This book took me forever to get through. At 675ish pages (not counting the appendix), it has to be one of the longest books I've tackled... besides the Harry Potter books. I almost stopped about halfway... this is a library book and I've had it out like 5 months now. Luckily the Euless Library let's me renew my checked out items practically as much as I like (I'm assuming I'd be stopped if someone put the book on reserve).
Guess I should get into the book itself. It was wonderful. Martin uses an interesting style in this book where each chapter is entitled with the name of the character whose point of view the story is told from just for that chapter. At the beginning I was scratching my head a bit, wondering about if I'd already read this or that chapter... but I caught on quick enough. Makes the perspective changes clear as day, but removes the traditional usefulness of chapter titles. He could have at least numbered the chapters, but he didn't.
Martin seems to have a reckless abandon with his characters. I don't think it spoils anything to say that major characters get the axe (or sword) a lot more often than most other stories I've read. The reader is left with the impression that in this harsh world anything can happen and throw your preconceptions out because the author plans on using those against you. I can truly say that the story changed directions towards the end of the book from what I had been expecting, and that made it really great.
I am left in a bit of dismay... this is the first of a series and each book is near the same size in page count. I hope I can get a couple more read by the end of the year.
