'renesauz said:
I am a couple hundred pages in to the first book. I've also watched the first season and the first two eps of S2. Theres nothing about any of the above that I'd characterize as boring. I am not a fan of the incest and underage sex though. GRRM is a great writer but is more than a little creepy in many ways.
Gotta put things in perspective though. It's completely medieval....and IRL medieval ladies married when they started to bleed, and it wasn't all that uncommon for high lords/ladies to marry CLOSE relatives.Our concept of "underage" for sex is, historically speaking, very new.
During the Middle Ages, kids could consent to marriage as young as 7. Now, the marriage could always be annulled if they changed their mind before they reach puberty. However, generally speaking, they considered anyone 12 or older to be fair game. It is really only in the last 100 years that people in western culture decided that 16-18 was a more appropriate range. As for the incest, the Middle Ages saw cousins- even sometimes first cousins marry. However, sleeping with a sibling or child was really taboo then.