Game of Thrones

Luckily, HBO offered a free preview weekend for the unveiling of their new series "A Game of Thrones", based on the series by George R.R. Martin.  As a reader of the series, I have to say that the first installment was pretty good.  Entertaining, pretty faithful to the book and good "look and feel". 

I'm not alone in this, particularly amongst medievalists, but fantasy actually led me to history.  Tolkien and a few others (notably the seemingly forgotten Horseclans series) turned me onto medievalish times and I eventually scratched that itch at Providence College.  Even though I majored in U.S. History, I was given the opportunity to produce a thesis in a Medieval topic and ran with it. (That's how the Burgundians in the Mist came about). 

Anyway, back to "Game." It's appeal is the sense of realness to it.  All the people are, well, people, with very believable motivations and everyone has shades of gray. (Yes, some have more black or white, but there is a lot of gray).  Since it's on HBO, the nudity and sex is being played up, but real people actually do get naked and have sex. Often with multiple people.  But it is in the politics and intrigue that "Game" hooked me and I've yet to be disappointed in the books.  I just wish Martin wrote faster.

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