope because it is just making rape culture worse!? But I can't find it. (This will have to do.) I avoid books with rape unless I know that the book is about rape and it's not just some plot point that either normalizes rape or uses it as reason for a female character to be strong or is motivation for a male character to fight. Robin McKinley's Deerskin is an excellent fantasy novel that starts with a brutal rape, but it works because the book is about her recovery and so the rape is treated seriously.