A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I tend to think of myself as a non-fantasy genre individual. Yet somehow I keep getting sucked into and hooked on fantasy series: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, etc. A Game of Thrones did it to me again.
Much like The Fellowship of the Ring for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series had the heavy task of serving as introduction to the world(s) grown out of Martin's detailed imagination. As such, I found that it took me a better part of the first half to get to the point where I couldn't put it down. However, I found it difficult to walk away once I was immersed in the life of charaters such as Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, who becomes the king's right hand man in place of his (allegedly) murdered predecessor and has the task of solving the mystery of the last hand's death. And characters like King Robert Baratheon and his scheming wife, Queen Cersei; Viserys and Daenerys Targaryan, whose family was ousted from the throne and murdered by King Robert and who are now, through marriage to a barbarian king, working to take back that throne. (Ok, somehow making that list made me feel exceedingly nerdy.) And as the storyline of a kingdom full of tension and mixed loyalties unfolds, I found I had to see it through. The end of the book cleverly left me hanging, anxiously waiting to get my hands on the next in the series (thanks, HBO, for boosting the popularity and making this virtually impossible at my library).
BOTTOM LINE: You don't have to be a fantasy-genre-type person to get sucked into the Game of Thrones, which apparently, you either win or you die.