Warning: This novel has intense adult themes and should probably be read with parental permission.

Fantasy novels have stayed the same for decades since John Ronald Reuel Tolkien first wrote The Lord of The Rings Trilogy in the 50s. But could one ambitious novel destroy every notion we had of fantasy?

George Martin began writing in the 60s when he was a kid, and he has literally never stopped since. Before publishing A Game of Thrones in 1996 he published four novels, multiple short stories, and worked on a multitude of T.V. shows. He specifically wrote A Game of Thrones to be the kind of story that is only possible in a novel’s format because he was tired of budgetary restraints that producers would put on him.

The book centers on 9 main characters who the book jumps between in order to tell the story, The format is reminiscent of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, except the focus changes with every chapter. This is my favorite format for a novel to be written in because it circumvents the problems of both third person limited and third person omniscient.

The characters are all as complicated as The Targaryen Family Tree (But in a good way.). Each and every character has an equal amount of flaws and strengths that make them all feel so real.

One aspect of this book that I overlooked at first was the world-building. This is mainly because it was so good that I didn’t even notice it at first. Martin slips in little details about the world all the time, to the point that Westeros and Essos feel just as real as America or England.

The biggest problem with the book is also its greatest strength; it can be bleak at times. The way you feel when characters die is a mark of amazing writing. It shows that the characters were well written enough to make you feel terrible when bad things happen to them, but in the end it still just makes you feel really sad.The ending of the book leaves you with such a strong feeling of triumph, anxiousness, and excitement at the same time. It entices you with the future of the characters so much that you just have to get the next book, A Clash of Kings.