Poll: Is "A Song of Ice and Fire" worth my time?

Mandalore_15

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I recently started watching HBO's Game of Thrones and was frankly blown away by its quality. The characters are complex and interesting, the world exciting (but not over the top) and the plot is really taking off... but are the books any good?

I'm a guy that's never really been a fan of fantasy books. Videogames, yes. Spells etc. make for fun gameplay mechanics, and the setting can make for a real visual feast (see The Witcher 2). But I've always been far too aware of the flaws in most fantasy novels. Introduce magic and I have to ask "why is this guy arbitrarily restricted"?, the answer being if he wasn't the story would be over pretty damn fast. I have had other gripes as well, such as widespread use of clichés and generally lackluster writing, which have led me to pretty much devalue the genre in the area of literature.

However, I did really enjoy The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings kept me interested until about halfway through the second book... so knowing all this, do you think it's wise for me to pick up a copy of "A Game of Thrones"? Is it well-written and loathe to rely on magical deus ex machina, or is it just another LotR clone?
 

Spacewolf

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Definatly not an LOTR clone and yea their good books 1&2 i do find quite hard to read but still very good and 3&4 are even better. No deus ex machina occasionally it seems like Diabolus Ex Machina is in effect but twists make sense if you think about them
 

stefanbertramlee

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Hells yes. Also there is very little magic/supernatural stuff throughout, and any there is comes at a high cost.
 

DJROC

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It's very good from what I've read of it so far. Though Martin's increasing delays in getting books out to finish the series does concern me a bit.
 

Mandalore_15

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DJROC said:
It's very good from what I've read of it so far. Though Martin's increasing delays in getting books out to finish the series does concern me a bit.
He still has two left to go, right? Do the books by themselves lack any kind of resolution?
 

DJROC

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Again, from what I've read I find that they complete their narrative "checkpoints" well. There is obviously a "We're not done yet" feel to them, but the main development of the plot gets explored and resolved.
 

BGH122

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Mandalore_15 said:
I'm a guy that's never really been a fan of fantasy books. Videogames, yes. Spells etc. make for fun gameplay mechanics, and the setting can make for a real visual feast (see The Witcher 2). But I've always been far too aware of the flaws in most fantasy novels. Introduce magic and I have to ask "why is this guy arbitrarily restricted"?, the answer being if he wasn't the story would be over pretty damn fast. I have had other gripes as well, such as widespread use of clichés and generally lackluster writing, which have led me to pretty much devalue the genre in the area of literature.
I know this isn't what you asked, but if you're interested in trying some lightweight fantasy stuff that feels a lot like a videogame or a movie with some hilariously overpowered protagonists then you could do a lot worse than David Gemmell, 'Legend' particularly.

Limbs go missing left, right and centre whilst the protagonist says grizzled veteran things that are essentially a low-fantasy equivalent of "I'm too old for this shit".
 

[.redacted]

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DJROC said:
It's very good from what I've read of it so far. Though Martin's increasing delays in getting books out to finish the series does concern me a bit.
I just don't want him to die before it's over...

OT: Well, the series is good, but the books are fucking epic.
[sub]That's a 'yes', just in case it's not plain enough.[/sub]
 

Hosker

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Definitely. I'm just finishing off A Clash of Kings and it's brilliant.
 

Viking Incognito

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Everyone in the nerd community is buzzing about it like furious honey bees but I still havn't seen a single episode of it I despite all of the talk, I still don't really know what the darn thing is even about.
 

RonHiler

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Very definitely YES. With one qualification. As the other poster said, it's worrysome the amount of time between books. And yes, he still has two more to write (the fifth volume being written but not yet released, it's coming out next month). The dude is in his 60s, so it's no sure thing we are ever going to see those last two books.

Martin has said he hopes the next two books will be back on a 3 year schedule, but then he also said when he started the last book it would only take about a year or so (it took 6).

But other than that, the books are amazing. Don't worry about the magic too much. While there is a smidge of it, it's very understated. The whole thing is really more of a political thriller set in a fantasy world than it is a LOTR style series, where magic is everywhere.
 

Goofguy

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Here's my question to the fans of the book series, has the HBO series been pretty faithful to the source material?

I'm actually really digging all the underhandedness, scheming and backdoor deals thus far in the TV series. It's kind of a fresh (and sinister) take on how royalty and politics are depicted in fantasy novels.
 

BlueberryMUNCH

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LOL, I was thinking of making this thread myself.
Awesome; looks like I'll be checking them out myself, then.
Goofguy said:
Here's my question to the fans of the book series, has the HBO series been pretty faithful to the source material?
I too am also curious.


Now seriously? What kind of capcha is that?!
 

mornal

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Goofguy said:
Here's my question to the fans of the book series, has the HBO series been pretty faithful to the source material?

I'm actually really digging all the underhandedness, scheming and backdoor deals thus far in the TV series. It's kind of a fresh (and sinister) take on how royalty and politics are depicted in fantasy novels.
Having just started reading the books with the series, I'd say it stayed relatively faithful. Like most medium changes some frivolous events are taken out. One thing I did notice though is they added some stuff in to give the character depth they lost by not being able to have all the descriptions present in text.
 

RonHiler

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Goofguy said:
Here's my question to the fans of the book series, has the HBO series been pretty faithful to the source material?
Yeah, it's been pretty good. In some places, it's word for word right out of the book. Where they've made additions or changes, it's still pretty faithful to the spirit of what Martin wrote.
 

noxymoron19

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I really want to watch the series but I just can't let myself do it cause Im only half way through the first book.

Maybe I can watch it in a couple years...
 

EvilPicnic

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I am a massive ASOIAF fan, and could wax lyrical about it for fucking ages, but I won't.

All I would say is that, as awesome as the first book is, the series really gets great as the later books progress. Seriously, things escalate to such an extent that you look back on the first book and think, 'damn, those were the good times...'. Shit gets real.

They are definitely worth your time.
 

Mandalore_15

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Thanks for all the feedback guys.

I had another question: do the books actually allow you to get attached to any characters? I actually gave myself a major spoiler by reading about the book on wikipedia and found out that one of my favourite characters dies fairly early on, which was a pretty big shock. Can I expect everyone else I care about to do the same?