Any point reading the books?

Roger Hassenforder · 05-02-2017 12:45pm #1

Box set on sale in a local bookshop.
Any point?

mjsc1970 · 05-02-2017 12:47pm

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

Box set on sale in a local bookshop.
Any point?

Yes.

Roger Hassenforder · 05-02-2017 12:52pm

are they any good and is there much more than whats in the TV show?

Dial Hard · 05-02-2017 12:57pm

The books are fantastic and there's a *lot* more going on than they could fit into the show, naturally. But I'm not sure I could recommend anyone to start them at this stage, simply because I don't think the series will ever be finished.

pinkypinky · 05-02-2017 12:59pm

There's a vast amount more in the books, but the writing is lacking a bit at times. I often spot unnecessary repetition of words when synonyms could have been used. The last book could have done with serious editing, and there is of course a risk that Martin will never finish them since he seems more interested in writing episodes of the show and chapters of anthologies.

Having said that, if you really like the tv show, then it is worth reading the books for the extra layering it brings to your understanding.

Nody · 05-02-2017 3:06pm

If nothing else than to get more fleshed out characters and read a version of the sand vipers who are not bad pussy bad...

PetKing · 06-02-2017 1:57pm

I'd read them. Plenty of lore to flesh out the series, and you get a get understanding on the geography and layout of Westeros and further afield.

I wouldn't worry either, the series will be finished. Either at his snail's pace, or another more competent author in a more timely fashion.

Roger Hassenforder · 06-02-2017 3:15pm

Nody wrote: »

If nothing else than to get more fleshed out characters and read a version of the sand vipers who are not bad pussy bad...

Are there pictures of boobies?

awec · 06-02-2017 3:44pm

The first few books are brilliant but it goes downhill a bit. The later books are still good but they just take a bit of effort to get through, entire chapters could (and should) have been left on the cutting room floor. He gets very waffly.

PetKing · 06-02-2017 5:10pm

awec wrote:

The first few books are brilliant but it goes downhill a bit. The later books are still good but they just take a bit of effort to get through, entire chapters could (and should) have been left on the cutting room floor. He gets very waffly.

Turning the page and being presented with a certain character's chapter meant you were in for a right chore of a read.

Temptamperu · 06-02-2017 7:11pm

Roger Hassenforder wrote: »

Are there pictures of boobies?

You understand how books work? right?

Killergreene · 06-02-2017 7:14pm

Don't bother your arse. The old geezer has no intention of finishing them and will likely die before he ever even attempts to do so. At this point it's a saving grace HBO stepped in to save him from himself and give some sort of closure in the form of the TV show. I read the first book in 1998 and only last year did I finally give up on the series being completed.

Roger Hassenforder · 06-02-2017 8:24pm

Temptamperu wrote: »

You understand how books work? right?

wasnt great at the start, but got the hang of them!

Jofspring · 06-02-2017 11:07pm

I found reading the books great for breaking up the wait for the tv series to come back. Finished them about 2 years ago now and having to wait so long for the next season and having no more books to read is an absolute balls.

stampydmonkey · 06-02-2017 11:15pm

Jofspring wrote: »

I found reading the books great for breaking up the wait for the tv series to come back. Finished them about 2 years ago now and having to wait so long for the next season and having no more books to read is an absolute balls.

Fact....Read them all in about 6 months 2 years ago. Didn't know they weren't finished at the time so ploughed through them and was well pissed when I ran out of book. Back reading the first one again...sucker for punishment. They are brilliant books though...Except Sansas chapters!

Liam O · 06-02-2017 11:48pm

The books are miles better than the TV show.

stampydmonkey · 07-02-2017 12:06am

Liam O wrote: »

The books are miles better than the TV show.

And the TV show up till last season was miles better having read the books!

awec · 07-02-2017 11:09am

PetKing wrote: »

Turning the page and being presented with a certain character's chapter meant you were in for a right chore of a read.

The entire Iron islands story arc bored the face off me in the books.

pumpkin4life · 07-02-2017 11:24am

He's an excellent character writer but a very lackluster prose writer. The books are full of strange turns of phrase, odd, sometimes incorrect use of words and repetition that will do your fùcking head in. Characters on the other side of the world in a completely different social class will speak verbatim; utterly word for word. Words are wind. You know nothing Jon Snow. Reek rhymes with Leek. Where do whores go? I'm looking for Sansa Stark. It does your head in. Either George R.R Martin's editing team is terrible, or Martin is a holier than thou benny who can't accept editing/criticism of his work. I'd say its the latter tbh.

Also, it bothers me that any character that is a good but naive person/described as good looking tends to meet a horrible end. The greatest variable in determining how you survive in GoT is how much of a freak/outsider/non normal person you are. These flaws get more noticeable and headwrecking as the books progress.

