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A Game of Thrones

Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire

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A Game of Thrones

By: George R.R. Martin
Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
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Summary

ONE OF THE TIMES’ 25 BEST AUDIOBOOKS

HBO’s hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A GAME OF THRONES is the first volume in the series.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

 Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Dragons & Mythical Creatures Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Royalty Mythology Game Funny Feel-Good Scary

Critic reviews

‘A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won’t let go. It’s brilliant.’
Robert Jordan

‘Colossal, staggering… Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome in his imaginary world… one of the greats of fantasy literature.’
SFX

‘Fantasy literature has never shied away from grandeur, but the sheer-mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads… Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias.’
Guardian

‘Such a splendid tale. I couldn’t stop till I’d finished and it was dawn.’
Anne McCaffrey
All stars
Most relevant
I am new to audible books, and value peoples reviews. I was nearly put off A Game of Thrones, by some poor reviews. I actually like Roy Dotrice, and find his style suits me. It has probably helped that I have seen the first series of the HBO TV production and got to know the characters. I am enjoying the extra detail and background of the characters, which the TV series skated over. I will certainly be purchasing the next instalment of this book and hope to finish it before the next TV series.

An unexpected surprise

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Tyrion Lannisters accent changes from Yorkshire to Welsh, I actually like Dotrices narration its like being told a story by an old man around a villages community fire, but a story teller needs to be more aware of his use of accents. What I think actually happened is Dotrice read the rest of the book and saw that Tyrion Lannister became a hero rather than a Rumpelstiltskin character, he couldn't become the hand of Gofrey and talk like a Clegg from last of the summer wine.

I was really enjoying it up to the point when

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There are several reviews here which express far more eloquently than I could just how good this story is so I'm not going to comment on that aspect, instead I'll comment on the listening experience provided by the audiobooks.

1. I do feel that it helps for a newcomer to the books to have seen the TV show, the story in non-linear at points, jumping forward and then backtracking, this can be a little disconcerting, you may wonder if you've accidentally skipped over a chapter somewhere. I certainly had to rewind on a number of occasions.

2. A few reviewers have suggested that Roy Dotrice doesn't do a good job with the narration. I disagree, I rather like his reading style but, whoever produced the recordings should be embarrassed by the fact that at certain points characters are renamed and worst of all one character's accent suddenly changes from Northern English to Welsh, I thought I was hearing things at first. Given the number of characters and the scope of the book I think on the whole he did a good job, but someone dropped the ball somewhere in the edit suite.

An enthralling story

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I have only just started this book, and although I am enjoying it, I did find it slightly hard to follow. As some of you may know - this is now a successful HBO drama which is shown here in the UK. If you go to the HBO website, you will get some useful background information relating to the characters and storyline.

Some useful background information

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A compelling fast paced story badly hampered by a really bad reading.

Many of the youngers charachters in particular are voiced as if they're in their sixties.

Great Story, terrible naration

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