All I can say is, "I get it now." This is a page-turner, and I have to honestly say that I could not put it down and listened to all 34 hours in 8 days. So, it shows you how much I enjoyed it.
It is really well-written! The story is compelling and character-driven. Very good.
I don't think I can watch the series though. There is a lot of sex in it, but it is not graphically described. So I can tolerate it. And the violence is there, but I don't have to see the blood and gore.
While I don't think I can continue with the whole series, I might just look for summaries of the remaining books to see where the characters end up.
Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:
The plot of A Game of Thrones revolves around a dynastic war among several families, but every step of the way the intricate story lines are personal and visceral. What’s most compelling is that the reader’s understanding of unfolding events is continually transformed by shifting narrative perspectives. Many characters are given not only history, but agency as well, in a way fiction seldom realizes: The reader’s judgment is suspended, then upended, again and again, as heroes shape-shift into villains or get caught in some uncertain liminal state. Martin’s hold on the popular mind derives from his ability to fill the bold outlines of epic fantasy with the gritty colors of historical fiction and from his narrative ruthlessness, which acknowledges that violence and sex are surer motivations than nobility and that circumstantial ambiguity determines more than a fixed moral compass.
