Five stars. BUY this book!It's the story that started me reading fantasy again. (And wishing I hadn't because little else measures up to this.)Or don't, if you really like trad. 'high fantasy' because this isn't traditional high fantasy.There are no really dark characters, there are multi-facted people.There is little magic (and one weakness, I think it has, is that the magic isn't very convincing.)Good people (SPOILER) can die.But it does have great characters, interesting ideas and excellent plotting.As has been written elsewhere its more like reading Roman history (with all the gory bits) than a fanstasy novel.Oh, and it's much better than the TV version, which I found too gloomy and dark to hold me (though I alos knew what was going to happen).WORD OF WARNING: if you enjoy it you are in for a long read/ride: six books later we're not at the end yet.