Game of Thrones

Discussion in 'Books' started by thebigman, May 5, 2011.

  1. thebigman

    thebigman Member+

    May 25, 2006
    Birmingham
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    recently purchased this book and i am enjoying it, i'm not a massive book fan as my posts probably suggest (spelling/grammar lol) but i'm pretty engrossed in this atm

    i will admit, i hadn't heard of it untill the tv series came out and i do like medievil/knight stuff

    i really like the way the chapters are all a differn't characters perspective and for someone with a short attention span, each one is engrossing and keeps me waning to read more as the plot unfolds

    some of the characters and settings are described so vividly i have a clear picture in my head of everything. i'm hearing good things about the show as well, so i will get it on dvd when it comes out

    has anyone read the other books in the series?
     
  2. AfrcnHrbMan

    AfrcnHrbMan Member

    Jun 14, 2004
    Philly
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    I saw the first episode of the series, It looks pretty entertaining if you are into the medievel warfare stuff. I'll probably watch the whole series. I thought I would have more a fantasy element to it, but eh. I might read the books if I ever regain some leisure reading time.
     
  3. ArsenalDCUnited

    ArsenalDCUnited New Member

    Oct 23, 2011
    Washington DC
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    I just finished book 4 and he goes very light on the fantasy aspect. Which I actually like.

    There are some fantasy parts (such as the dragons and other things I won't ruin) but the politics and strategy played out in the book is the really interesting part. I've loved every book so far, and although 3 was a bit slow, the last few hundred pages make up for it.
     
  4. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    I bought the first four books. I'm done with Thrones and now nearly done with Clash of Kings. Have enjoyed it tremendously so far.
     
  5. DoctorJones24

    DoctorJones24 Member

    Aug 26, 1999
    OH
    That's funny, I must be in about the same spot, Belgian. About 150 pages left in Book 2. I actually didn't bother reading Book 1, as I'd just finished the first season of the show--I glanced at the book, but decided these are really plot/character driven books, so recapping that first story might not be necessary.

    Also Ars, yeah this is very light on the high fantasy stuff, and that's a refreshing change from so many in this genre. This reads at times almost more like Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales than like Tolkien. Which is a good thing. For one, it makes the fantastical stuff really seem "fantastic" when it does occur. For instance, the scene in book 2 where the witch-babe gives birth to that shadowy assassin thing. It's all the more significant because folks AREN'T doing magic as a normal part of daily life. Heck, even wildfire seems part magic/part chemistry, and caring for it seems like a pretty mundane pain in the ass.

    Bigman, I'm not sure how I feel about the many little chapters based on the key characters. At times, I guess, it's easier to push through a storyline that interests me less when I know the chapter will be brief, but at the same time, it has an overall predictable/programmed feel that I'm not sure I love in an 800 page book (which itself is part of a 6-7 book saga, all using the same structure, presumably).

    Still, very fun stuff in general. Martin has a good ear for dialogue and nicely uses internal dialogues to showcase that political intrigue stuff. It's a simple trick, really, but I don't remember ever seeing it in this genre before. Did a character in Tolkien ever say something they so clearly didn't mean (as happens on almost every page in Martin?)
     
  6. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    I read for a while but 2000 pages was enough thanks much, between feeling as if I'd been there before and the collective stupidity of the brain-dead idiot Starks, I had to stop.

    The best characters are the outsiders -- the dwarf, the various whores, the cripple, the bastard.
     
  7. AfrcnHrbMan

    AfrcnHrbMan Member

    Jun 14, 2004
    Philly
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    I also skipped the first book because of the show and have finished the 2nd and 3rd book. And I love them. I plan on getting the next two as soon as I'm done with some school work, because I know it's just going to eat up my time. I don't think the Starks are stupid at all, maybe Sansa a bit naive. Jon and Robb are my favorites characters. I wont ruin anything, but something happened in the 3rd book that royally pissed me off haha. Tyrion is of course a fave, but that seems to be a general consensus. I'm on the fence with the POV chapters though. Sometimes you get finished with someones POV and can't wait to get to more of it, only to have 5 chapters of other people blathering on. But eh I guess it makes me read it faster.
     
  8. thebigman

    thebigman Member+

    May 25, 2006
    Birmingham
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    i nearly finished the 1st book, and stopped reading (as usual with me) about 50 pages from the end! i will finish it, can't wait for the tv series on dvd
     
  9. AfrcnHrbMan

    AfrcnHrbMan Member

    Jun 14, 2004
    Philly
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    France
    You gotta keep going bigman, trust me it get far better and far more ridiculous. You gotta at least read the second book before the second season comes out.
     