First book is great but needs a bit of editing. It's by far the best of the lot. The second book is a snoozefest up until the last third or so. The third book's first half is dull, but the second half is fantastic and makes up for it. A Feast for Crows is one of the most painfully dull bits of nonsense I've ever read and while A Dance of Dragons is an improvement, it's still pretty poor like. You could drop half that book and you'd lose nothing.

Me reading GoT:

Which is a shame cause the good bits are really fùcking good.

That's why the T.V show is miles better than the books imo. It's far from flawless but overall, they do a pretty good job of keeping the good of the books and cutting out the nonsense from it.

I'd go for the books, but it be a tentative recommendation. It's a lot of time to sink in. Definitely read the first book anyhow.

Roger Hassenforder · 07-02-2017 3:44pm

pumpkin4life wrote: »

He's an excellent character writer but a very lackluster prose writer. The books are full of strange turns of phrase, odd, sometimes incorrect use of words and repetition that will do your fùcking head in. Characters on the other side of the world in a completely different social class will speak verbatim; utterly word for word. Words are wind. You know nothing Jon Snow. Reek rhymes with Leek. Where do whores go? I'm looking for Sansa Stark. It does your head in. Either George R.R Martin's editing team is terrible, or Martin is a holier than thou benny who can't accept editing/criticism of his work. I'd say its the latter tbh.

Also, it bothers me that any character that is a good but naive person/described as good looking tends to meet a horrible end. The greatest variable in determining how you survive in GoT is how much of a freak/outsider/non normal person you are. These flaws get more noticeable and headwrecking as the books progress.

First book is great but needs a bit of editing. It's by far the best of the lot. The second book is a snoozefest up until the last third or so. The third book's first half is dull, but the second half is fantastic and makes up for it. A Feast for Crows is one of the most painfully dull bits of nonsense I've ever read and while A Dance of Dragons is an improvement, it's still pretty poor like. You could drop half that book and you'd lose nothing.

Me reading GoT:

Which is a shame cause the good bits are really fùcking good.

That's why the T.V show is miles better than the books imo. It's far from flawless but overall, they do a pretty good job of keeping the good of the books and cutting out the nonsense from it.

I'd go for the books, but it be a tentative recommendation. It's a lot of time to sink in. Definitely read the first book anyhow.

Jaysis
I'd love to read your review of something you hate!!

eoinzy2000 · 07-02-2017 3:53pm

pumpkin4life wrote: »

He's an excellent character writer but a very lackluster prose writer. The books are full of strange turns of phrase, odd, sometimes incorrect use of words and repetition that will do your fùcking head in. Characters on the other side of the world in a completely different social class will speak verbatim; utterly word for word. Words are wind. You know nothing Jon Snow. Reek rhymes with Leek. Where do whores go? I'm looking for Sansa Stark. It does your head in. Either George R.R Martin's editing team is terrible, or Martin is a holier than thou benny who can't accept editing/criticism of his work. I'd say its the latter tbh.

Also, it bothers me that any character that is a good but naive person/described as good looking tends to meet a horrible end. The greatest variable in determining how you survive in GoT is how much of a freak/outsider/non normal person you are. These flaws get more noticeable and headwrecking as the books progress.

First book is great but needs a bit of editing. It's by far the best of the lot. The second book is a snoozefest up until the last third or so. The third book's first half is dull, but the second half is fantastic and makes up for it. A Feast for Crows is one of the most painfully dull bits of nonsense I've ever read and while A Dance of Dragons is an improvement, it's still pretty poor like. You could drop half that book and you'd lose nothing.

Me reading GoT:

Which is a shame cause the good bits are really fùcking good.

That's why the T.V show is miles better than the books imo. It's far from flawless but overall, they do a pretty good job of keeping the good of the books and cutting out the nonsense from it.

I'd go for the books, but it be a tentative recommendation. It's a lot of time to sink in. Definitely read the first book anyhow.

I was thinking of writing a post here, but that is probably the best review of the book series you can get. I agree 100% with all that is said, apart from the last being an improvement on the second last. I read the second last quicker and came close on many occasions to burning the Dance of Dragons it was that fecking tedious. Defo read the first 3 though.

Liam O · 07-02-2017 10:38pm

The Simpson's pic above is an explanation as to why people have a problem with the books imo. Rushing through to get to the "good stuff" and ignoring the character and world building going on. Feast for instance I went into after SoS looking for more of the same, racing to the end of chapters without really taking them in. It is a change of pace that threw me first time I read it and i did get fatigued about halfway through. Probably had a lot to do with it being 2000 odd pages of the same story in a few weeks at that stage

On re-reading though Feast might actually be my favourite book. The new characters all have their own little things going on and it expands the scale of the story fantastically. Considering he had to scrap about half of it and start again there was going to be a certain amount of slowness as the characters began to catch up to the story but I enjoyed learning about the riverlands, Dorne, Iron Islands and beyond. Victarion is such a badass! Not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's very good after a second read.

awec · 08-02-2017 11:33am

I was going to re-read the entire series but I got about 1/3 of the way through the second book and gave up.

