[Book / TV Show] The Game of Thrones topic

[Shokzman]

A while ago I first watched Game of Thrones... My friends said it was amasing and I was skeptical since a lot of the time they over-rate things. But this time they got it on point. After watching the series and reading Clash of Kings It became one of my favorite series and im now addicted to the book. A few pages into storm of swords now . How many of you are also fans of the Song of Ice and Fire series?

And for those of you who don't know it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ5p18wIQEI

[Disenchanted]

Welcome to the party.

And A Storm of Swords may be my favorite book ever. Not just in the series, but out of every book I've ever read... definitely top 3.

There are 2 very looooong threads about the series already made, but older now. One with spoilers, and one without. You might enjoy reading them either way. But if you plan on reading all 5 books back to back, I suggest you wait until you've finished "A Dance with Dragons." No need accidentally spoiling yourself (even if we kept it as clean as possible).

There's also a thread on ADWD when the time comes too.

Game of Thrones thread (without spoilers, mostly TV show):

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ame+of+thrones

Game of Thrones (and beyond, but not including ADWD) spoiler thread. enter at your own risk:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ame+of+thrones

Favorite Game of Thrones Character thread (spoilers inside):

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ame+of+thrones

A Dance with Dragons (spoilers) thread:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ame+of+thrones

And some sites you might like:

http://www.westeros.org/ (pretty much the "official" ASOIF site)

http://winter-is-coming.net/ (mostly for the HBO series)

http://towerofthehand.com/ (ASOIF Wiki)

http://innatthecrossroads.com/ (The "official" ASOIF cookbook site. Yes, he has a ton of food mentioned, and they're determined to make most of it)

http://grrm.livejournal.com/ (George RR Martin's personal blog)

[Herwr]

I just started reading A Clash of Kings yesterday. I enjoyed the first one and care enough about the characters to follow through and find out what happens to all of them, but I wouldn't say I'm a fan. If the books were taken off the market tomorrow and my copies deleted from my Kindle, I would survive.

[Daginni]

Defiantly a book I am going to have to start reading. Wasn't aware of the HBO Show, but then again Cable Company is scamming people with those prices, so that's why I think I will just read the book.

[Shokzman]

Yeah, reading them back to back at the moment... Ill check out some of those sites anyway...

[Deftone007]

Im halfway through the 4th book, A Feast For Crows. Its honestly not as bad as some of the reviews I read, but its not as good as the first three. He just doesnt talk as much about the main charas when so much happened to them in the first three. I really love the series too, the books are way better but the show is great too : )
I cant wait to start on the next book!

[Deleted]

I have only watched the TV show, but that was enough to make me fall in love with the song of ice and fire series. I am planning to read the books soon.

[Zaelsino]

And A Storm of Swords may be my favorite book ever. Not just in the series, but out of every book I've ever read... definitely top 3.

Yeah, seriously. That (the gobsmacking epilogue especially) was ridiculously good... It's no wonder AFFC gets so much hate. Following that act was going to be impossible.

[Zilistrin]

This is the first series in a long time to truly captivate me. The character development is really amazing, it's impressive how Martin can make you care about characters on opposing sides of the struggle so much.

I never put a book down because I was pissed at something a character did like I have a couple times in this series; the shock! Any fantasy fan should read these.

[Mwar]

First 3 were great, next 2 were poor and took 5 years to write and yet still nothing happened. The series might be great in 2028 when it's all finished, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Defengar]

the series is the best i have ever read.
And for those of you that don`t know, the reason there are so many cliff hangers and things that cause the story to get longer...and longer...and longer...lol. Is because for about 20 years George was a writer for tv shows, so he stuck with the habit of crafting stories that could be perpetuated into several years worth of entertainment. Don`t worry though, despite george`s ferocity with his characters and the seemingly hopeless state of the world it will probably have a happy ending. George has admitted he is a huge cynic, but also a hopeless romantic at heart .

[texan]

First 3 were great, next 2 were poor and took 5 years to write and yet still nothing happened. The series might be great in 2028 when it's all finished, but I'm not holding my breath.

I must agree with what you said, pretty much spot on. You can skip 90% of the last two books, and not be missing anything. GRRM said he was struggling for a long time with the Mereneese knot or something like that. Let me tell you, the knot was a huge dud. Also, splitting the characters up in books 4 and 5 destroyed the flow of the series. That being said, I will read the next 2 or more novels, as I think his final book in the series will be better, as it must finish off the storylines. The first 3 books were pretty darn good, so I have to ride it out and hope I see that type of story telling again.

Here is something to think about. If the HBO series catches him due to his taking so long to write new books, will they give us a season 5 and season 6 without GRRM? Could it be possible that it would be better than the books?

[Defengar]

I must agree with what you said, pretty much spot on. You can skip 90% of the last two books, and not be missing anything. GRRM said he was struggling for a long time with the Mereneese knot or something like that. Let me tell you, the knot was a huge dud. Also, splitting the characters up in books 4 and 5 destroyed the flow of the series. That being said, I will read the next 2 or more novels, as I think his final book in the series will be better, as it must finish off the storylines. The first 3 books were pretty darn good, so I have to ride it out and hope I see that type of story telling again.

Here is something to think about. If the HBO series catches him due to his taking so long to write new books, will they give us a season 5 and season 6 without GRRM? Could it be possible that it would be better than the books?

He had to split up the last AFFC and ADWD because combined it would have been a book over 2500 pages long, something his publishers refused to do. (also it would be impossible to fit that into one book without it being the dimensions of a textbook). Not to mention he scraped the whole ADWD book when he was nearly finished 3 years ago and started on it from scratch because he wanted it to be better. The next 2 books should be more action packed than even ASOW was and HBO wont catch up with the series for a long time because it takes a year to film each season and at least 2 of the books are going to be split into 2 seasons, with means GRRM has plenty of time to stay ahead (in fact he said he had quit a few chapters more that he would have put into ADWD, including a couple Cersie PoV`s at Casterly Rock, but his editors decided it would be better to have those chapters start the next book off with, and its expected the book should be completed within 2-3 years).
The main reason these last to books were slow was because they are part of a massive arc, and GRRM was actually not even going to wroite them when he first started the series (it was supposed to be a trilogy), AGoT would have been the first book, AKoK and ASoS would have been one book, and Winds of Winter would have completed it, with a 5 year gap set in the timeline in ASoIaF that would take place where the last 2 books were set in, so the characters would be much more physically mature in the final book.
This plan changed though as he progressed in the series, so he decided to fill the void the the 5 year gap with AFFC and ADWD because aws he said, "you would be filled in on most of the stuff that had happened by flash back scenes, but it got to the point where there were so many of these scenes it started to seriously cloud the story, so i decided just to write the books set in the period instead".

So basically the last 2 books have been filler (great filler i might add) and the next (and final) 2 will really get back into the meat of what makes this series so awesome.
There probably wouldn`t be nearly as much annoyance over this if he was able to pump out a new book every 1-2 years though...

If you want some more ASoIaF to chew on in the mean time there are 3 100 page short stories in circulation that are centered around "Dunk and Egg" who are characters living 67 years prior to the events in AGoT that he has written (and he says there could be as many as 9 more after this next one, which is coming out soon).

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/