  10. ArsenalDCUnited

    ArsenalDCUnited New Member

    Oct 23, 2011
    Washington DC
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    You guys are really doing yourselves an injustice if you skipped the first book because you watched the show. Don't get me wrong, the show was nearly identical to the book, but they couldn't capture all of Martin's intricacies.


    I know some said they don't like the alternate story lines, but some of you really won't like Book 4 then. They pretty much move away from the main characters you've been focusing on for 3 books and give alternate points of view.

    I think it worked great and enjoyed the change, but I know a lot of people didn't.
     
  11. malby

    malby Member+

    Liverpool FC
    Republic of Ireland
    May 11, 2004
    Rep of Ireland
    Club:
    Drogheda United
    Nat'l Team:
    Ireland Republic
    I'm one. Just finished book 5.

    How long do we have to wait :(
     
  12. ArsenalDCUnited

    ArsenalDCUnited New Member

    Oct 23, 2011
    Washington DC
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    I just picked up book 5 today.

    I read the prologue and saw that it runs concurrent to book 4 rather than an add on. It sucks because I want to know what happens, but I really like building the story lines of characters that weren't in AFFC.
     
  13. Homa

    Homa Member

    Feb 4, 2008
    Aachen
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Martin does not only use the character based chapters to describe the world from the POV of a single person but also to describe the events happening at different locations.

    There are only so many main characters who can only be at a limited number of locations. If something important happens somewhere else Martin uses a new character to describe the events there, f.e. Jon is used to describe the events at the wall which look at the beginning pretty unrelated to the rest of the story.

    Book 4 deals with a lot of things outside the "usual, main" locations so there are a lot of secondary characters in the book.

    Martin also wrote that the fourth and fifth books should initially have been a single volume but due to the length (and I guess pressure by publisher and fans anxious for a new book) it was split.
     
  14. DoctorJones24

    DoctorJones24 Member

    Aug 26, 1999
    OH
    I'm about 250 pages into book 4. One thing I've found is that each book takes a while to get all the stories in place, so the first few hundred pages drag a bit each time.

    The shift to so many new perspectives is a bit off putting, I have to admit. Especially since the 3 main missing perspectives (Tanerys, Arya, Tyrion) are the three most interesting over the first 3 books.

    And I'm not sure I need to get in the head of Sam so much. He reminds me of the annoying red head kid on Survivor this season. Totally inept and whiny all the time.
     
  15. ArsenalDCUnited

    ArsenalDCUnited New Member

    Oct 23, 2011
    Washington DC
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    I definitely agree with this. It lags quite a bit in the beginning, but gets great once you finally get the stories moving. I could have used much less Sam also. That story line doesn't necessarily needs its own POV.



    I just finished ADWD, and behind A Game of Thrones, it's my favorite of the series. I know it received a lot of criticism, but I enjoyed the focus away from Kings Landing. Focusing on the Wall became a bit tedious, but it was good enough to hold my interest.
     
  16. Felixx219

    Felixx219 BigSoccer Supporter

    Nov 8, 2004
    Kansas City, MO
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I bought the first book and it has been sitting on my book shelve for like 4 months. I really need to just sit down and start it. I think I read the first 10 or so pages awhile back but I really do not remember anything about it as it didnt catch my interest but people really seem to like it so I probably just need to sit down and get through the first 100 pages so I can get into it and keep reading.
     
  17. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    Started a Feast for Crows this week. So far it hasn't really managed to grab my attention the way the first three books did.
     
  18. oscar_in_fw

    oscar_in_fw Member+

    Jul 24, 2007
    Kansas City
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree, I'm in the middle of reading the books again because of stuff I missed the first time. If you really want to dig into it, try the following link:

    http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php

    I've already been "spoiled" by the sample excerpts from Book 6 (The Winds of Winter).
     
  19. JSS85

    JSS85 Member

    Sep 18, 2009
    where exactly would one find those samples? :D
     
  20. oscar_in_fw

    oscar_in_fw Member+

    Jul 24, 2007
    Kansas City
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Do a search on "Winds of Winter sample chapters.

    Also, the Winds of Winter subforum on the aforementioned link has discussion of other sample chapters (samplers provided verbally by the author at Sci/fantasy Cons).
     
  21. Johnny Dawkins

    Johnny Dawkins New Member

    Mar 19, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    JSS85 repped this.
  22. s7kru

    s7kru Red Card

    Dec 13, 2012
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Almost finished the 5th part

    Still waiting for the 6 part, that has the potential to be the best part though I doubt any part can surpass part 3. ;)
     

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