George R. R. Martin (as well as other recommendations)

[Hahma]

I actually got hooked on the books from watching the HBO series which I thought was one of the best tv shows I have ever seen. I started reading the first book when episode 5 was on HBO and I couldnt put the book down, actually finishing the first book before episode 10 was over.

Even knowing the major events that were going to happen in episodes 9 and 10, I still thought they were great. I am now in the middle of book 3 and this has become my favorite book series of all time.

The character development and discription of places and things is FANTASTIC in this series. I actually feel like I am FREEZING when they are beyond the Wall and burning up when they are crossing the Dothraki desert. I have heard from several people that Book 4 is the slowest and hardest read to get through. Hopefully that isn't true.

I would encourage anyone to read this wonderful series.

Glad you like it Omahavice. I'm on my second reading of the series to get familiar with it again before reading DWD. I'm on the third book presently.

I only got to see 3 episodes of the HBO series when they had a free weekend of it and I have those three DVR'd. I'll likely rent the series from the video store when it comes out or buy the series. From what I saw of it, they did it great.

 

[Yodaking]

Interesting news for those interested in the GoT books. Not directly related to the current story but it adds to the history and gives some insight to where the current story may head for those who like to speculate on such things.

 

[Bonesaw]

I flew through the first three books- awesome. Then, I got to the fourth...ugh. I'm not sure I can finish it. I don't know what he was thinking with going off on those tangents that only the tiniest relevancy to the main story.

I'll try...but man, it's going to be tough.

 

[Yodaking]

I read the books long before the TV show came about and while I do enjoy them a great deal I also had some complaints. The first few books I really loved all the texture he gives each and every location and character, but by the 4th book I was sick of reading about what foods were served and how they smelled. That far into the story, I just wanted more from the plots and positioning and less of the window dressing.

I even skipped over all the Dorne chapters completely when he introduced a whole new kingdom of characters I didn't care about at all. I was so caught up in to the stories of the characters I already knew that the Dorne stuff just seemed like an unnecessary distraction. For a while it worked too as most of the Dorne related stuff that was relevant to the main story was mentioned from the other characters point of view. Eventually though you see how Dorne becomes a bigger and bigger part of the puzzle though and I was forced to go back and read the parts I skipped.

I also think he made a mistake in how he split up books 4 & 5. If you have not gotten that far yet, once you get to book 5 he informs you that a good part of books 4 & 5 take place at the same time, they just cover different characters over that time frame. That is why you get so few chapters from some of your favorite characters in book 4, their story is covered in book 5. It just took him 5 years to get it published for some unknown reason. Not sure why he felt the need to do it that way, it is not like any of his books have a hard ending anyway. They all just flow together without any clear story arc distinctions so he could have kept everything on the same time line. I expect the TV show to correct that when they get that far as they won't be interested in showing so much out of chronological order. So books 4 & 5 will be chopped up and rearranged into seasons 5-8(?).