"Game of Thrones: Books or show?" Topic

A. Books
B. Show
C. Both
D. Partial Both – I'm not caught up in one, or I've abandoned one but continue with the other.
E. Neither
F. Other

B.

Read all the books (so far), but I'm over his meandering narratives.

Both.

But I wonder if Martin regrets any of the tangents he spun off before HBO got involved?
Was Arianna Martel really necessary to the plot? Quentyn Martel? Young Griff? Euron Greyjoy?
Now he has embarrassed himself by letting the tv series get ahead of him while he was obliged to continue these unnecessary tangents.
Does anyone really give a hoot about Arianna?

He is in great danger of the HBO production becoming canon, and his books becoming irrelevant fluff.

Yup. Embarrassed all the way to the dang bank! It ain't high art-- he's tonning it with his paychecks so who cares?

Books only for me, but I have every intention of watching the show in one glorious binge when it eventually ends.

D.
I think I've read up to book 4.
My daughter gave me seasons 1 to 3 at Christmas.

E.

A, the show has drifted too far from the books now to please me, though I still watch it im not invested in it anymore

B. The books just didn't keep my interest.

B – the show WILL finish someday. The books are suffering from sequal bloat.

E – Liked the first few books then things went downhill for me. Too much description of travel and food. To little plot movement. Show (as usual for me) falls far short of the books.

E--For some reason neither the books nor the show hold any appeal for me.

B. I read the first book but disliked his writing style and didn't read any more. I do enjoy the show though.

Books one through three were excellent. 4 and 5 were like watching paint dry.

I have to go with the books though. You get far more insight into the characters and the background than you can get in a tv show.

B.

I have to agree with Chuck05. I recently re-read Book one and was surprised at how much better written it was than the later books. I think that if Books 4&5 had been Books 1&2 then we never would have had a TV series of the rest of the books.

And the TV series is already canon, even though they agreed to stretch it out. And GRRM can only blame himself, after all he got involved in writing the series before he finished the books as well as getting involved in other projects and other things. Now look, I get it. If someone invites me to go to a con and sit between Sophie Turner and Natalie Dormer and Emilia Clarke I am there. But of course that simply meant that the series was guaranteed to pass the books.

I don't watch the series but it's impossible to ignore the book spoilers that come from it. And since we have no idea when book 6 is coming out and it will be years before Book 7 we'll know the ending and for me I have no idea once I know the ending if I'll buy or read Book7. But that's just me. I mean I read Arthurian Fiction although I know the story so who knows.

C Read them and watched. Like the books better, but the series is definitely fun.

I never got the books, love the show!, so (B)

C – started with the show then read all the books – like both just wish he would stop killing everyone and making them do stupid things.

E – I really struggled through the first book waiting for it to get better but it didn't. The TV series couldn't hold my interest either. Not for me I guess.

B – don't have the patience for the books when I've got all of these great military history books to read.

D.

E

B The books for the description of the characters ( way more medieval then in the TV show) The TV show for quicker action!!!

B

F. They are both very gripping and well done, especially at first, but the relentless nastiness and sado masochism of them was too much at a certain point. I am not a prude at all, but eventually I found them way more disturbing than anything else. It's a shame, Martin has talent. They also do drag on too long.

My understanding is that GRRM planned to write a 3 book series and his publishers asked him to expand it to 7 and if that is true I think it shows. As a 3 book series the narrative would have been tighter, we probably wouldn't have the distractions of Dorne and Euron. And it probably would have cut sown on stuff like Ramsey Bolton's Sadism Show.

One thing that I do hate (and others have mentioned this as well) is when GRRM has his characters do incredibly stupid things. I mean how on Earth could Eddard Stark have been so stupid as to tell Cersei that he knew her secret before he had secured her. I mean really, that was so dumb that I actually said "NOOOO" aloud when I read it.

Jowady asked: "I mean how on Earth could Eddard Stark have been so stupid as to tell Cersei that he knew her secret before he had secured her."

Well, other than the words "Plot Device" you mean?

In reality people do stupid things quite often. Maybe Eddard underestimated her because she was a woman. We, as readers, often know quite a lot more about each of the characters than the characters do. Eddard wouldn't know just how scheming Cersei is.

Oh, and C

JohnG

B

The boardgame. Didn't know it was based upon books when I first played it.

Platypus01au…. I am familiar with plot devices however when they stand outside the real of reasonableness… in this case Edward had plenty of reason to mistrust Cersei as well as to realize the lengths Jaime would go to to defend her.

The books are woeful, I gave up 50 pages in.

I'll try again in a few years.

David F Brown

I think the reason Ned told Cersei is simple: Jon Snow.
It has not yet been revealed, but it is almost certain that Jon is not Ned's son, but Rhaegar and Lyanna's son. Her last words to Ned were "Promise me." Ned promised his sister that he would not tell Robert that Jon was a Targaryean.
Ned knew that Robert would have Jon killed if he knew.
Telling Cersei is entirely consistent with resigning as Hand because he could not order a child killed.
If Robert did not know that Tywin ordered Rhaegar's other children killed, he certainly benefitted from it.

Up to Feast for Crows, the books. Afterwards, neither.

Books.

HBO version OK but budget and strange costumes limit its appeal (still lots of fun when they get it right though).

Will wait for Winds of Winter to come out before watching upcoming season as I won't want any of the classic scenes spoiled: Battle of the Green Fork, Red Wedding, Jon's election, Battle beyond the Wall, Red Viper v. Mountain trial by combat, birth of the dragons, "buying" the Unsullied and many many more. My mind's eye view is not limited by budget or badly informed costumers.

TomT

C but only in as much that I use background books (map book, art, and others) to supplement the show.

Both, but vastly prefer the HBO series.

But I wonder if Martin regrets any of the tangents he spun off before HBO got involved?

Hey, I liked the Greyjoy subplots.

B. Show