[Books] Game of Thrones audio books

[Blackspur]

So I have 1 free credit on Audible.com and I was wondering which Game of Thrones book to get, before you say get the first one, my reason for not getting that would be the fact that I have watched the 2 seasons of the TV series, and from what I can gather it follows the story of the first book. Would it be best to get A Game of Thrones or start with A Clash of Kings?

[Chouzan]

Are you going to audiobook one and then read the read, audiobook the rest, or just leave them as they are? If you were going to read on to the rest of the books, I think that it's possible to skip ahead to Storm of Swords (#3) and make sense of it all, but you will likely need to spend some intimate time on the asoiaf wikis and forums because season 2 deviated from the books quite a bit. Many small characters in the show are playing the roles of multiple book characters and it could get confusing.

Game of Thrones itself can be sort of laborious. It's not bad by any means, but I think it has the same pacing as A Feast For Crows, which I've seen quite a few people call their least favorite of the series. Storm of Swords is many people's favorite books and it's just wild. If you audiobook it, you'll be able to hang it over your friends' heads for two years as the show catches up.

[Disenchanted]

I don't recommend it. They left out a lot of "fleshing out" material even from book 1. The overall story will make a lot more sense if you begin at book 1 proper.

You know the general architecture of the story from the show. You haven't visited half the floors.