I get so frustrated that the tv series is just plainly wrong. Books are so much better. It just annoys me how much they don’t follow book

I’ve not seen the tv series – where are they up to? Not following the latter books sounds like an excellent idea, tbf.

Trions trial by combat

Eelya of Dawn!

It has ever been this way. Same with films.

Not so much annoyed, more interested to see what they’ll do. There is a load of guff in the books that the story doesn’t need to still be successful.

Nor books r so much better. Mrs s must get annoyed by me saying this isn’t n the book

Rob’s wife wasn’t at the Red wedding in the book and they only hinted at her being pregnant so I liked that, we thought later on a true born heir to Winterfell would be revealed but oh no, there she is at the wedding with a blade in her belly.

There was no penny, pig & dog at Joffs wedding so the upcoming bit with imp features and his time as a ***** (spoiler not included) will be very different than the book.

What else?

The TV Series is excellent. Enjoy it for what it is, rather than what you think it should be.

The fact that Martin is still associated with the show suggests that they have the essence of the story correct.

I started out wanting the TV series to be loyal to the books. Then I got onto the later books and, well. The TV series is becoming the essential director’s cut to the unreadable self indulgence.

I’ve said it before but the one hope left for Game of Thrones (the books) is the Robert Jordan Gambit- we kill him, and have Brandon Sanderson finish it. Which he’ll do in about 3 weeks, with 1/10ths as many pages, and about a million times better.

The book is the book, the film is the film. Take each as an entity in its own right.
There’s often far too much stuff in books to ever make it into a film, or TV series, something has to be culled.

Yep with CZ here, they are different things. So many people complain that films/shows are not complete copies of the books. If they were it would be some of the dullest stuff around. What works on paper doesn’t always work on the screen and vice versa.

North wind nails it.

After about the third book – they become way overwritten and a real slog, the guy needs a good editor.

First series was very true to the book, second series annoyed me with the changes – once I got over that I now prefer the TV series. The later books get ridiculously self-indulgent and overblown.

Erm. I’ve read two of the books and found them really hard going. I only read the second one to ‘give it a chance’, after the first one.

Not watched the TV program, but hope it’s not half as bloated as the books!

After about the third book – they become way overwritten and a real slog, the guy needs a good editor.

By the time I got to a Feast for Crows i’d pretty much given up.

So many side stories, so many characters FFS just get on with it.

TV series is good, cuts out a lot of the crap while retaining the core of the story

Well this thread has convinced me not to bother with the books in the airport on Thursday

First couple of books I found really gripping. They definitely go downhill though.

Mike, just buy them. Then you too can be a bit snobby when people start with the TV vs. Books debate.

The later books aren’t great as you can tell that RR Martin (should have been a pirate) must have either switched or sacked his editor, as it has hundreds of pages that don’t do anything to forward the plot.

A decent editor would have chopped it down and removed the endless fluff.

there are books? new one on me.

Mike, just buy them. Then you too can be a bit snobby when people start with the TV vs. Books debate.

I can do that without reading books 😉

If you do read the bookjs be prepared to be very bored at times, as RR Martin does like to waffle on about not much

Do the books have pictures, if not, whats the point?

You get the impression in the books that Martin has forgotten what he was writing about so he kills of characters, abandons others, starts totally new plots when others have been left hanging and generally just does what he thinks is interesting. I just assume the TV show is him going back to the books and doing the whole thing all over again. I’d quite like a book of the TV programme.

Can you see bewbz in the books? Otherwise TV wins

As above, first three books are great. Then GRRM becomes successful and any editorial input goes out the window, and things just start to draaaaag and go way OT.

GRRM, whilst a talented worldbuilder, can write some truly dreadful prose as well. The books are better IMO, but it’s been so long since we actually got any new content that I’ll be pleased when the show overtakes it and actually finishes a **** plotline.

EDIT: here you go, proof which you can play with: http://creative-co.de/labs/songicefire/ 🙂

^^ “while” vs “whilst” plotted across the five books 👿

SamB – Member

As above, first three books are great. Then GRRM becomes successful and any editorial input goes out the window, and things just start to draaaaag and go way OT.
GRRM, whilst a talented worldbuilder, can write some truly dreadful prose as well. The books are better IMO, but it’s been so long since we actually got any new content that I’ll be pleased when the show overtakes it and actually finishes a **** plotline.

Think he’s an excellent writer, and a very poor world builder, just to disagree 🙂
Nothing in the quality SoIF books is really that different from established medieval / fantasy themes, which is prob part of their success. When he tries to establish a wider westeros world in the latter book it’s a disaster.

I think the hiatus he took after the third book just killed the series, rather than GRRM getting high-handed with editors (he was a highly respected SF author before he started SoIF). Suspect he got burned out with it and the structural cracks that were starting to emerge, but was sort of tied to the mast with the series’ success.

Bearing in mind where he’d left everyone at the end of the last book I can’t see how everything comes together. You can kinda see where he’s taking certain threads to tie together but without some pretty huge suspensions of disbelief it’ll be hard to conclude it.

Currently at 96% of the kindle edition of the books. Glad others have confirmed that the latter books have gone downhill. Was worried that I I’d spoilt them by watching the tv series.

mrhoppy – Member

You can kinda see where he’s taking certain threads to tie together

Though tbh he had one really good attempt at tying threads together in the last one and <SPOILERZ> so, who really knows? I think that’s what drives me most up the wall, sometimes his bloodlust genuinely does make things interesting, other times he just uses it to kill a thread that’s really gone nowhere and done nothing.

I think that’s what drives me most up the wall, sometimes his bloodlust genuinely does make things interesting, other times he just uses it to kill a thread that’s really gone nowhere and done nothing.

shall we take potshots at how it might end?

Daenerys with Tyrion as her main adviser No2 sweeps back to westeros with dragons and unsullied, collecting a certain stark sibling on the way. I’m not sure how King tomin will play out, he’s a lot calmer than previous kings so he might have made peace with Stannis by then but I doubt it. Maybe there is a huge battle between all 3 forces and Daenerys wins. Hooraaah!

I think Jimmy Muir will wake up in Sheffield and go “Man, that was a really elaborate and convoluted dream”. The whole thing is an extra for the DVD of When Saturday Comes.

Is it on telly, I hadn’t noticed…

shall we take potshots at how it might end?

I’ve still got 4% of the book left but the way it is going I can see it developing away from a war between families and one into wars about religion. Could also get really interesting if the Others go south of the wall

Ahh yes, there’s a army of the 7 in Kings landing now and Stannis made all the wildings swear to the lord of light, you might be right.

Stannis is just so dull. I couldn’t care less about him.

The army of 7 and Danerys and her mob join together with Tyrion as the catalyst and between them they defeat the remaining Lannisters before a final showdown with the Wildings and Stannis which will be interrupted by the white walkers, Wildings join with the rest to defeat the white ones using the dragons. Would be how I see it pan out.

I think he’ll waffle on about Braan being a tree, Lead Anya up a dead end side shoot never to return home and not be able to work out how to get Danerys back to Westeros. Or just go sod it and kill everyone off in a mass extinction event.