A Game of Thrones

Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

Length: 33 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

One of The Times’ 25 Best Audiobooks.

HBO’s hit series A Game of Thrones is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A Game of Thrones is the first volume in the series.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues, to the vast and savage eastern lands, all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men...all will play the Game of Thrones.

Winter is coming....

©2011 George R. R. Martin (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

" A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won’t let go. It’s brilliant." (Robert Jordan)

"Colossal, staggering... Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome in his imaginary world...one of the greats of fantasy literature." ( SFX)

"Fantasy literature has never shied away from grandeur, but the sheer-mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads… Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias." ( Guardian)

Masterful story masterfully told

Roy Dotrice's narration does full justice to Martins' varied, complex and human cast of characters.
I can't wait to read the next one!

The first instalment of a newer kind of Fantasy

Any additional comments?

"A Game of Thrones" - so long as you're ready to bear the weight of a vast number of names and lengthy descriptions of... well, everything, this is certainly not a book to pass up.
Roy Dotrice seems an strange choice, when you begin - he has a gruff tone that feels a little odd.. His talent, however, is made plain the instant he begins to read character dialogue: he imitates and impersonates well, and copes so excellently with the multitude of characters this particular book present that, midway through, the audiobook itself starts to feel a bit crowded. I'd say, therefore, that he takes some getting used to - except it only takes a few seconds, so no worries there.
As for the book itself, well, High Fantasy isn't for everyone, it must be said. This book is not immensely thick when you hold it in your hand, and the audiobook is far outstripped in length by other works, like Robert Jordan's "The Eye of the World." Yet it remains a heavy undertaking, dense with both its eagerness to show off a rich, medieval-esque fantasy world, and a thick, convoluted plot that requires you pay close attention to the many, many details.
This is not light-reading - anyone taking on this series, like many from the same genre, is taking on a quest as much as the characters in the story are. But by the Seven Hells it's well worth the effort.

Beautifully composed dialogue

George is a man born in a time not his own, thankfully I am alive in his timeline to appreciate it.

Voice actor is just too old

Most of the main characters are under the age of 16, and unfortunately they all sound like old men and women due to the poor voice acting. It also doesn’t make sense how members of the same family can have different accents, Tyrion has a completely different accent to the rest of his family. Also the accents for the regions don’t make sense, the northern characters speak the queens English, while characters further south have more northern accents. Peter Kenny would have been perfect for this role.

Even with the poor voice acting, the book itself is incredible.

Great Book with a excellent performance by Roy Dotrice

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Totally enthralling

Such a complex and interesting plot, and so well set up to deliver in following books. The story, the voice over and the author’s gift for storytelling bloom! I highly recommend! Even better with noise cancellation AirPod Pros or similar. Soooooo excited for A Clash Of Kings!! 👑

Great story and performance.

Any additional comments?

This would be a 5-star review, except that Audible has divided the book into 2 parts so that you have to use two tokens to finish the book. The US version of the book is sold in its entirety for a single token.

Great story, not so great voice.

What did you love best about A Game of Thrones (Part One)?

I loved the story and the way it is told by the author not the narrator. First person perspective, and there are a lot of persons.

What did you like best about this story?

The best thing is the set up of the story line.

Would you be willing to try another one of Roy Dotrice’s performances?

I will have to listen to more of his performances, he is the narrator of the other books in this series. So I am have no choice.
I read that a lot of people love his acting. I just find it really annoying. A lot of huffing and puffing for the distinguished people. He also uses a lto of spit. Women sound like hardend men. Some young boys/men sound like 50 year old barbarians. But the most annoying for me was the constant breathing in through the nose to sound distinguished. Together with the wetness/ spit talk of certain characters made it really irritating. It is not as bad as Daffy duck just enough to annoy me.

Also a lot of times you cannot distinguish the characters cause they all start to sound the same after a while.

But some people absolutely love his voice acting.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes the voice acting made me cringe from time to time.

Any additional comments?

The story is so good that even Roy Dotrice's voice acting can't stop me from buying the other parts.

Roy have a great narrating voice, but...

Roy have a great narrating voice, but the acting was distracting. The novel was amazing, and I will keep on with the series.

Love GOT

Any additional comments?

Great story and well done...a few times the names are said wrong but you know who the reader is on about... I dislike how the one book has been split up into 2 parts... this just seems like who ever recorded the books is trying to charge us twice the price for a single book, now i know the book in parts is 16hrs long each part but it is ONE BOOK and we shouldnt have to pay $13 for the 1st part and $13 for the next!