I've never been a big fantasy fan, but since following the Sword & Laser group, I've actually been enjoying the fantasy books just as much, if not more, than the science fiction ones.
I was reluctant to start this because A) it just looks too dang long; B) because of the popular TV series (which I haven't ye seen) it's overly popular (which I tend to avoid); and C) it's about not very nice people doing not very nice things to each other. A lot.
But I was still drawn in. As lengthy as it is, it's generally paced well. There are a few "info dump" chapters but seeing as how this is the first in a bazillion page series, I guess that's to be expected.
I also listened to the audio book which made it better. I think if I was reading it I might have given up a couple of times but since I was getting 30-minute bursts over the course of weeks it had a great serialized quality to it that I found easy to pick up on even after a gap of a couple of days.
I've heard some people complain about "Map Books." Then this wouldn't be for them. But on audio there were no maps and I didn't really care. I've also heard from some that they tried it but there were too many characters to follow. I'm no brain or anything but since the chapter titles mention the main character for that chapter, it seemed pretty easy to follow for me. There were many characters referred to by their job and since there are many kingdoms in play there are multiple people with the same job titles. Of course one of the benefits of audio is that differing voices provided by the reader which helps. I also admit to Googling images of some of the actors to keep them straight in my head but I do that even when there isn't a movie or TV show. Sometimes I'll cast actors in my head for books (which can be fun because I might have Humphrey Bogart and Idris Elba working together somehow).
I'm also almost finished with a book club book and have two more lined up, so I'm sticking to the program. I'm just trying to decide, listening-wise, if I want to jump right in with the second one or take a break and listen to something else first. We'll see what my brain decides on the ride home from work today...
