A dark tale of treacheries and injustice.

This is the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series (before A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons, The Winds of Winter (forthcoming) and A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)).

The story starts in Winterfell, at the end of a long summer, with the Stark family: Lord Eddard and his wife Catelyn, their boys Robb, Bran and Rickon, and daughters Sansa and Arya, as well as Eddard's bastard son Jon Snow, who is about to leave Winterfell to become a brother of the Night's Watch on the Wall, the immense icy structure in the North, which protects the Seven Kingdoms from the wildlings who live beyond it.

When the Starks hear that the Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, has unexpectedly died and that King Robert is heading for Winterfell with his family, the cold beauty Queen Cersei Lannister and her two brothers Jaime and Tyrion, and their three children, Eddard knows that his old friend and monarch is going to ask him to fill in the newly vacated position and reluctantly prepares to leave his home, to travel to King's Landing in the South.

Eddard has just left Winterfell when Catelyn receives a message from her sister, Lord Arryn's widow, accusing the Lannisters of her husband's murder. From then on, as the intrigue develops, the situation inexorably deteriorates, the tale becomes grim and very violent, heavy with treacheries and injustice.

At first I found the book wasn't living up to all the praise, and I was often confused with the plethora of names of lords and ladies, knights and bannermen, maesters and soldiers. But as the story progressed, I grew fond of several characters and suddenly, I was hooked. I particularly like reading about Jon Snow, young Bran, or the tomboy Arya, and Tyrion the Imp si definitely intriguing! All in all, not what I expected but unquestionably worth the read!

NB: I made the exception to my sacrosanct rule of not starting a series before the last volume is published because my boy-friend and I wanted to watch the acclaimed TV show (and I wanted to have read the book first). We're currently watching it and I must say it's very faithful to the book most of the time.

9/10