Warning: Major spoilers ahead for those who have only watched the show or read a little of the series.
George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" - starting with "Game of Thrones" and working through "A Feast for Crows," the fourth book of the series - is an exercise in pure fantasy brilliance. The books are by no means perfect - it can be frustrating crashing to a new point-of-view character just when things are getting interesting with another, and there is certainly a whole lot of exposition necessary to the story - but as a whole, so far, it's pretty genius, and certainly epic.
I was lucky in coming late to the books. I had barely even heard about them before the buzz started for HBO's new TV series, but after seeing the pilot episode, I sped through all four as fast as I could. Fans who have been reading them since the beginning have been waiting for years for the new installment. Since I'm a latecomer, I'll only have to wait a month to read the latest book, "A Dance with Dragons," which comes out July 12. Which is great especially with this series. In many ways ASOIAF (I'm not writing it out every time) plays like a soap opera, cutting from scene to scene with each character, only lingering long enough on one to let something interesting happen and then hopping to an entirely different part of the story. At the end of each book loose ends are dangling all over the place, and jumping into the next one is just a continuance of the same story. For some people that might be annoying. If I had to wait six years for the next book I would probably agree (and I may as I wait for the 6th and 7th installments). But in the moment of reading, it propels the action along, allowing the reader to get a little of a lot of great characters and leaving juicy tidbits driving you into the next narrative.
But one of my absolute favorite things about "Game of Thrones" and its successors is that this is one of the most feminist series of books I've ever read. Coming from a male author, this is especially awesome. I've always identified more with princesses who used their wits or swords than those who sat around waiting for a prince to rescue him, and that is definitely the school of thought that Martin's women come from. Most fantastically, Martin's female characters don't sit around mooning about who they're going to marry (with the exception of early Sansa). These are women whose identities are built around their personalities and accomplishments, not their romantic relationships.
The obvious feminist heroine is Daenerys, the overthrown former king's daughter and only living heir, who starts out a scared 13-year-old girl being forced into a marriage and evolves into a completely kick-ass leader out to get her family's throne back, with dragons and an army of slaves (freed by her) at her back. Dany is quick, resourceful and full of fire. Rape is a frequent issue in the books - the men on all sides consider it a natural spoil of war - and Dany puts a quick stop to that with her own men, despite heavy pushback.
The other obvious heroine is Arya Stark, the youngest daughter of Ned Stark, the man who originally seems to be the protagonist of the book - until Martin has his head cut off at the close of the first volume. Arya has never fit in with gender stereotypes, and her father supports her in this, hiring her a sword-fighting instructor when he discovers Arya's half-brother has given her a sword, Needle. At the start of the books Arya is just a little girl, defiant but definitely a child. By the end of the first she is fatherless and taking care of herself on the streets, hunted by the royal family, and through the following books she uses her wits and a touch of ruthlessness to stay alive. Even when all her hopes of reuniting with her family appear to be lost, she finds a way to survive, even if it means killing others in the process.
In addition to these two fantastic female characters, Martin includes Brienne, an "ugly" woman who is determined to be a knight and does rather well at it; the Sand Snakes, a group of sisters known for their cunning with poisons and other deadly skills; and least expected at the start of the books, Sansa Stark, Arya's older sister, who seems at first to be a doe-eyed innocent who just wants to be a pretty princess, but who learns as her circumstances harden to adapt and save herself.
The male characters are equally great. Tyrion Lannister, the "Imp", is a dwarf and the youngest son of a very powerful family who has used his sharp wits to stay alive and powerful. He is snarky and a lot of fun, but dark and hard when the circumstances call for it. His brother Jaime starts out despicable - he tries to kill a young boy to hide his incestuous relationship with his sister right off the bat - but he has a pretty fantastic redemption arc through the first four novels. By the end of the fourth book he almost feels like a hero.
Martin's book succeed in large part because of his characters, many of whom get to present unique and compelling points of view as he switches between them for the sake of the story, but the story itself is also fascinating. It starts as a quiet contest for the throne and evolves into all-out civil war, even before Dany becomes a serious threat across the narrow sea, and even without adding into the equation the White Walkers, who seem to be making an army of the dead behind the massive ice Wall that guards the North. The war on its own would be a great story - add in Dany's claim and some sinister zombies and you have something truly grabbing.
I'm sure these books are not for everyone. But for those who love fantasy, strong female characters, medieval war, or even just dragons or zombies, they are a great and absorbing read. I know I'm already pre-ordering book five.
Oh, and the show is pretty awesome, too.
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