A Game of Thrones is many things, but there are also many things it is not. It is not your typical Epic fantasy novel. The structures aren't the same. George RR goes out of his way to ensure that there is no one protagonist, no single 'mentor-figure' and no single 'quest' to complete to draw the whole thing to a finish. 
 In fact, this unsettled me the most in the beginning; there was no real end in sight. There was no Last Battle, no Lord Ruler to kill, no Dragon to slay, no people to liberate. Instead, there is just this clusterflux of a system of scheming nobles; ladies of questionable virtue; knights under an illusion of gallantry and old world feudalist economics that, as we enter, is just about to blow to pieces. 
 Robert Baratheon sits the throne at Kings Landing after killing the ruling Targareans some twenty years ago. His good friend Eddard Stark is lord of Winterfell, the large piece of land to the North. Things aren't so sweet in Kings Landing however, and when the John Arryn, Hand of the King and mentor to Robert and Eddard dies, Robert comes North to ask Eddard to be the new Hand. But Eddard suspects Jon's death wasn't natural, and seeks justice. 
 The Starks come closest to being 'white' characters here, whereas most of GRRs characters are grey, black or downright rotten. The story is told through the perspective of a number of key people and the same events are seen in different ways through their eyes. George RR Martin is a great one for graphic detail it seems, there is plenty of sex, swearing, blood spilling and general debauchery going on in the Game of Thrones, another factor that sets it apart from traditional high fantasy. 
 And while the lords and ladies play at power in the South, an enemy awakes in the far North. Beyond 'The Wall', a massive 700 foot tall continent spanning protective structure, an ancient magic awakes as the years long winter approaches. And, as we see in the thrilling opening chapter of the book, they are a force to be reckoned with. However it and any magic system that comes with it largely plays a peripheral role in this, the first book of the series. And the few teasing glimpses of it are not sufficient to build any clear idea of any motives. 
 From the start, the storytelling is rip-roaringly fast. George RR uses heavy doses of suspense, dopamine and mystery to drag you along. However, things did start to slow down somewhere about the middle. Characters started behaving stupidly and supposed heroes make insipid mistakes. 
 The 'court intrigue' factor is nowhere near as subtle and well crafted as Robert Jordan's is in The Wheel of Time. And the sex and violence, whilst adding color to the tale, also felt like a ploy to draw the reader along by shock effect alone. This I didn't quite appreciate. 
 There is persistently heavy patriarchy going on here, and that's putting it mildly. But eventually you do see some strong female characters developing, interestingly enough. But i thought his characterizations on the whole could have been a little more complete. Most of his characters retain a level of detachment even after several chapters of seeing things through them, so to speak. 
 The prose, though, is top notch. I sensed a bit of Hemingway here; a penchant for minimalist, almost fairy tale-like, simple sentences that say a lot in a few words. All in all I think 3.5 stars. But I'm not sure it's worth 4.