[Books] A Song of Ice an Fire - start with book one or skip?

[Deleted]

I recently came into possession of the entire Song of Ice and Fire series.

Now obviously I'm a big fan of the TV show and have watched the first two seasons.

The question I pose now is whether I should start with reading the first two books, despite already knowing most of the plot, or if the knowledge depicted by the TV show is sufficient enough to allow me to jump straight into book three.

The books are rather lengthy so reading something I already know most of the plot of will be tedious. On the other hand missing out on much of the details may render later books incomprehensible.

So what would you recommend? Is is viable to skip the first two books after having seeing the TV show?

[Deleted]

Start with book one. The books go into a lot more detail and the tv show has missed out many minor characters that give the world extra depth.

Plus there's lots of hints and prophecies in the book that certainly could be important later on.

[Unorthodox]

I was in the same boat as yourself when i got the full series. However the book is more detailed and you see the personalities and the thought process of the characters which is something you entirely fall short on in the TV show. I would definitely suggest starting from Book 1 and reading through the series.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Definitely book 1.

[Deleted]

You do not have the choice, you MUST start with the first book(then the second, then the third...)

[Deleted]

Plot wise, book 1 is pretty faithful to the 1st season. Naturally there are many small details missing, which are great to know if you are a big fan of the series, but are not plot changing in anyway. Book 2, on the other hand, is not the same as season 2. Many events were changed or left out and some important characters were missing. If you really, really, really don't want to start with book 1 because you know the plot so well you can technically start with number 2 but I wouldn't advise it, part of the fun of reading the books (and what makes this series so great) is picking up on the small detail left by the author and contemplating on what significance they might have in the ongoing storyline.

[Jackmoves]

Start with the first.

For those who don't know there is a couple of shorter novels/stories that are quite good to, The Tales of Dunk and Egg, 1st the hedge knight, 2nd The Sworn Sword and 3rd The Mystery Knight.

[Adam Jensen]

Yes, Season 1 was VERY true to the plot of A Game of Thrones.

Yes, you should still start with A Game of Thrones. There were many details that the TV show glossed over or changed regardless of their faith to the book. I'll hand it to the writers, they did a very good job adapting the book to TV but they still had constraints that forced them to rewrite and skip over certain parts.

[Riavan]

series 1 was very faithful, series 2 had quite a few differences and removed or just didnt yet have some characters that will not make a ton of sense, characters that continue on into the next book, but won't make sense if you skip to 3 now.

[Maerad]

Well, the series is good, but the books are a way better. Just read them. After around 100 pages you won't put it down again.

You can buy them at amazon for around 23 € (5 books), kindle version is cheaper. The four book set is around 18 €.

http://www.amazon.de/Thrones-5-copy-...0970626&sr=1-3

[Uriel]

I am reading the series too. Right now I am at Book 6 now. I wondered myself if I should start with Book one or three. I decided to start with three and read the first two when I am through the series (or newer Books arent finished yet).

Ifigured that this way I forgot some of the Plots of the beginning and reading the first Books is more fun than reading them right after the TV Shows end when everything is still fresh.

[Tore]

You will be lost if you don't start AGoT. You will be extremely lost if you skip ACoK.

While the show is certainly faithful enough it doesn't go anywhere near as deeply into detail as the books. The show also skips scenes a lot. Jumping in at the book of the upcoming season would be a bad idea.

[Wynnyelle]

If you skip the first two books you're going to miss out on a lot that wasn't in the TV series. It'd be foolish to not read them.

[Eternal Champion]

Books are better than the series anyway, so it would be a shame if you skipped some.

[conscript]

Book one is darn close to the show, but book two has some major, major differences so absolutely do not skip the second one. You shouldn't skip the first either though.

[Sanctioned]

I'm pleased to see the poll results with starting with book 1 winning out big time. You're doing yourself a major dissatisfaction not reading the first 2 books. You saw some of the books with the TV series but you're still missing out on a ton of it. Read them, I can't stress that enough.

[PatB]

I'd say start with book one. Book one and season one are very close and book two and season two vary a lot so def start with one.[COLOR="red"]

---------- Post added 2012-06-29 at 06:48 PM ----------

[Sanctioned]

One of the books was published in half in europe so in some places there's actually 6 books Pat.

[Farolok]

For it to make as much sense as it should, start with book one.

If you've watched the series and you're not really interested in the details that flesh out the story, skip.

[Deleted]

Watch season 1 (as you already did), read book 1, then watch season 1 again and realize how many things you missed on both first time watching AND first time reading. Then proceed in correct order and finish the books in about a month. That's what I did.