Game of Thrones!

[ZPowers]

He's previously won an Emmy for the role.

I started reading the novels this week, and am about a third of the way through the first book. I'm shocked at how much younger many of the characters seem to be in the books. Daenerys, Jon, Robb and others are only a year or two older than Joffrey (he's even mentioned as being taller than Jon and Robb).

 

[Nicodemus]

It's the middle ages!

 

[ZPowers]

It's the middle ages!

I get why they're young (and I certainly get why they decided to cast them older), but before reading the books the thought that the characters would be young (and it'd make more sense in the context of the time) never really crossed my mind.

 

[Dali]

I love, love, love this series, read the first two books in November and the last 4 in December; though I do worry whether GRRM will finish the series before he dies.

Books 1 - 2 were absolutely perfect. 3.1 and, to a lesser extent 3.2, was good. He lost the plot in the first third of book 4 and it just became tedious but I had committed and I had to see it through. Book 5 was lackluster and muddled as well but it contained flashes of his earlier brilliance. I've also oft wondered whether the editor was sleeping on the job for the last two; I've caught the silliest mistakes, ones that would seem more at home in a debut novel from a tiny publishing house. Besides, a touch of streamlining and focusing would have been good.

I have high hopes for book six; I have the feeling the criticism of his last two books will light a fire under his rear (and his publishing house!), in a good way. I really don't care whether the book ends up being co-written by a team of ghostwriters (not that they'd ever admit to it), with him at the head, so long as it's effing brilliant.

Is he INTP btw? Would explain a lot.

 

[Nicodemus]

I've caught the silliest mistakes, ones that would seem more at home in a debut novel from a tiny publishing house.

Name them, please.

 

[Anew Leaf]

I love, love, love this series, read the first two books in November and the last 4 in December; though I do worry whether GRRM will finish the series before he dies.

Books 1 - 2 were absolutely perfect. 3.1 and, to a lesser extent 3.2, was good. He lost the plot in the first third of book 4 and it just became tedious but I had committed and I had to see it through. Book 5 was lackluster and muddled as well but it contained flashes of his earlier brilliance. I've also oft wondered whether the editor was sleeping on the job for the last two; I've caught the silliest mistakes, ones that would seem more at home in a debut novel from a tiny publishing house. Besides, a touch of streamlining and focusing would have been good.

I have high hopes for book six; I have the feeling the criticism of his last two books will light a fire under his rear (and his publishing house!), in a good way. I really don't care whether the book ends up being co-written by a team of ghostwriters (not that they'd ever admit to it), with him at the head, so long as it's effing brilliant.

Is he INTP btw? Would explain a lot.

There are only 5 books out so I am astonished you have read 6 of them.

I am pretty shocked that you didn't enjoy the last half of book 3, unless you are misidentifying which ones you didn't like. Book 3 was by far the best with Book 2 close behind.

I think book 6 and 7 will be stronger since he has gotten through the mire of books 4-5. I have great sympathy for what he has gone through to finish these books.

My guess is that he is ENTP but he could be INTP. Either way he is awesome. I hope that I can get my own fantasy series published just so I can meet him at some convention.

 

[Dali]

Name them, please.

Spelling mistakes; awkward syntax; awkward run-on sentences that make little sentence and could do with some punctuation to break them up.... etc The mistakes are there; they're not a dime a dozen but definitely more than are to be expected from an author of his calibre and a series of this 'magnitude'. Of course, it's the editors fault and not his (900+ pages... GRRM gets off the hook).

I didn't write the mistakes down as I went along and I'm prolly not going to reread books 4 & 5 for the purposes of this thread but I'm sure someone, somewhere, on the internet has transcribed the said errors and I'll do a bit of research and get back on this, when I'm not afflicted with post-nap malaise.

 

[Nicodemus]

Spelling mistakes; awkward syntax; awkward run-on sentences that make little sentence and could do with some punctuation to break them up.... etc The mistakes are there; they're not a dime a dozen but definitely more than are to be expected from an author of his calibre and a series of this 'magnitude'. Of course, it's the editors fault and not his (900+ pages... GRRM gets off the hook).

