[jqp]

I have extremely mixed feelings about the HBO show - as you could expect when I have read the 5 books.

The second season they really took too many liberties with the plot - to me, it is basically "scenes from the series with some characters radically altered, and also some of the plot"

[mjosef]

Ahhh, yes...knowing the original storyline can skew one's expectations.
I am reading the books after each season/episode airs, so its all new to me, and serves to fill out the backstories, and I get to see how they changed the plots and sub plots.
Like the 'frog' people of the marshlands, love their storyline, wish they were included in the HBO series, but can see why they needed to trim that sub-story...movie scripts tend to cut and cut until its a lean mean machine.

[Tyson]

Books are not movies or tv shows.

[Woodsea]

Enjoy it on its own merits.  Martin wrote the last episode by the way.

[avahifi]

What I really appreciate about the HBO series is how faithful they are to the settings, the people, the vistas, the whole sense of turning the printed pages into a great vision of Martin's reality.

Good science fiction or fantasy first establishes a solid foundation of the world the story resides in and then is absolutely faithful to that background and foundation.  HBO is faithful to Martin's world of Fire and Ice and that is a very  important thing to me.  Of course there will at least be a season three to look forward to.

In the meantime, it is fun and useful to go through all the episodes again just to look more carefully at the backgrounds as the details there tell their own story too.

I found some good maps on the web that make it easier to keep track of places and things while reading the written story too.  I am most of the way through book 4 at this time.

Frank Van Alstine

[ptmconsulting]

Good point Frank. Yeah, HBO really went all out on the staging of this show. They filmed in 4-5 different locations, which means full crews in each of them. Mucho expense. So I can't fault them for shortening the storyline and leaving out some of the nuances to keep it moving and get the main points across.

Personally I would love to see more of the book details in the story, but I can see how this might cause confusion to non-readers of the books and slow the major plot line down.

It's going to be a long wait for the next season. IMO book 3 was the winner in the written series so far, and there are plenty of big surprises in store for viewers. Book 4 was a bit slow, but Georgie said he had to do that because there were too many characters to focus on and no way to keep it cohesive if he addressed them all at the same time. Book 5 caught the others up to the same point, so book 6 should be something special (if he ever gets around to writing it).

[Kinger]

I'm through episode 8 of the first season and have really enjoyed the show thus far.  My only complaints are it's a bit tough to catch the names and history of all of the characters and I'd love it if the show had more about the history of The Wall and the strange creatures in the first episode.

[roscoeiii]

I'm through episode 8 of the first season and have really enjoyed the show thus far.  My only complaints are it's a bit tough to catch the names and history of all of the characters and I'd love it if the show had more about the history of The Wall and the strange creatures in the first episode.

That's what the books are for! And they are fabulous. Really quick and engaging reads (for 700ish page long books).

[cream]

I agree.  I watched Season 1 before I went through and read the first book and that causes the book to feel like a Extended Scenes type of thing on a Blu-Ray.

I am loving it.   I will do the same thing with the Season 2, watch it and then go read the book.

[kbuzz3]

As noted above, this is really one of the few tv series where i feel that the books are complimentary to the show -rather then working against each other.

This is rare im my opinion.  As usually, the enevitable book- tv/movie comparisons start either intentionally or not. here both fit really well.

PS - we need more margie tyrell and v neck dresses next season... 

[Rob Babcock]

In the absence of "Boromir" ( ) Peter Dinklage has stepped up and completely owned GoT!

[chrisby]

In the absence of "Boromir" ( ) Peter Dinklage has stepped up and completely owned GoT!

indeed -   "yes,  I like to play the game"


 and those who've read the entire series - please no spoilers,  but it'll be  very interesting to follow the evolution of the Stark girls' characters

[kbuzz3]

In the absence of "Boromir" ( ) Peter Dinklage has stepped up and completely owned GoT!

'

'mmmmmmm  gimli v. tyrion : discuss

[Rob Babcock]

WINTER IS COMING, BIOTCHES!