Game of Thrones

[Harrison]

Has anyone been watching "Game of Thrones"?

The series is based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series.

The series has amazingly high production values and a lot of high profile English actors in the case, most prominent of all being Sean Bean. I've really been enjoying it.

However there was quite a big twist I hadn't guessed would happen at the end of this weeks episode. I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it yet, but it is quite a surprise.

[Teho]

Yep, I'm very much a fan of this. Read the books years and years ago, and have been awaiting the next one for as long as anyone (it's finally coming out now, after seven years since the last one). I heard about the TV-series also a long time ago, and have been following the production all the way too. Too bad we really shouldn't be talking about the plot at all here, as this is one series that definitely should not be spoiled for anyone. But yeah, the most recent episode should cement the fact that this series is unlike any other fantasy series ever, if you hadn't realised allready. The second season is allready confirmed too, hopefully there will be many more. But if you don't want to wait a year between seasons, read the books. I strongly recommend them, they're much better as always since the TV-show necessarily has to leave out or gloss over a lot of details, though they do a good job of staying true to the source material.

If there's one thing I have to nitpick about it's HBO's love of putting a lot of unnecessary nudity and sex-scenes that are there for exposition alone. I mean, I'm not prudish and such things have their place. There's a lot of it in the books as well, so there's no surprise that they're including it. But they are adding extra stuff that obviously has no purpose besides showing that they can. Allright, so you can show two girls fisting away at eachother while a third guy delivers a monolouge, could we focus on something plot-related now please? Like the monolouge the character was giving which was actually important in establishing his character but which nobody paid attention to as they were busy watching the two girls?

But it's nitpicking. I expected it all along as it's HBO and it's what they do whenever they can. And that is the only minor complaint I got, the show is absolutely ace.

And the books are even better. Read them.

[Sharingan]

Love this series. If it's released on Blu-ray, I'm definitely buying it.

Like Teho, I read the books years ago as well, and have been eagerly awaiting the latest book. Good to hear it's finally out; might pick it up this weekend.

As for the TV show, I was surprised at the high production values and the acting. I especially like Peter Dinklage's depiction of the Imp. It's spot on!

What did turn out somewhat disappointingly were the clashes between north and south in the latest episode. After all, there's supposed to be a war out there, and all that's been done so far to depict it are the before and the after of the battles. HBO's The Pacific had battle with thousands of soldiers and explosions - I don't see why they should skimp on it in Game of Thrones.

Other than that, I'm loving the series so far. I hear they've already given the green light for a second season. Let's hope George R.R. Martin can finish the books before the TV series runs out of material ;)

[Teho]

Afraid you won't be able to pick up the new book this weekend, Sharingan. It isn't out before July 12th, fingers crossed. ;)

For those not in the know, this book was supposedly halfway done when the last one came out and was supposed to follow it soon after. But due to the writer hitting on some stumbling blocks and having to do major rewrites to make the plot work without resorting to cheap deus ex machinae solutions, it has taken him seven years of constantly missing his deadlines by increasingly wide margins. According to his blog it really is done now and in the process of being published. Finally.

[Sharingan]

Bummer. Oh well, another couple weeks of waiting won't hurt after 7 years :thumbs:

According to the Wikipedia article, this is the timeline of the release dates of the novel (title, # of pages, release date).

1. A Game of Thrones
807
August 1996
2. A Clash of Kings
969
November 1998
3. A Storm of Swords
1128
August 2000
4. A Feast for Crows
978
October 2005
5. A Dance with Dragons
1040
July 12, 2011

Apparently, the fourth book took quite a few years to complete as well. Let's hope this isn't some sort of precendent for the two books that are yet to come.

[coze]

just started with the books, looking at the tv series as I go on :) it's really helpful to get started, cause the immense number of characters make it little bit difficult to remember who's who in the beginning :)

[Harrison]

The final episode of the first series was great. Nice ending. Looking forward to the 2nd series.

Bit of a shame both Sean Bean and Jason Momoa won't be in it any longer, but no character is safe in such a story.