Hmm..
Although I feel that the 2 books from SOIAF series are better than their TV adaptations, I feel like as a TV show it's by far the best fantasy series to have been created.
But as a book, I was disappointed in comparison to others.
The problem for me is, imagine that the TV show was produced in the same format as the book. At the start of the episode, you see a character name, and the whole of that episode is centered on that person and their perspective of the world around them.
So you turn it on, and you see 'Sansa Stark' - feck sake.. an hour of Sansa Stark and her boring self-centered look on the goings on of the world. Next episode, you see 'Ned Stark' - fantastic, I love Ned.. but oh, the first half of the episode is just hashing out his take on what happened in Sansa's episode.
I dunno, I felt like it was cliche and not very imaginative for a fantasy read.. it's basically a medieval story with a tiny bit of supernatural goings on thrown in for the sake of making it a fantasy.
However, I must credit it's vast character building and the politics of the world. They're written well.. The characters are well developed, but sometimes incredibly annoying. The politics are great though, something that the book does far better than the TV series.
Let's be honest though, despite my issues with it, it's a huge fan favourite - and most people adore it. I'd definitely tell people they need to try it, and recommend giving it a shot - but I couldn't almost guarantee that you'd love it like I can others, simply because I didn't think it was all that great myself.