I didn't write the mistakes down as I went along and I'm prolly not going to reread books 4 & 5 for the purposes of this thread but I'm sure someone, somewhere, on the internet has transcribed the said errors and I'll do a bit of research and get back on this, when I'm not afflicted with post-nap malaise.

Oh, just orthographic mistakes... I was hoping for story contradictions and such.

 

[Dali]

There are only 5 books out so I am astonished you have read 6 of them.

Counting 3.1 & 3.2 as two books.

I am pretty shocked that you didn't enjoy the last half of book 3, unless you are misidentifying which ones you didn't like. Book 3 was by far the best with Book 2 close behind.

I didn't dislike 3.2, I just enjoyed it less than its predecessors.

I think book 6 and 7 will be stronger since he has gotten through the mire of books 4-5. I have great sympathy for what he has gone through to finish these books.

I sure hope so (!) since he has gone through the extensive character development and setting the stage for what is no doubt an ending of epic proportions. I mean, I have no problem with character development (I loooooooooooooooove Tolkien's way of going about it, he rambles on but it just... flows) but GRRM disappointed me royally with book 4 (especially). I was especially angry because I had loved the series so bloody much up to that point and was just raving about it and starting to think in Westeros-speak (you know what phrases I mean. LOL) then he goes and... I kind of felt cheated.

I hope that I can get my own fantasy series published just so I can meet him at some convention.

Let's drink to that.

Hehe, some comments in this thread amused me and got me thinking, for all of our NTP author's Ne awesomeness, not a single main character is NTP.
(EDIT: Ah, Tyrion)

 

[Dali]

Oh, just orthographic mistakes... I was hoping for story contradictions and such.

Actually, I'm pretty damn certain I came across a few contradictions, nothing major but one I can remember off the top of my head is a character's horse changing colour and sex in between books. Lemme get my smoke fix. Brb.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I think the best performance is usually delivered by Michael Shannon as Nelson van Alden

Agreed.

My favorite character is Nucky.

I agree.

 

[Dali]

This guy says what I was trying to say and he does it so much better. (I'd have had a bit more to say about AFFC though)

But I will still buy book six the day it comes out, Godwilling.

 

[Anew Leaf]

Counting 3.1 & 3.2 as two books.



I didn't dislike 3.2, I just enjoyed it less than its predecessors.


I sure hope so (!) since he has gone through the extensive character development and setting the stage for what is no doubt an ending of epic proportions. I mean, I have no problem with character development (I loooooooooooooooove Tolkien's way of going about it, he rambles on but it just... flows) but GRRM disappointed me royally with book 4 (especially). I was especially angry because I had loved the series so bloody much up to that point and was just raving about it and starting to think in Westeros-speak (you know what phrases I mean. LOL) then he goes and... I kind of felt cheated.



Let's drink to that.

Hehe, some comments in this thread amused me and got me thinking, for all of our NTP author's Ne awesomeness, not a single main character is NTP.
(EDIT: Ah, Tyrion)

ahh, you have the UK version. I am sorry. I didn't realize that other versions split the books into multiple volumes... how confusing! I just checked out the wikipedia page and saw that. I think breaking the books down more than they are sets things up for more comparisons than were intended.

Book 4 was terrible... but I blame that on the fact that Book 4 was 85% characters I didn't care that much about with Arya being the major exception. Book 5 was better for me because it was people I liked.

I am hoping that now that he has gotten through the mess of the middle of a story he orginally was going to tell in only 3 books, that he will be freer to start wrapping things up. I think he succombed to the usual NP issues of expanding outward at a rapid pace and then realizing that in order for him to contract he was going to have to get really creative. Like I can see one issue being trying to bring everyone back together but needing the timelines to mesh up. Some characters are kind of "doing nothing" (Dany) and other characters are doing 500 things.

I know that he originally wanted a 5 year gap between some of the books but then found he was having to do too many flashbacks to fill in the gaps. My sympathies to that as well.

If I do get to meet him I'll get an autograph for you ^_^.

@Edit: Tyrion is very ENTP to me. He is super win!

 

[Dali]

ahh, you have the UK version. I am sorry. I didn't realize that other versions split the books into multiple volumes... how confusing!

My bookshop was similarly confused, they only had part 1 and I had to explain 3.2 to them which they then ordered and I had to wait weeks for. I almost killed a kitten that day.

