Game Of Thrones...So This Is What All The Hype Is About

I have to admit that I had never heard of A Song of Fire and Ice series ,or George R. R. Martin until the TV show (which I have not seen yet) came out.  This is a little bit embarrassing as I am usually a snot about the whole TV/Movie/Book thing.  Normally I am the one in my family who likes the...darker books, but my Mamma (who is not at all into blood and gore) actually got into these books ahead of me and was surprised I hadn't read them yet, so off I went to get and read the first book A Game of Thrones. 

My first reaction to reading this was " I can't believe my Mamma liked all this blood and gore!"  My second reactions was "I can't turn the page fast enough!"  I usually have mixed feelings on epics that feature a billion characters and a zillion story lines, but Mr. Martin has formatted the books exceptionally well.  It almost feels as if you are reading a lot of short stories that all end up coming together without too much thinking.  He has broken up the book into chapters that are focused on a single character in the book, the chapter is named for that character so you know exactly who and where you are in the story with out to much trouble.  For example if you start with a chapter called Arrya, then you know you are in her part of the story.  The world itself is pretty cool and the history is given out through each character so you get the idea the characters actually live there according to what is important to them.  The story is a bloody mess of murder and mayhem.  Essentially the throne was taken from a mad king in recent history and this series chronicles the King that took it and all the people trying to take it for themselves.  It's pretty cool, there are dragons and sword fights, and the author writes in a surprising amount of clothing and jewelry detail considering that he is a guy mostly writing about people getting there heads chopped off and everybody getting laid as much and in every way possible.  I think besides the format one of my favorite things about these books so far is that he keeps you on your toes, main characters get killed off on a regular bases so you learn not to get attached to anybody, I think at least three major characters, including one you don't ever expect get killed before the book is even 2/3 over.  He has no problem killing off children, animal, women and yet amidst all the yuckiness and getting-it-onness a really riveting story is told.  OK so that is my extremely long winded thoughts on the first book in this series.  I am sure I will come back to it later as I progress through the series.  What I really want is to hear some discussion of it in the comments for those of you who have read it, why you love/hate it. Or if you haven't read it why you wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole :-)