This thread is for the Song of Ice and Fire novels.
A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of acclaimed fantasy novels by Hugo and Nebula winning author, and steam boat captain impersonator, George R. R. Martin. Originally planned as a trilogy when Martin first began writing the series in 1991 when the series is complete it will span seven main line novels with three, non-main story line, prequel novellas along with more on the drawing board. The series has been translated into more than 20 languages and the fourth volume reached the top of The New York Times bestseller lists upon its release. Overall, the series has more than 6 million copies in print in the USA and sold more than 7 million worldwide.
The series mainly follows events on the South American sized continent of Westeros. It's a continent which ranges from the frozen North to the desert plagued South. Previously this continent was made up of seven kingdoms but 300 years ago it was conquered and forged into one kingdom by the dragon riding Targaryens. Now the dragons have died out, however and fifteen years ago a young lord named Robert Baratheon and his friend Eddard Stark led a rebellion which smashed the Targaryens to dust and put Robert on the throne. The novels start fifteen years on from this and follows those who seek power, those who want to hold onto their power and the good and evil things people do when following their own ideals.
Also whilst the HBO viewer guide is for the television series it is a much better map than the small ones in the novels and really helped me piece together characters movements around the continent.
HBO Viewer Guide
The other books in the series are:
A Game of Thrones:
A Clash of Kings:
A Storm of Swords (US):
A Storm of Swords 1. Steel and Snow (UK):
A Storm of Swords 2. Blood and Gold (UK):
A Feast for Crows:
A Dance With Dragons:
If you've read the books and want to discuss the tv show feel free to do it in here. Comparisons between the book and TV show are welcome but please watch your spoilers. Whilst we may know that Arya is part robot by the end of book 2 and rides a dinosaur armoured in Valyrian steel into battle people who just started the series do not. Due to HBO's Game of Thrones people are more likely to start reading the books so please watch them tags.
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July 12th. Easy and not many more characters.
Steam - Minty D. Vision!
Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision
Like that; you had it backwards. then the text then [/ url] without the spaces.
I will now proactively concede that Europe dates makes way more damn sense than the US ones.
Seriously, I thought that they'd bumped it back to December for a second, which is really not fair, given the history of this series in general and novel in particular.
I actually haven't gotten there in my re-read and I don't remember how it goes in the books, but the TV Show explanation seemed familiar enough.
Actually I think it is perfect.
Even in the other thread people are saying stupid stuff like "Now you know that no main character is safe! hahaha!!" shut the fuck up with that stuff. Don't say stupid shit like that, don't even hint at it.
Another thing, I think I have a new pet peeve, and it is hearing the term bookie. I am not a fucking bookie, I read the books, I am not affiliated with gambling in any way.
I have a friend who is deliberately not reading the books because he wants to experience the shows untainted by foreknowledge.
I give him six months before he cracks and you find him smuggling a copy of clash of kings back home.
I've forgotten so many things that happen.
Nope.
He's repeatedly declined offers of the books from friends.
Really, though, he's not much of a fiction reader. He is also hella-busy. He drives bus for his day job, but his writing has actually started picking up. He writes comics, has a graphic novel coming out, his fiction novel just got picked up, and one of his two current series has been made into an ongoing series (they were both originally specific-run stories).
Basically, he's incredibly busy and isn't likely to pick up a series of novels like this to read (especially because he seems to be more visually-inclined and absolutely loves the TV show).
So he sits in a bus all day driving, sounds like he has all the time in the world to listen to audio tapes. Are they not allowed to?
Well, aside from the fact that the reason he's not reading the books isn't that he doesn't have time, it's that he doesn't want to know what happens before watching it, they're actually not allowed personal music devices like iPods, radios, MP3-capable phones, etc.
Him being incredibly busy is just one of the reasons I'm sure he won't crack.
She seems like more of a bitch in the show. Kind of threw me, honestly. I guess we'll see how she develops, if she sticks around.
Bronn took Shae from some minor knight. Tyrion objected until he was told 'it's easier this or some toothless old whore' so Tyrion followed his 'instinct'.
Also it's bookite! There's a t in there! I just took it from a what someone said in the HBO thread.
The latest episode was fantastic though. Walder Frey was really good (he's the magicless janitor from Harry Potter, he's bitter in all his roles!) and I love how level headed Robb Stark is. He knows he's not as good a swordsman as Jaime is and he has no interest in risking everything for an e-peen contest. Love the acting all round, actually.
Steam - Minty D. Vision!
Origin/BF3 - MintyDVision
Don't change it! We'll force those stupid Americans to conform into sensible standards step by step.
THE METRIC SYSTEM WILL BE NEXT. YOU CAN'T RUN FROM RATIONALITY FOREVER.
Have...have you read any American history? Cause we can clearly do our damnedest to try!
Though I lost all respect for our system of measurement when I found out the definition of an inch. The definition of an inch is not some natural constant, it is not a fucking bar of platinum in a basement somewhere, no the definition of an inch is....
25.4 MM
It's like we're not even trying.
Which is "three grains of sound ripe barley being taken out the middle of the ear, well dried, and laid end to end in a row"
You know, an inch.
Now? "Uh, those guys have it figured out, we'll just crib off them."
Lazy.
Bring back the days of Royal proclamations and shit. I bet Robert would have had a right proper inch.
All book spoilers
On the other hand if they dropped that flashback right before the surprise ned execution everyone would be like, "the fuck?" And there would be no way to address it, since flashbacker no longer has a head in which to flashback.
Psssstttt
But
Characterization I like better on the TV show, but lookswise I like my imaginary Shae. Unlike Sean Bean, who was totally different from my imagined Ned Stark but instantly replaced him in my head forever.
also they missed a huge opportunity to ALL BOOK SPOILERS
I can't wait to see Rhaegar during Dany's warlock vision. I hope they make him incredibly badass.
*Assuming R+L=J is actually true. Which, come on, it totally is.
It's also possible that they just don't want to film any flashbacks. It's a legitimate decision, and it also gives them some easy decisions on what to cut out to fit the whole book into 10 hours.
book 2/3
This is going to be so much fun.
...actually, which happens first? RW or Joff's comeuppance?
twit feed
I think they are going to move that backstory over to
Also they can seed some of that into Barristan and Dany's talks about Rheagar