Well, if my memory of the books serves, we should be seeing lots more of Tyrion this season!
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Good to hear. I'm very much looking forward to the episode tonight. I obviously have no idea how the series will go, and maybe this is too obvious a twist, but I'm already hoping to see Tyrion on the Iron Throne when all is said and done.
As for the books you mentioned, darthur, I heartily endorse Enders Game. It's a really remarkable book. Speaker was almost as good but, you are right, the rest of the series (and, IMHO, the rest of Card's books) never quite reached the level of Enders Game. One of the top few Sci Fi books I've ever read.
I managed to land a set of Season 1 DVD's and they arrived in Friday's mail. The wife and son had a party to attend so after a quick supper I started watching by myself. I watched and I watched. Even after they returned from the party the viewing session continued. By 5:30 AM it was over. Ten fantastic episodes in one awesome sitting.
Since I already have Showtime and am a big Dexter, Homeland, and The Borgias fan, I won't be springing for HBO, so it's going to be a very, very long time till the Season 2 DVD's comeout, but I will definitely shellout for another go round.
The Hyperion novels by Dan Simmons. Certainly my favorite book(s) of all time. I've read the four novels multiple times, and still end up openly crying at certain sections of the last book.
I've read most of the books recommended in this thread, and these are still by far my favorite.
On a side note, Simmons has also tried to transcend genre by releasing a bunch of other types of stories (horror, detective, historical fiction). The horror novel I've read was pretty good (probably similar enough to scifi/fantasy to not make a big difference), but I just read Black Hills, which was just painful. I found it interesting that an authors can be some amazing in one genre, but just awful in another...
Anyone watching? Without getting into details because I don't remember the ground rules of this thread, but the show is starting to take some huge deviations from the book. Two characters were introduced last night, one completely different in personality from the book, the other basically a replacement character (or so it appears thus far). I am generally fine with all of them thus far, but they'll need to play out before I'll necessarily agree that they work.
And who knew the Lost smoke monster came from Melisandre's hoo-ha?
I read Book 1 after season 1 and promptly decided I will continue to not read the books after the season is complete. I very much enjoyed watching season 1 of Game of Thrones and then reading the book. I think if I read the book and then watched the season it would irritate me when I watched the show. Deviations are, to some extent, inevitable, and tend to frustrate when the book is very good in its own right.
Tyrion continues to impress. More every episode. And it was interesting and suprising to see the twist that led Tywin to both save Baratheon's kid and take Arya into his service.
I really want to stay away from spoilers, because the few big plot developments I know about coming up (the Red Wedding (refraining from specifics so as not to provide spoilers for anyone else)) are one's that I'd rather not know about.
Very much enjoying this series...IMHO the best HBO series since Deadwood.
Woof, pretty brutal episode. The wife actually had to "do something else" during parts of it so she wasn't paying full attention. And was I the only one who thought that Geoffrey was thinking something much, much worse with that stag scepter thing?
Love Tyrion, and glad to know he'll be around a while. He is, as someone sad, the Al Swearengen of this show.
Arya Stark is now the cupbearer for the Lannisters? Oh, that is RICH. I really am looking forward to some good stuff there.
Disappointed in Greyback turning on the Starks... I had high hopes for that boy.
Overall good stuff!
No, you weren't the only one who thought they were going there. My first thought was "No way! This is a brutal show, but c'mon." I don't remember that scene from the books, but they are loooong and it's been a while. I do remember the Melisandre "giving birth" scene from the book. I kind of like how some of the stuff is different or more fleshed out on the tv version. There are some characters like Margaery who barely speak in the book and I had a hard time picturing her. It will be interesting to see how her character reacts to the upcoming events if they stay true to the books. I can't wait til Sunday night!
Glad I wasn't the only one; I too thought 'Oh okay this show is brutal, but are they REALLY going there?!' Glad they didn't. Apparently that part was not in the books.
The birth scene was awesome... whatever that thing was, it looked so fantastically unnatural and evil and horrible... and I just don't get who is going to be able to fight that thing, you know? Doesn't seem like something a sword or an axe can stop.
I, like you, am looking forward to it. I so want to read the books!:)
You guys still watching? I really, really liked tonight's episode.
- Loved the Hound, Cersei and Joffrey each breaking down in their own way.
- Loved the Rains of Castamere and how it was used. It is referred to several times in the books and it was great to actually hear it.
- Loved Sansa's quiet anger towards Tyrion and her manipulation of Joffrey.
Great episode last night. I watched it at 9:00 and rewatched most of it at 11:00.
Some of the things I'm enjoying...
1) Obviously Tyrion. Peter Dinklage deserves whatever awards he gets for his performance. He is absolutely great in every scene. I've done my best to avoid knowing too much about the way this story will unfold, but I did check the internet to see if the Imp was still around through the remaining books that Martin has written to date. To avoid spoilers for others who prefer to be in the dark, I'll defer from revealing what I've found.
2) Sansa, who was one of my least favorite characters in Season 1, and her growth. I'm not sure how her character arc plays out, but she's starting to show some real inner strength, and I'll be curious to see how she grows as a character and person. The actress playing her gave probably her best performance of the series so far in last night's episode.
3) Arya. Missed not seeing that clever girl last night. Hope she has some screen time in the season finale. The Lannisters should be afraid of that girl growing up.
4) The willingness and ability of the series to develop depth in all these characters. There's something about most of the characters you can sympathise with, and something about many to hate. That almost took away from the battle for me last night, because, unlike LOTR, where you really wanted one side to win, last night I was somewhat ambivalent. I wanted Tyrion to be victorious, but that meant Joffrey would be as well. I wanted Ser Davos Seaworth to do well, but that would mean victory for Stannis, who's only redeeming quality so far is that he likes dogs. Still, that ambivalence is a fair price to pay for seeing so many characters so well fleshed out with their good and bad aspects, their strengths and weaknesses, and the interesting relationships (like Tywin's fondness for Arya, or the Hound's soft side where Sansa is concerned).
Ya'll still watching this? New season is on and about to air the third episode I think. I am in season 2 right now and am considering buying the books.
Definitely watching it. My wife is so into it that she gets all excited for Sunday night just to get together on the couch after the kids are in bed and watch GoT. So far so great with season 3.
I am buying the books, but I'm waiting until the end of each season to buy the corresponding book. As always, the book goes into more detail and more depth and is subtly different, so I have a strong feeling that reading the book before watching the season would take away significantly from the viewing experience...while there's enough extra in the books that reading the book after watching the season is a fun "oh, wow that explains some more of what I saw" experience. Book 1 and Book 2 were both really fun reads after watching the show.
Good policy, but be careful after this season. Book 3 is so long that they're splitting it essentially in twain. If you want to keep up what you're doing, you'll have to stop halfway through. That said, without giving anything away, the point you'll have to stop at is an emotionally charged moment that makes most readers of A Storm of Swords put the book down for a few days at least, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. ;)
I've gotten so into it that I can't wait for the next episodes so I want to buy the books! But I feel you are right and it will diminish the show if I read ahead. O my what to do
Jaime Lannister says, "Ouch...that's gonna leave a mark."