A Dance With Dragons

The last full-length non-educational book that I read was A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. I certainly enjoyed it, as it was the 5th book of a series that I have been reading for about ten years now. It was a long wait, as the 4th book came out in 2006, so it felt good to get a chance to immerse myself in the author's world again. I chose the series a long time ago because the title of the first book A Game of Thrones grabbed my attention, and it was also published by Tor a company that I have come to trust as a company that purveys quality stories. The first book in the series is A Game of Thrones and while 10 years ago it was definitely a book that appealed to a niche crowd, the fantasy genre has become mainstream. At the time I was reading Dance in July, all five books of the series were in the Top 20 of the New York Times bestseller list.

This popularity was due to a large bump in awareness of the books due to HBO creating a series based on the books. I greatly enjoyed the HBO series, and admit I was surprised by enjoying it. I have grown used to studios buying the rights to a book and then completely changing the story. Game of Thrones however stayed true to the major plot points, and did a great job of capturing the spirit of the books. While I still enjoy the books more due to the sheer amount of detail that could never be portrayed in an hour long show, the series was definitely well done. Critics also agreed, as the show was nominated for multiple Emmy awards, and won a Best-Supporting actor award for Peter Dinklage.