A song of ice and fire

[Jansh]

Amazing stuff. I blazed through the first 3 books, and just how most excellent are they.

Gregor Clegan and his brother, Jaime, Tyrion. And other characters are just amazing. Its crack fiction. And I liked the raping bits.

And the way the wall is so important. Jon Snow etc.

[Goldaline]

Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

:OMG:

[Delargey]

Amazing stuff. I blazed through the first 3 books, and just how most excellent are they.

Gregor Clegan and his brother, Jaime, Tyrion. And other characters are just amazing. Its crack fiction. And I liked the raping bits.

And the way the wall is so important. Jon Snow etc.

I'm the same. I've gone though the first three books in the last couple of weeks, it's amazing. Tyrion, Arya and Deanerys are some of my favourites.

I'm on the Blood and Gold at the momment. Awesome stuff.

[Zathras]

Man, that's some fast reading. I've now just started the third. Brilliant stuff.

[Delargey]

Yeah, I've got an hour and a half journey to work and taken to reading it before bed. I've been having awesome Knight related dreams as a result!

[The Grand Pursuivant]

I actually can't wait for this. I think I might be more excited about it than when Children of Hurin came out, and that's a hell of a lot of excitement.

[RadgyAdgy]

I'm gonna do a re-read before the release of Dragons. Sandor is still my favourite character just because he's fucking nuts.

[roskelld]

I'm about two-hundred pages from the end of A Feast For Crows. It's still really enjoyable, but not so much as the previous books. As complex and character filled as the previous books were I barely found them a struggle to keep up with. This book however seems a lot more difficult to follow. I'm often confused when starting a new chapter wondering who and what the characters were up to last time I read about them. I think the chapters are longer in this book and it works against it.

[Exit Chamber]

I just finished it and would totally agree with that. Still enjoyed it, just nowhere near as much as the earlier books.

[Headache]

I want to post this is every thread GRRM has been mentioned just to make sure everyone sees this video.

Taiwanese TV telling it like it is.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

About half of the jokes are taken from 'The Bad Thread' over on Something Awful, and there's an SA grenade logo visible at one point... wonder what connection the Taiwanese animators have to that.

[Pistol]

This sounds like something I might like to read. I see that there's a TV adaptation of it about to start on Sky Atlantic; would the general consensus be to stay the hell away from it until I've read the books?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

It's quite likely that the TV series will end up being better than the books. The first season is only going to cover the first book anyway, so there's no point in holding off watching until you've read all the books.

[Fieldini]

This sounds like something I might like to read. I see that there's a TV adaptation of it about to start on Sky Atlantic; would the general consensus be to stay the hell away from it until I've read the books?

I would say the rule of thumb here is to read the books before watching any kind of tv or movie adaptation. There are very few examples of times when a tv series or movie has surpassed the experience of reading the original book and utilising your own imagination to create in your head the characters and world the author is describing to you.

Having read all the song of ice and fire books so far I am in two minds whether to watch the series or not. I have my own idea of how the characters appear and what the world is like I and do not want this to be supplanted by how someone else imagines it to be in the TV show.

[Fondue]

Of more(?) interest is that Joe Abercrombie (author of The Blade Itself, etc) is interviewing GRRM and meant to be shown before the first episode:

http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2011/04/05/game-of-thrones-etc/

Should be good!

[Flub]

I started reading Game of Thrones yesterday. I'm about 100 pages in so far and really enjoying it. I'm looking forward to the TV show now.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I think everyone is. Especially Gurm.

[Flub]

It's starting to get really good now. It'll start depressing me with just how vile and nasty some of the situations can be (Poor Dany) and then shortly after will shower me with ace situations and how great people can be (Yay Dany).

I also like how it's very gradually filling in the back story. About Summer and Winter and the dragons.

[Flub]

Just heading into the final stretch of book one now. I'm unsure. I like it and enjoy it but the sheer cruelty of some of the characters and situations is really offputting. Then it'll do something that cheers me up, then take a big shit on someone to make up for it.

