Game of Thrones

[Viggen]

...who else is watching this?

 

Boromir is back!

 

first episode was ok, but than it got really good! I like it that for a change it is medieval style without much fantasy

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ixEWrTLiZg

[Ursus]

I read the first 2 books in the series and enjoyed it; I typically don't enjoy fantasy, but as you say this was different. More "historical" than fantasy and more adult than juvenile.

 

I don't get HBO, but intend to buy the DVD when it comes out.

[Primus Pilus]

I consider the two first books in the series to be among the very top of my favorite fiction list. Unfortunately, since George Martin writes so slowly, there are fears that he will never finish the series - thereby leaving everyone hanging. Alas

 

In any case, the show is very good - atmospherically authentic I think with character traits that seem in line with Martin's original concepts. I do wonder though, if someone coming in cold without having read the book would get the full grasp of the story. Yes, it's easy to like and dislike certain characters, but obviously much has to be tweaked to fit it into a television environment.

 

Regardless, I'm enjoying it very much, and considering I last read Game of Thrones sometime around 10 years ago, it's a nice refresher for the supposed next book due out in July (I'm definitely not holding my breath).

[Kosmo]

I liked the first few episodes and because of that now I'm reading the book. The Tv series seems to respect the book in every detail so far, all characters are present and even most of the dialogs are the same. I love the way the Tv series looks: cities, castles, costumes, horses, wolfs, the Wall, jousts etc everything is amazing. Maybe the inspiration for the Wall comes from Hadrian's Wall.

[Klingan]

I've been able to get my hands on the first couple of episodes and I really like it. I actually like it as much as Rome, if not more (call me a traitor if you need to! ). HBO manage to pull it off once again.

[Kosmo]

I just finished reading the 4 books. The fifth is supposed to come out this summer with two more in a probably distant future. By the 3rd I felt that the series lost it's momentum and it was moving along the plots at a too slow pace and with too many details. Some characters were just going back and forth across Riverlands and new main characters/points of view were added with no end in sight while others were gone without explanation. I wonder how the Tv series will handle this. I also found queer some of the words choose to give a more Old English feel to the books like writing five-and-twenty instead of twenty five and Ser instead of Sir.

Maybe it felt slow to me because before A Song of Ice and Fire I've been reading The Hunger Games and that trilogy is very fast paced and thrilling, especially the first book. This Games are a deadly reality show, a sort of gladiatorial games in an vast outdoor arena. What's not to like? The books carry even a bit of social/political message in them. They are shooting a film after the books.

[caldrail]

For me the problem is that much of fantasy fiction is based on some very weak principles. Can you imagine powerful spellcasters being allowed to wander around like loose cannons? Or becoming foci of evil and sorcerous territory?

 

Okay these stories are fantasy, but it tends to read like Superman with swords, or sometimes like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Elf. I don't believe that a historicalesque setting is necessary. What matters is that the society depicted is shown to have some sort of class structure (a feature of human civilisation everywhere), checks and balances, and some sort of inner credibility. Human interaction is complex and always there are consequences for every action.

 

then again, a good author will sometimes throw the rulebook in the bin and let prose do the talking. Michael Moorcock has done that succesfully for years.

[Kosmo]

A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the series, is really good, maybe the best so far. By focusing on fewer major characters it allows more focus and rhythm while keeping palpable the vast scale of the fictional world.