George R.R. Martin - A Saga of Fire And Ice

I watched the first 5 episodes of the HBO series and I thought it was alright but not great. This was expected I guess, since I'm a fantasy lover and these books are superb. Also had it with Lord of the rings for example.

 

I've watched the first 6 episodes now and i think they did a pretty good job. the quality is incredible, and the acting is decent. i really like the guy playing tyrion, he plays the part well.

 

I agree the casting is pretty good, I thought King's landing looked too different from my expectations (a bit like england in the era of the roses wars) and of course a lot of subtlety is lost but that's kind of inevitable with a book with such a background story and lots of side characters making their moves.

 

With only 10 episodes they obviously need to compress and simplify things a lot. Which is disappointing.

Ed Stark seems especially stupid without knowing as much about the thought processes you know about directly in the books.

But I'm enjoying the TV episodes still. Gotta love the boobs in every episode too. And yeah King's landing looks different than I always envisioned it. It seems a little too clean to me.

 

Too clean, palm trees and the architecture seems way off. I do enjoy the tv episodes as well though, it's not bad at all

 

Brilliant, brilliant series. I've never known a book that could make me actually throw it at the wall and refuse to read anymore for a week (during a certain wedding). George is absolutely ruthless when it comes to killing off characters.

My favourite character by far is Arya. She's such a spunky, awesome girl, and she racks up a pretty high kill count. I'm also a big Daenerys fan. She's so vunerable, yet so strong. I hope she wins in the end, although knowing George she'll probably be killed off just to mess with us.

As for the HBO series, it's good. Not great, but it could have been a lot worse. The casting is excellent and the action is done just right. My only problem with it is all the exposition-while-fucking-a-whore sections, and the lack of direwolves. Seriously, we've seen them like twice! I don't think Ghost, Shaggy, Grey Wind or Summer have actually been named yet, and Ghost BARKS! Ghost isn't supposed to make ANY noise, let alone barking!

Oh, and it's "A Song of Ice and Fire", not "A Saga of Fire and Ice".

 

Having seen what my husband has gone through in the wait for the final book - I have refused to read the series until it's all done and published.

 

That's probably a good idea as Martin isn't getting younger (or skinnier, from what I've seen). I feel like he's going to pull a page from the Robert Jordan playbook and die before he finishes the series.

 

This would be far worse, it's much better written than the Wheel of time which especially near the end drags on terribly.

 

yeah, wheel of time starts off strong and then declines steadily until sanderson takes over the writing, in my opinion.

 

I've got a friend who's really into these books. I am weary of getting into book series, but I've just ordered a different book by the same author that came out a long-ass time ago called The Armageddon Rag. Demons and Classic Rock are much more up my alley than dragons, anyway.
I think there was only one dragon book I ever read and liked, and it was called Quag Keep (Andre Norton). It wasn't until I looked for it again a few months ago that I realized it was a Dungeons and Dragons book, lol.
And then there was Serendipity when I was 6.

 

I'm not too big on dragons in fantasy series either, only where they match my expectations (for instance, they don't speak ). Some series are really just so good I'm glad I didn't skip those because of this reason though. When I was six it was totally different I think, I probably liked anything with dragons and stuff.

 

started re-reading the series last night because i want to refresh my memory before the new book comes out. it'll be interesting to notice the differences between the show and the books as well.

 

Great series by a great author. I as well am re reading the series in anticipation for the new novel next month. Haven't read the books for 5 years or so, forgot how good they are. Anyone see the new HBO series? If so what were your thoughts on it?

 

You'll see some thoughts in the thread. It's only 10 episodes so it's kind of compressed and some characters didn't get quite enough. But I think it's been pretty good. The acting has been great. The main issue I think for some people has been the amount of naked breasts. But really the books were pretty raunchy at times too I think.

 

Yea sorry didn't read all the pages in the thread. Overall I thought the show was quite good and entertaining. Given the time constraints and budget. There were a few actors and actresses I didn't like as choices. Cersei, Magister Illyrio, Jaime, and Renly. I thought that Cersei and Jaime were supposed to have curly hair, and Illyrio was supposed to be really heavy. It's not a big deal though the actors and actress did well portraying their characters. I did like the choice of Littlefinger, Jorah, Arya, the fencing instructor whose name escapes me, and Varys. Especially Varys almost exactly as I imagined him.
As to the nudity thing, that didn't bother me. In some parts it seemed a little excessive, but in all fairness the book was like that as well. The dialogue was well written as well. Overall I think HBO did the books justice as much as they could. But as with all things(I know I sound redundant) the books are better than the show. Can't wait for the book next month.

Have a good day all

 

I thought the same about Illyrio, but he is only really in the first episode anyway, isn't he?

I really like the casting - Ned, Arya, Varys, Tyrion, and Jon Snow, in particular.

 

For me, Wheel of Time is the best. SoIF only places 2nd. Heheheh

I agree with Zoso. Probably for the second season, a bigger budget means bigger production. The Direwolves would look like direwolves by then.

 

I just finished Game of Thrones today. Cool ending.

Sometimes the dialogue throws me off. One minute the manner of speech is time-appropriate, the next there are some more modern phrases. I dunno.

I have enjoyed it so far, but I think I need to read the next few books to give a decent opinion. I haven't read anything yet that screams best author ever, like I've been told.

Now that I finished the first book, I'll watch the series. I have it downloaded, I was just waiting to finish to start.

Clash of Kings is next

 

It gets better as it goes on, the next two are arguably the best in the entire series so far. Though I really liked A Dance with Dragons.