Jofspring · 08-02-2017 11:53am

Re-read the last three books and they were way more enjoyable the second time. There was a few chapters that I hated getting to but I found the Iron Islands, Dorne, Mereen and Tyrion storylines much better when I could go back take my time and had a better grasp of the story. On first read it was tedious and at times confusing with the amount of new characters that were flooding in. Second time it was far more enjoyable as I was able to take my time.

Lady Spangles · 13-03-2017 11:41pm

Surely I'm not the only person who loved Feast for Crows? I loved Cersei's point of view chapters and her descent into madness was brilliant! It was a welcome break from Dany (who was seriously getting on my nerves by the end of Storm) and her insufferable dragons. I honestly felt like we saw more of the world of Westeros in "Feast" and saw many of the hitherto background characters (Cersei, Jaime and Brienne chief among them) being fleshed out. Even Septon Meribald was fun, while he lasted. Seeing Sansa learn to play the game was a treat, too. I loved it.

0byme75341jo28 · 14-03-2017 4:33pm

AFFC and ADWD are both good reads but a lot of the time chapters/plot lines feel like they belong to side stories and do little to add to the overall plot. I really think they could've been merged and condensed to under 800 pages and still be readable, but instead they're something like 1900 overall.

Martin definitely gets too much leeway with his fans. I think from an objective point of view there's so much wrong with how he goes about telling a story, it's far too long winded, with too many characters introduced, too much put into describing the clothes/food/environment at any particular stage, and definitely, definitely, not enough ground covered page for page than in other titles. There's a such thing as too much character development, after a while it gets tedious.

Ben Gadot · 25-04-2017 7:18pm

Lady Spangles wrote: »

Surely I'm not the only person who loved Feast for Crows? I loved Cersei's point of view chapters and her descent into madness was brilliant! It was a welcome break from Dany (who was seriously getting on my nerves by the end of Storm) and her insufferable dragons. I honestly felt like we saw more of the world of Westeros in "Feast" and saw many of the hitherto background characters (Cersei, Jaime and Brienne chief among them) being fleshed out. Even Septon Meribald was fun, while he lasted. Seeing Sansa learn to play the game was a treat, too. I loved it.

I just finished the series there and I really enjoyed AFFC for both the politics and as you say, the introduction of POVs such as Cersei. In fact Cersei's POV where Kevan slaps her down is probably one of my favourites in the series.

The last two books have their strengths and weaknesses. Characters like Jaime, Cersei and Jon/Theon in ADWD carry the books for me.

Dany's story has it's moments but I'm actually glad how they condense it in the show, as the amount of players involved in the books (when you know their importance is minimal in the overall story) is extremely taxing. Ditto Tyrion's arc in ADWD which was fine until he became Jorah's captive. Arya also.

Anyway, as someone who put off reading the books forever and having finally bit the Bullet, I'd say it's a worthwhile venture for sure.

CalamariFritti · 25-04-2017 7:24pm

I found them a really entertaining read. If you like reading that sort of stuff it's definitely on the higher quality side. I like his elaborate style and also the narrative where each chapter is told from a different character's perspective. You quickly have your favourites and you can't wait for another chapter of theirs. At times I couldn't put the books down. It never gets boring even on the more side characters. I read some of his other books, too, 'cos I liked it so much. I would recommend it.

Dave0JV · 07-05-2017 3:09pm

I read the books after watching the show and I personally enjoyed it since you can really get into the heads of the characters and understand to a level much higher than you would from just watching the show!

froog · 11-05-2017 6:02pm

the last two books were a bit of a slog tbh, particularly AFFC. seems like while he knows the ending i'm sure he has no idea how to get there.

Ben Gadot · 11-05-2017 6:28pm

He knows alright but I'd say his idea of how to get there and how plots should converge are very different to what fans expect.

Meereen, Winterfell, The Wall, King's Landing, young Griff, Dorne, Braavos, Davos, Iron Born, Bran, the River lands and the Eyrie. That's reasonably what he has on his plate.

A tighter POV could encompass Dorne, KL and YG.

Ditto a tighter POV could encompass Iron Born and Meereen.

River lands and Eyrie.

No way of getting around Winterfell, The Wall, Braavos, Davo and Bran. He still needs to commit a lot of time there individually.

It's a lot of work so that's why my expectations are firmly realistic rather than hoping for some perfect harmony in the story eventually.

Any point reading the books?

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