Sci-Fi versus Fantasy

[Papewaio]

Song of Fire and Ice has all the standard fare:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The whole Stark family is pretty much orphaned pretty quick. If you started reading from the second book it would be the same situation as most other fantasies, young orphans with special powers, abilities, insight, honour, position on a quest to restore the right person to the throne. The heroes are from a relatively honourable & farming nobility. There father dies pretty quickly in the piece. There are elements of magic and prophecy. The primary difference is that the books make the greatest evil, humans... much like the Aliens movies... most fantasy books make evil an elemental form... even then there are more mystical evil elements being introduced into the series.

So IMDHO Song of Fire and Ice sets a normal pastoral scene of relatively nice nobles (much like Frodo is in the shire) who have external events thrust on them (the Lancasters) while they the Starks have magical connections (the wolves and abilities) that may or may not help them in the long run. The major difference is the body count and more explicit evil nature of the humans in it. I think it is not all that grey, there are some pretty definitive good and evil players in it. It is the grey ones that add texture to this piece, such as Ser Clegane and the Dwarf.

So the series is a cliche, just a better written one.

PS sorry for all name spelling mistakes, as I don't have the titles in front of me.