A Game of Thrones

First of all, I must apologize for being so late to the party. A Game of Thrones was first printed nearly 15 years ago. You'll have to forgive me though, as I was only 12 at the time.

The series on HBO is phenomenal. It is so good that it is currently the only thing on TV that I am watching. If you have not yet had the pleasure to see an episode, do yourself a favor and watch one.

Take note however, these shows are not the happy tales of Harry Potter, or the PG rated journey of Frodo Baggins.

The first episode shows a beheading, quite graphically, a whorehouse, again, quite graphically, and several other startling images. Do not watch these with your young children until you've watched them yourself and judged them. The opposite is also true, if you are young and living with your parents, this is not a series you curl up next to your mom to watch.

These are not digs or insults at the material, far from it. The scenes are there to show, and emphasize, the harsh reality that the characters are living in. They are not there as guilty pleasures or useless filler.

I must say, while the series is amazing, it is not without its faults. This mini-series covers a book some 800 plus pages thick, and the scenes that have been cut, in order to play out the plot in a timely manner, will leave you scratching your head at times and wondering what has happened. Fortunately, watching an episode a second or a third time is as good as, or better than, watching it the first time, and you will almost always find something that you missed that will fill a gap in the story for you.

The book is everything the TV series is and more. If you can read above a grade-school level, and enjoy the HBO series, I highly recommend following along by reading the book. The book fills in every crevice that is glossed over in the series. I will not spoil the story for you here, but believe me when I tell you that everything going on in the series makes much more sense when you are filled with the additional stories that the book provides.

You will learn much more about the characters from the book than you can from the series, as you are privy to their innermost thoughts throughout the book, something that simply cannot be done well on film. I very much disliked the Sansa and Joffrey that we meet in the series, but in the books there is much more detail behind their choices and actions, and I could better understand their actions from it.

The book is an amazing read, and I highly recommend it to everyone. George R. R. Martin is an incredible writer, and is able to infuse astonishing depth and development in a genre that typically focuses solely on the action. The political intrigue of the series is second to none, the action is beyond compare, and the book is impossible to put down. Best of all, you have a full week between episodes to get reading in, and you can pick up the first 4 books in the series (the 5th of which is due this year) for a mere $20 online.

One thing to note, as this relates to Magic: The Gathering. I would not define the series as High Fantasy. The books do not focus on Wizards casting spells, or Elf lords leaping about and making impossible shots. The books very much focus on the humans, and the human things that they do. Again, this is not an insult or a dig, I think the series is much better for it, I just do not want you going out to expect one thing, and finding another, only to be disappointed.

Enjoy!