A Game of Thrones

Yes, I was hooked onto this book within a few chapters.  I hadn't watched anything on the TV, so I didn't know anything about this series and I really enjoyed it.  My inner JRR Tolkien geek was really happy with this book whereas another part of me was horrified by how violent, gratuitous and degrading the storyline was. The author is obviously obsessed by histories and wars of the Middle Ages but hey, it worked.
As complete escapism it was brilliant. I loved the dwarf, Jon Snow, the dragon Princess, the completely imagined world with all the different families, the ice wall in the North, the zombies, the Dothkari with their voodoo magic, the outdoor prisons on the top of precipices, the direwolves, the tree face worshippers and  the evil characters.  The only problem I had was with the maps, which are hard to access on a kindle and also how much I have left to read.  This thick booked adventure is just 1/7 of the total. That's a huge investment of my time!