Bleh

Sooooo....in a moment of wanting to be in on the latest craze, I bought A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I tend to do this sometimes because it's important to me to keep up with what others are reading and that worked quite well when I picked up HP1 when HP3 was first published. But, truth be told, HP is truly an extraordinary book and Rowling's writing is new and bold. The latest trend thing is also why I picked up the first Twilight book. It's nothing like HP but, as my daughter and I agree, it's our kind of trashy novel. Can't do the Harlequin Romance stuff but Twilight does have it's moments.

Besides...I love me some Vampires. Buffy, True Blood, Twilight - love it.

I am, however, very disappointed in A Game of Thrones. I'm trudging my way through it and keep putting it down for reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. What an irony is that! There's nothing outstanding about Thrones.

The book is written in somewhat short chapters and each one is from one character's perspective. When Jodi Piccoult did that in My Sister's Keeper, it was fascinating as each character had some distinctive trait that made him/her interesting. Can't say the same thing for Thrones. As I was introduced to each character I found myself repeatedly thinking, "Hmmm. Nothing new here. Of course this sister is a tomboy. Of course this sister is the pretty one. Of course this younger brother is the adventuresome one. Of course this queen is wicked." It was a constant "Of course, of course, of course." Makes for some stale reading.

I've picked it up once or twice in the past couple of days to see if it possibly gets any better and it just doesn't. OK - the land that Martin created has some interesting possibilities but it's just not well done. Nothing like Orson Scott Card's world in the Ender Series or Suzanne Collin's 13 districts in The Hunger Games.

Another interesting thing is that I have a friend who is a Teen Librarian and he said the same thing. I knew I liked that guy.

So skip it. And read a banned book instead.