A Game of Thrones

by George R. R. Martin

Your friends keep suggesting that you read this or that fantasy book. You remain skeptical because you:

1. Remember that insipid Disney crap (eg. Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, etc…)
   
2. Think that the fantasy genre is mindless fluff about friendly unicorns, talking animals and anthropomorphic atmospheric conditions.
   
3. Have read Tolkien and everything else is obviously a debased derivative of that magnum opus.
   

This is not that book. Hold on, you heard me but you weren't listening…

THIS IS NOT THAT BOOK.

This is the fantastic Middle Dark Ages where non-noble human life was largely valueless, noble life is usually a high risk proposition due to your own or someone else's ambitions, and the caricature white hats and black hats have been driven into extinction by the necessities of survival. You'll find the ruthlessness of Stalin, the machinations of Machiavelli, the actuation of Churchill, in short, the superlatives of humanity. If this book were any grittier you'd have to spit the sand out of your mouth.