Got this book gifted to me by Mark Jareo when he was visiting. He was intrigued when he saw a Tolkien book on my desk and I told him that I read Eric Van Lustbader’s fantasy stuff Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

Mark introduced GRRM as one of the best fantasy writers around today. This was later supported by Mike when I talked to him a few months later. The book lay in my bag ofr a few days while I went on a reading spree and finished the 10 books that comprised the Wheel of time series at that time. When I turned my attention to this book, I was first turned off by the fact that it all sounded so ordinary. There were hints of fantastic things happening someplace, but the entire narrative centred around a household that although royal seemed to be very “ordinary”. I plodded on regardless and got engrossed in the story about the Stark family and their brood of Direwolves. GRRM’s uses first person story-telling technicques to give us an insight into all that goes on. I ended up buying the remaining two books that were available in India at that time and am eagerly waiting for “A Feast for Crows” to be available in bookshops in India. (Believe it or not! Books are much much cheaper in India!)