Game of Thrones, or "A Song Of Ice and Fire"

[goki]

The books, not the movie.


So after watching this wonderful new show on HBO I just couldn't wait for next week to resolve the plot. The story seemed so interwoven and full of purpose I just had to go and buy the books., and so I did.

After reading the first two books in two days I decided to return the whole series without reading the rest. There is no purpose to the story, it seems like a reality show set in a fantasy world, you get to see how they experience life etc but there is no meaning or purpose to the characters, evidenced by how they drop dead like flies and go do random shit.

Anyone else felt like this? Now I feel like I have spoiled the HBO show which could have been so much fun.

[Lightless]

Well friend, if that is the way you feel, then I believe you haven't read much fantasy before.
The author in this case has completely turned the table on what the genre was "supposed to be". It's meant to be like that, not a reality show, but the story of a an era in westeros. A complete new world, so much like the lord of the rings, but also so much different. The characters all have a purpose, you can see it from the very first chapter, and the way their story becomes ever more interwounded is proof of that. Also, the series is not done yet, there's still 3 more books to come out. And I think it's awsome!

[Zaelsino]

Not at all, I found the first three books (not touched the fourth yet) very compelling and well written. The show was more a morbid curiosity for me, to see how well they could portray my favourite characters. I've not been disappointed by either the show or the books yet.

[goki]

Well friend, if that is the way you feel, then I believe you haven't read much fantasy before.
The author in this case has completely turned the table on what the genre was "supposed to be". It's meant to be like that, not a reality show, but the story of a an era in westeros. A complete new world, so much like the lord of the rings, but also so much different. The characters all have a purpose, you can see it from the very first chapter, and the way their story becomes ever more interwounded is proof of that. Also, the series is not done yet, there's still 3 more books to come out. And I think it's awsome!

It is nothing like LOTR (which I have read at least 20 times, twice a year) or the Wheel of Time series which I actually had a blast reading, though wheel of times seems to explode in terms of how powerful characters become with each passing book.

It is very bad storytelling to have the first two books be a foreshadowing of things to come, often while reading the two books I got a sense of "Ah I see, so this character MIGHT do this in the future, but sucks ass now, okay that is nice". The books focus too much on fleshing out the characters to have human nature, how they turn and change, how they interact with the world around them. Like I said, a reality-show set in a fantasy world. It is not high fantasy like LOTR or wheel of time, the fantasy part is the background setting for the characters, it doesn't drive or affect the plot in a major way.

I wanted to throw the books away every time it was Catelyns POV, I wanted to go in the book and slap some fucking sense into the Girl everytime it was Sansas POV.

[Dacien]

I tried to read the first book, but couldn't get past the first 100 pages.