Nina Knows Naught About: A Game of Thrones

Okay, the votes are in and the winner is A Game of Thrones! Thanks to all those who voted! I had a few people give me their votes without commenting, which is okay.

So up until very recently I had never heard of A Game of Thrones. Apparently, there's also a TV series based on the books, but I didn't learn of it until after I heard about the books. Everyone I've talked to who has either read the books or watched the series (or both) tell me that it's "so awesome" and "you really should read/watch it, Nina!!!!!!!11!"

Well, what is it about? All I ever heard was that there is Alot of sex in the book, and even more so in the show. Well, okay, I can deal with sex. Reading about sex is not that big of a deal. So I'm still cool with reading the book at some time in the future.

Then one of my good friends began to read it and tell me a little bit about it. Here's how that conversation went (I'm paraphrasing a bit, but this is essentially it):

Me: "So how is it?"
Him: "It's SO GOOD! You should definitely read it."
Me: "Okay. So tell me about it."
Him: "Well, there's Alot of sex."
Me: "I've heard, but that's not a big deal."
Him: "Well, it's not just like, normal sex..."
Me: ?
Him: "There's incest --"
Me: "Gross. Well, that's not too ba-"
Him: "And sex with children. Well, a child."
Me: O_O
       "Like rape?!"
Him: "Well, it is at first, but then she kinda ... gets into it ..."
Me: "I suddenly don't want to read this anymore."

So for a while that's all I thought it was about. Which is strange, because when you read what's on the book, it doesn't seem as if there would be that kind of content:

A Game of Thrones

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Okay, so maybe the "barters his sister" bit gives some insight but still. I never heard about any of that other stuff when people talk of the book!

Anyway, it is now queued up in Google books so I can read it at work and still look like I'm doing something productive. Now I will find out what is so friggin' "awesome" about the book, aside from the child sex.