I love this series with a passion... I feel it would be a liking to people who are fans of NiN.... Do to it's dark content

So if any of you have read it and like the series... let's start off by whos your favorite character? :]

Jaime lannister for me!.. I used to hate him in the first one, but once you see his point of view... He's actually a nice guy and good hearted in the end I feel.. Just on the ouside seems like an asshole with his witty humor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2010 11:47PM by CapitalG91.

Also gotta be scared if your a guy O.O.. lol.. But that's great that you named your cat daenerys

blondesrockthis posted:

I just started reading the series after I saw the first season of Game of Thrones on HBO and I'm on the 4th book now (which for some reason, is not keeping my interest like the first 3). Did anyone else pick the books up after the series? I see no one has posted on this forum in over a year...

ANYWAYS, I have always had a prejudice against "fantasy" novels but I now realize I'm an idiot and dragons are pretty damn cool.

And I agree with CapitalG...Jamie has really grown on me but I think I like Tyrion the best.

I also picked up the books after the awesomeness that was the HBO series. I've read a number of fantasy series before, but ASoIaF just never came onto my radar before then.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through book 3; I gotta say, GRRM can be downright fucking brutal to both his characters as well as his readers. Anyone just starting the books, be forewarned: you've not likely read fantasy novels as relentlessly bleak as these. He describes a land torn apart by war, and how no one emerges unscathed. To Martin's credit, few authors would have the nerve to make the choices he makes in his books, and be so willing to upset his fan base.

It can be tough going at times; as a reader, you're used to a certain amount of payoff and satisfaction when it comes to books like these; victories for the heroes and comeuppance for the villains; Martin provides mere scraps of each, prolonging the hardships and suffering, yet still somehow keeping the reader compelled to keep going.

I've heard book 4 is the low point in the series, especially after all the upheavals in book 3. In some ways I feel as the HBO series may be the superior version of the story, since by necessity all frivolous material must be cut, leaving only the main thrust of the narrative. Martin does go overboard in places with the descriptive language, and naming the full lineages of families that have zero importance to anything. All in all, they're supremely we'll written books, reminding me more of Dune than LotR.

I'd probably go with Tyrion and Danyeris as my favorite characters, with Davos Seaworth a close second.

My girlfriend is reading this. It's what you expect from a fantasy series. Nothing of too much substance or value. It's easy to blow through the 1000 pages per book in about a week and half.

fijjit posted:

I feel I must disagree with this. My friend and I were discussing the books and she said the most amazing thing about them is that everything is relevant, no wasted pages....she hit the nail on the head for me.

Pretty much anything with Arya Stark in it during the first 3 books is wasted pages. She is one stark child too many.

posted:

Pretty much anything with Arya Stark in it during the first 3 books is wasted pages. She is one stark child too many.

See, I like Arya....Bran always seemed the weak link to me.

KateGompert- I'm not really a big fantasy reader, but I've been a fan of George RR Martins work for years.

I guess books are like films, some people love Tolkien to read but hate the films and vice versa.

I've read the Harry Potter books twice now, and I agree totally with you that they are fun and entertaining....but I personally wouldn't put them in the same bracket....the two have nothing in common for me.

HurtNoMore posted:

Pretty much anything with Arya Sansa Stark in it during the first 3 books is wasted pages. She is one stark child too many.

Fixed that for you.

Love Tyrion, Arya, Samwell, and actually Robert Baratheon was bloody good fun. Daenerys is epic. There isn't much I don't love about this story.

I've been reading the series straight through, about half way through book 4 right now. I've enjoyed them very much, especially because it's so character driven and short on the fantasy mumbo jumbo. Book 4 is my least favorite so far, it's like the author ripped apart everything you might see as developing story lines in the first three, and then is spending a whole book sifting through the wreckage. I'm also aware that books 4 and 5 are separate halves of what originally would have been one big book if he had stuck to the format of the first three, as I've been lead to believe that book 5 covers the other characters remaining.... I've also come to believe that there is one huge underlying conflict that's barely been touched upon, but is the real deal beneath everything else, like so many of the struggles the characters/factions have been through have basically been meaningless in the scope of what's to come. Very curious to see how he's going to wrap this up in books 6 and 7.