Game of Thrones

[Juan Carlo]

Any fans here?

 

I devoured the first three books, was less thrilled with books 4 and 5, but am still kind of obsessed with the series. They can be incredibly redundant, a bit lazy in writing style, and often take a somewhat juvenile approach to sex, but I really do think that few authors do world building, fictional history construction, and sheer scope better than GRRM. And I like the "light on magic" approach to fantasy.

 

I even just finished the RPG (which was way, way, better than the reviews claimed. In fact, it's actually kind of good. Like a slightly dumbed down and more linear Dragon Age, only with better writing).

 

Anyhow, since Vogel seems to be going for an almost "PG Game of Thrones" type politics focused universe with "Avadon," I was just wondering how many fans of "Song of Ice and Fire" are lurking on these forums and what people think of the series in general.

[stars2heaven]

I'm on the third book right now and enjoying it. I hated the first season of the HBO series. I almost didn't bother with the second season I hated it so much. Good thing I did in the end since the second season is almost better than the second book.

 

I haven't played any of the games, but if you have the game "Crusader Kings 2" the mod for game of thrones is AMAZING. It is fantastically accurate and detailed, and no other game could possibly have all of the same elements of politics and intrigue and the vying for power that is in game of thrones as you can find in Crusader kings 2.

[Actaeon]

If you are reading the books, you might want to be aware that the series is actually called "A Song of Ice and Fire", lest the hipster at your local bookstore gives you a frosty look when you come to pick up the next one.

 

I'm part of the crowd that had to wait ten years for what was supposed to be one book (4 and 5). I'm still following it, but only haphazardly. In some ways, I enjoyed the TV show more. My main fantasy allegiance is to Robert Jordan or, if you want to get right to the core of things, Tolkien.

[Alorael at Large]

I read the first three books, I think, but found the world detailed but not terribly imaginative, the characters pretty universally detestable, and the plot thus uninteresting. I understand how Martin is going for a grim, gritty, low fantasy story of backstabbing politics, dirty hands, and inglorious battle, but he failed to make me actually care about any of it.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't need to read about unremitting awfulness in novels. There are newspapers for that sort of thing.

[Dantius]

The only familiarity I have with the series is the .gif of the midget slapping that chick in the face. Frankly, I don't want to read it anymore, as it will no doubt fall short of the expectation of "five hundred pages of a midget slapping people".

[Erebus the Black]

I've read the first book but couldn't continue it was just too grotesque for me and the ending at the desert too weird. I guess I just don't have the stomach for so much intrigue. I do still wander what is the enemy from the north, but not enough that I would go through 2 more books of backstabbing and kid kicking.

(insert short clip of Kyle kicking Ike here)

[Prince of Kitties]

I've looked into it, and have no desire to read it. As Aloreal pointed out, if I wanted to read about horrible people doing horrible things, I'd read a newspaper.

 

(And mind, I have a fairly high tolerance for horror and violence in writing.)

[Enraged Slith]

The card game based on the series is pretty damn good.

[Painted Lady]

I got about half way through the third book when I suddenly realized that we were just going to keeping circling through the same plot lines forever. Totally lost interest at that point.

[Juan Carlo]

Originally Posted By: stars2heaven

I'm on the third book right now and enjoying it. I hated the first season of the HBO series. I almost didn't bother with the second season I hated it so much. Good thing I did in the end since the second season is almost better than the second book.

I agree with this. Especially the character of Cersei who is more of a straight forward villain in the novels, but in the TV show they've attempted to explain why she's doing what she does more, which has made her seem much more nuanced and much less of a monster. I actually feel sympathy for TV Cersei, whereas I pretty much just straight hated her when I was reading the books.

They also just streamlined a lot of stuff that probably should have been streamlined in the novels anyway (as I said, GRRM has a bad habit of both redundancy and adding a whole bunch of new characters to accomplish something that could probably be better done with either just 1 or by using an existing character).


Anyhow, apart from the most popular stuff (Tolkein and Narnia when I was a kid, "The His Dark Materials" trilogy, which I LOVED) and a few one off air port reads (I really loved "Mr Norrel and Jonathan Strange," for example, which was like an awesome combo of Harry Potter and Jane Austen) I actually don't have much experience with modern fantasy.

Any authors that anyone would recommend?

[Triumph]

I've enjoyed Lloyd Alexander's books, at least all the ones I've read. Not all are quite fantasy (Westmark, et al.), but they are all good.

 

I've heard from multiple people that Brandon Sanderson is really good, but I've been in grad school and haven't ever gotten around to reading any of his stuff.