I'm not Arya (although she KICKS BUTT!!!! Ammmiright AryaForQueen???)
but I hope I can sell you on these books.....I'm gonna "geek" out a bit here.....
I adore this series. I am NOT a sci/fi fan. DH tried to get me to read the Robert Jordan books and after three, I found I'd rather poke myself in the eye with something sharp than read one more word.
So The Song of Ice and Fire series was a hard sell at first. But you will be HOOKED from the beginning.
One thing I love about these books is how Martin structures them. Each chapter is a different character's POV. You see the same events through different "eyes" and it proves that no one is "good" or "evil". It is an AMAZING character study....The structure also provides for some amazing cliff hangers that keep those pages turning!
Another thing I love is how fully realized Martin's fantasy world is. It's "fantasy" without being "alien". In fact, the "fantasy" doesn't really begin until the very end of the first book. There's just a realism about them that I enjoy. Probably one reason I hated the Jordan books.
Now, they will frustrate you. There's major plot twists and I don't think I'm giving away anything when I say that Martin has no problem killing off major characters. We're lucky that we can read all 5 books back to back but when my husband was reading them first, there were major time lapses between their releases and he said it drove him NUTS waiting to see what happened next. There's also a fear among the fanboys that Martin will abandon the series (he's done it before with other series) and not finish them.
I could go on and and on about them but I won't. READ THEM. You won't regret it! And then watch Game of Thrones on HBO! Season 2 starts on April !!!!
Dinklage RULES!!!