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for me the tv series wins out, excluding the last series which i would have enjoyed if it was part of another series but it is obvious they were rushing and it felt very different than any of the other work.

the books went like this -
GOT - very good
COK - very good
SOS- good at the start but poor at the end
FFC - absolutely awful turgid nonsense
DWD - first book awful, second book picks it up a bit

my ex actually read it after me and asked if she needed to bother with the brienne chapters (she didnt). brienne is like the third tarantino movie you have seen - terrible, boring repetitive dialogue then ultra violence for a minute.

also with regard to the books i am debating whether or not to invest my time in the next book as i am not sure whether the series will finish so it will just be a waste, he has created a world and does not want to end it, that is why it is taking so long

apologies for typos, it is late here and i am tired :(

Wow that is an amazing comparison to a Tarantino film! Bravo! I don't think he should finish the series since the show has eclipsed his story.

Hasham, the show is much better than the books. As the seasons go by the characters are being drawn closer and closer together--geographically. In the books they grow farther and farther apart--geographically. All of the unnecessary side stories that crop up in the books are non-existent or meshed into the already epic scope of the show. Several deaths happen in one but not the other.

Although be warned, the first couple of seasons have quite a bit of nudity and sexual encounters. Most of this was to grab attention and keep that attention especially during information dumps. One in particular occurs behind Lord Baelish while he is speaking of his plans--like any self congratulating villain should.

I've read all of the books so far, but only watched the first season of the TV show, if that says anything.

For the books, the first three are definitely the best. I think Martin kind of lost where he's going in the fourth and fifth books, which is why he's been so long in writing the later books. I don't mind long books, but I need the plot to advance during them, or it's no good.

For me, the nudity and sex really put me off the TV show. The sheer amount felt gratuitous to me, and gratuitous sex is not really my thing. I have no real desire to see so many breasts. I still kind of want to finish the show, especially as it's actually going to finish and I've heard some great things about later seasons, but it's kind of a low priority.

Hasham, as the television series progresses it moves farther and farther away from the books. The first book, A Game Of Thrones, is pretty much word for word. After that the writers of the show began to make changes; almost all of them for the better.

Tani, I concur what you said about Martin kinda lost where he's going in books 4 and 5.

Since the television series has eclipsed the books, I have no interest in seeing where Martin takes us in book 6. That is if he ever gets it published.

The books are better, story and character wise. I stopped watching after season 5 because I just couldn't take the fanfiction anymore.

I understand though that some are tired of waiting and prefer to watch the so-called adaptation. I don't mind waiting since I always have tons to read, and due to the fact that the ASoIAF fandom is very active, we still have lots of discussions about crackpot theories and whatnots until now because there are always things from world building, characters, plots etc to talk about. You know what I mean.

A friend of mine said recently that we are experiencing a rather unique period when we have still many possibilities and who knows, we might miss the room and freedom to speculate later when the series are finished.

Hope you enjoy, Hasham! The commentary tracks on the disks are usually pretty fun, too.

While I pretty much agree with agree w/Cody's analysis (I'd maybe be a little more generous to SOS and a little less to DWD), I think the books -- at least the first three -- still have the edge over the series for me. The books do the hard work of setting up the politics, & the politics are a bit more complex & ambiguous in them.

In those first books, you definitely get a sense that GRRM is working toward a specific endgame. I'll be curious to see how the books reach that conclusion and if it diverges significantly from the TV series (certainly, I expect some of the seeds planted in the books that were not picked up on or sidelined by the TV series to bear some sort of interesting crop). The books have more of a focus, I think, on disrupting genre tropes/expectations or trying to illuminate more accurate vs. fantastic/distorted ideas about history, which I appreciate ... but I think is also to blame for some of the weaknesses of FFC. Sure, actual medieval conflicts involved lots of confusion & waiting & problematic logistics and communications, but imitative fallacy is a thing.

I feel like the TV series often does a better job of pacing than the books, esp. in some of the middle seasons. The last half-season, however, was rushed & seemed to have a much heavier than usual reliance on idiot plots, which was disappointing.

Hillary wrote: "Hope you enjoy, Hasham! The commentary tracks on the disks are usually pretty fun, too.

While I pretty much agree with agree w/Cody's analysis (I'd maybe be a little more generous to SOS and a lit..."

Certainly agree with most of that Hilary :)

100% correct with the last tv series being rushed, I don't understand why they cut the last 2 seasons to be mini seasons though, they could have done it properly if they just had those extra 6 episodes

I concur.

Your fo pah on Lord of the Rings TV is interesting since Amazon will be adapting something from the Lord of the Rings Universe for TV.


I like both the Game of Thrones book series and the TV adaption. I have watched all seven seasons and read the five books and the 100 or so pages that have been released from Winds of Winter. The book series is very rich in the world building and writing though I would agree that there are too many weak viewpoint characters in the later books. I see the TV show as the Cliffs Notes version of the story. There is a lot of spectacle but the deep character moments are lost along with most of the logic behind it.

I prefer the books but I usually prefer books.

I stopped watching the series around season 3 because it was getting too far off track from the books for me.

Happy watching!