"Game of Thrones" on HBO

[OrionsByte]

I got to tell you guys.....I just got the books over the weekend and they are intimidating!! They are crazy long.....lol
Sundays show was great!! I can't wait til next week.

The one coming out in June (Dance with Dragons) is going to be even longer than Storm of Swords.

 

[mishele]

I hope they are easy reads....lol Or I don't know how I'll get through them all.

 

[Overread16 4]

Its easy reading and the way its written keeps you reading for ages (unless you do what I do and read several books at once adn get -- distracted )

 

[OrionsByte]

I hope they are easy reads....lol Or I don't know how I'll get through them all.

Yeah they're definitely easy reading. One of the things I really liked about the books is how the writing changes a little bit depending on the chapter. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, so with each chapter, the tone and feel of the writing is a bit different too. Tyrion's chapters are quirky and fun, Eddard's chapters are almost noir-like, etc. (I can't figure out how to say much more without being spoiler-y).

This is one of my favorite passages from the first book, simply because it demonstrates that change in tone when he's writing from a child's perspective. It's a Bran chapter, and Bran is climbing around Winterfell, and the author is basically reminiscing about how much he likes to do that, and how much everyone else wants him to stop. Catelyn enlists the help of the household servants to try and convince him to stop.

Later, Maester Luwin built a little pottery boy and dressed him in Bran's clothes and flung him off the wall into the yard below, to demonstrate what would happen to Bran if he fell. That had been fun, but afterward Bran just looked at the maester and said, 'I'm not made of clay. And anyhow, I never fall.'"

Makes me laugh every time.

 

[mishele]

Dang it, maybe I'll just quit my job and go home and read! lol

 

[CCericola]

I've played the board game. Does that count?

 

[Big Mike]

I'd never actually heard of the franchise until recently...and I'm a big fantasy fan. The only bit I know about it, I've seen on theonering.net and that's mostly because LOTR's Sean Bean is in the series.

Maybe I'll read the books, they sounds pretty good. Then watch the series after.

 

[Village Idiot]

Dang it, maybe I'll just quit my job and go home and read! lol

There's probably more distractions at your house. I read the series at work. It's quieter and no one bothers me.

 

[Village Idiot]

I'd never actually heard of the franchise until recently...and I'm a big fantasy fan. The only bit I know about it, I've seen on theonering.net and that's mostly because LOTR's Sean Bean is in the series.

Maybe I'll read the books, they sounds pretty good. Then watch the series after.

What I like about it is the lack of magic. It's similar to a lot of Raymond E. Feist's novels where there's very little magic, so the story is more character driven rather than, "Hey, I can just kill everything with fireballs FTW!!!" That and it's different from a lot of other fantasy epics that I've read where you have one main character that travels around the world, becomes insanely powerful, and kills the bad guy. There's no main hero and no main villain. There's warring factions that are looking out for their own and you never know when the "hero" you're rooting for is going to die. Martin isn't scared to kill and maim characters. It's like a fantasy version of the sopranos.

 

[Overread16 4]

Oddly I thought Fiest had quite a lot of magic in his stories - certainly a more typical amount than ASOIAF which is very much a world where magic met its prime and then fell into disuse and superstition. What is left is bitty, not always working and also rare, but it does have a good strong magical component. I think the difference though is that Martin really builds an excellent dark fantasy world based on what feels and is good historical fact - so the world feels more alive (and as said his characters are also not immortal saviours of the world).

 

[spacefuzz]

I enjoyed the books, but felt like he let the scope them kind of get out of control. Seems to be a theme with fantasy series, the further along the thicker the book

Cant wait to watch the show via netflix though.

 

[manaheim]

I started watching it but I've only seen the first episode, I missed the one on Sunday. I wasn't aware they were based on a book, if I like the series then I'll pick up the books

You people who haven't read the series but are watching the show are making me cringe. The show is doing a good job but NO show can hold up to the integrity of a book, especially the way those books are. You REALLY should stop watching the show and at least get through the book before resuming.

I hope they are easy reads....lol Or I don't know how I'll get through them all.

They are not hard to read... but they are hard to swallow. Martin kills off characters left and right, with sometimes jarring effects. When I read the first book and they pushed Bran out the window I was so jarred by it that I read like 4 pages of the next chapter before realizing I wasn't taking in a single word because I was still in shock.

(Yes, that's a spoiler but it's freakin' chapter 2... get over it.)

 

[Josh66]

(Yes, that's a spoiler but it's freakin' chapter 2... get over it.)

It was in the first episode, so I think the spoiler factor is pretty much gone.


Sunday nights are looking pretty good till about Thanksgiving, lol. Right when Game of Thrones is ending, True Blood should be coming back on, then after that it's Dexter on Showtime.

 

[mishele]

I started watching it but I've only seen the first episode, I missed the one on Sunday. I wasn't aware they were based on a book, if I like the series then I'll pick up the books

You people who haven't read the series but are watching the show are making me cringe. The show is doing a good job but NO show can hold up to the integrity of a book, especially the way those books are. You REALLY should stop watching the show and at least get through the book before resuming.

I hope they are easy reads....lol Or I don't know how I'll get through them all.

They are not hard to read... but they are hard to swallow. Martin kills off characters left and right, with sometimes jarring effects. When I read the first book and they pushed Bran out the window I was so jarred by it that I read like 4 pages of the next chapter before realizing I wasn't taking in a single word because I was still in shock.

(Yes, that's a spoiler but it's freakin' chapter 2... get over it.)

lol I already knew about the Bran stuff!!! It messed me up watching it!! I was laying in bed thinking about!
I might be on less at night so I can read the book...lol

 

[Overread16 4]

They are not hard to read... but they are hard to swallow. Martin kills off characters left and right, with sometimes jarring effects. When I read the first book and they pushed Bran out the window I was so jarred by it that I read like 4 pages of the next chapter before realizing I wasn't taking in a single word because I was still in shock.

It doesn't tend to shock me so much; but then again it does make the books a little harder to read in some way as he will kill of literally anyone (no matter how much you come to want the character to win). It can make them a more sombre read than some other fantasy tales - still fantastic reading