I am hoping that now that he has gotten through the mess of the middle of a story he orginally was going to tell in only 3 books, that he will be freer to start wrapping things up. I think he succombed to the usual NP issues of expanding outward at a rapid pace and then realizing that in order for him to contract he was going to have to get really creative. Like I can see one issue being trying to bring everyone back together but needing the timelines to mesh up. Some characters are kind of "doing nothing" (Dany) and other characters are doing 500 things.

*nod*nod*

Not to sound pessimistic but methinks there might be another three books in the offing, and the final one might have to be completed by a competent 'close friend', with guidelines and notes left by GRRM. (like Puccini's Turandot, where Alfano completed the final section)


SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm not particularly weepy or anything but... did you also feel emotionally drained by the baptism of fire that the good guys are going through? Every single thing that could possibly go wrong for them going wrong and all the deaths.... etc

 

[Anew Leaf]

My bookshop was similarly confused, they only had part 1 and I had to explain 3.2 to them which they then ordered and I had to wait weeks for. I almost killed a kitten that day.



*nod*nod*

Not to sound pessimistic but methinks there might be another three books in the offing, and the final one might have to be completed by a competent 'close friend', with guidelines and notes left by GRRM. (like Puccini's Turandot, where Alfano completed the final section)


SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm not particularly weepy or anything but... did you also feel emotionally drained by the baptism of fire that the good guys are going through? Every single thing that could possibly go wrong for them going wrong and all the deaths.... etc

The poor kittens!!

I completely sympathize. I got into this series from my Ex and so I grabbed his entire collection and devoured them all in a few weeks. Not getting enough sleep or food does not make for a conducive reading session. I remember telling him that I was glad the Hound was dead and he was like, huh? Did you even read the books?! And that's when I realized that I sort of sleep walked through the last 100 pages of one of the books and completely missed the part where Cat is a zombie thing.

I read an intereview with GRRM where he stated that he will not allow anyone to write any missing books in the case he dies. With that in mind he did tell some important facts to the makers of the HBO series so that they could feasibly try and fill in some blanks on the final season (or two).

I have confidence because without it I shall die of a broken heart.

I am newly glad that I did not get further than 3 books in the Wheel of Time series.

@ the emotionally drainedness... I actually like it a bit. *wallows in the sadness and rejoices* I like the fact that bad things happen to these people because it's realistic.

Having said that if Jon is dead-dead I will be pissed.

 

[Dali]

The poor kittens!!

I completely sympathize. I got into this series from my Ex and so I grabbed his entire collection and devoured them all in a few weeks. Not getting enough sleep or food does not make for a conducive reading session. I remember telling him that I was glad the Hound was dead and he was like, huh? Did you even read the books?! And that's when I realized that I sort of sleep walked through the last 100 pages of one of the books and completely missed the part where Cat is a zombie thing.

I read an intereview with GRRM where he stated that he will not allow anyone to write any missing books in the case he dies. With that in mind he did tell some important facts to the makers of the HBO series so that they could feasibly try and fill in some blanks on the final season (or two).

I have confidence because without it I shall die of a broken heart.

I am newly glad that I did not get further than 3 books in the Wheel of Time series.

@ the emotionally drainedness... I actually like it a bit. *wallows in the sadness and rejoices* I like the fact that bad things happen to these people because it's realistic.

Having said that if Jon is dead-dead I will be pissed.

Ooh, the spoiler button. I like. Feels top secret.

LOL. I also empathise because I felt like I semi-sleep-read parts of 4 which I then had to keep coming to when I was more lucid.

This may seem contradictory to what I said earlier but I can understand why he wouldn't want the series completed by another should he pass. Same reason I wont touch anything by Christopher Tolkien.

 

[Randomnity]

[MENTION=13402]Saturned[/MENTION], I totally agree with the last line of your spoiler!! Too bad we'll probably have to wait years to find out...

 

[Dali]

Yeah, that would be rather unfortunate.

 

[Nicodemus]

Having said that if Jon is dead-dead I will be pissed.

He cannot be, for "the dragon has three heads, there must be one more".

 

[Anew Leaf]

He cannot be, for "the dragon has three heads, there must be one more".

That is what I am banking on. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that's his ancestry.