I'm guessing he's going to be introducing new characters as the series progresses because it's obvious nobody is safe and the way he's burning through them (And people spoiling later books in the TV thread tells me he's not done yet) means he's liable to run out

I would like one spoiler if someone would be so kind

Someone tell me Joffrey really, really ends up regretting being a total and utter mad cunt

One thing I'm figuring out

The Game of Thrones is a total distraction from the real plot. In the end it's going to come down to fire and ice. Dragons vs the Winter.

[Melon_Bread]

Someone tell me Joffrey really, really ends up regretting being a total and utter mad cunt

Big time

[Flub]

Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

[Anjin]

He's finally done it. . . .

For those that don't follow his blog, he referred to "Dance with Dragons" as Kong

[Aluco]

Awesome.

That is my summer holiday reading sorted then.

[Headache]

I loved The Fox's excellent summary of who everyone is and where they all are in the Game of Thrones TV thread but I've found it an amusing exercise to compare that to where they are now in the books. I'm doing this from memory (and a bit of wiki checking) so any corrections are welcome!

So yeah thanks to The Fox for doing all the hard layout work, major book spoilers ahead.

Do not open unless you have read all the books in the Game of Thrones series!

MASSIVE BOOK SPOILERS

THE STARKS

Lord Eddard 'Ned' Stark

Dead - Never learn the important lesson "Don't trust anyone"

Lady Catelyn 'Cat' Stark

Undead - Had her throat cut and dumped in a river, found and brought back to life. Now scaring the crap out of everyone.

Jon Snow

Alive - Now in charge of The Wall frantically trying to keep the White Walkers out.

Robb Stark

Dead - Betrayed at the same time as his mother, definitely dead though. Had his head cut off and stitched on his direwolf's body.

Bran Stark

Alive - Escaped Winterfell and headed north past The Wall to learn more about some crazy talk-to-the-animals ability he's developed.

Sansa Stark

Alive - Trapped up on the Eyrie with Littlefinger.

Arya (pronounced randomly as Ar-ya and Ar-ee-a by the looks of it) Stark

Alive - Escaped into hiding after her dad dies, training to be a hardass and has just been blinded.

Theon Greyjoy

Alive - After unsuccessfully conquering Winterfell he was captured by Roose Bolton and is currently a prisoner in Dreadfort.

THE BARATHEONS & LANNISTERS

King Robert Baratheon

Dead - We all saw that coming. Killed by a wild boar while drunk.

Jon Arynn

Dead - Still

Queen Cersei (pronounced Sur-say) Lannister

Alive - After the death of her husband and then father and disappearance of both her brothers she ruled House Lannister for a bit, screwed it up by being a sneaky bitch and now imprisoned awaiting a death sentence.

Ser Jaime (pronounced Jamie) Lannister

Alive - Missing a hand after having life shit on him from a great height many times. Seems to have turned over a new leaf.

Tyrion Lannister

Alive - After killing his father he's escaped over the Narrow Sea.

Prince Joffrey Baratheon

Dead - And the world rejoiced. Poisoned during his own wedding feast.

Sandor Clegane

Dead (Probably) - Left for dead by Arya from infected wounds inflicted by battle, we're told he was found and buried by nearby monks. We'll see.

THE TARGARYENS

Prince Viserys Targaryen

Dead - Scheming doesn't help much when you have no leverage.

Princess Daenerys Targaryen

Alive - Kicking ass and taking names all over the southern deserts.

Khal Drogo

Dead - Fever takes once proud warrior, with a little help from his tearful wife.

Ser Jorah Mormont

Alive - Revealed as the earlier spy he's been banished by Daenerys even though he says he's turned to her side and is in love with her.

Magister Illyrio Mopatis

Alive - Still supporting Daenerys from afar.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Oh how far we've come!

Be good to finally read A Dance With Dragons. And then we can all start moaning about how The Winds of Winter isn't out yet.

[Harsin]

You left off Hot Pie.

[Headache]

He hasn't appeared in the TV series yet!

[Harsin]

True, who can HBO hire that can truly do justice to the role. Maybe Edward Norton in some make-up.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Hot Pie has already been cast!

[Wickedkitten]

He looks like he'd make a better Sam. I wonder who they will cast as Brienne.