Winter is coming - Game of Thrones teaser from HBO

[Richmond Clements]

Oh yes. The books are nothing short of astounding.

Seriously that good?  I've found myself rather burnt out on fantasy, after a brief return to it  a year or two back - I'm struggling to progress at all with series by authors I genuinely like, like Tad Williams and Kate Elliott.  Should I put the Game of Thrones books in my queue? 

Yeah- I'm not a fan of fantasy novels at all, which is why I resisted reading these for ages.

[Kerrin]

Should I put the Game of Thrones books in my queue?  

Damn straight!

I've pretty much lost faith in the Tad Williams Shadow thing and prefer less traditional stuff like Joe Abercrombie and what-have-you. The George Martin books are absolute belters. The sheer amount of plotting, intrigue and down right nastiness is compelling, together with the truly huge stage they are set on, all excellently depicted, and the first rate characterisation, they are a must.

[I, Cosh]

Oh yes. The books are nothing short of astounding.

Seriously that good?  I've found myself rather burnt out on fantasy, after a brief return to it  a year or two back - I'm struggling to progress at all with series by authors I genuinely like, like Tad Williams and Kate Elliott.  Should I put the Game of Thrones books in my queue?  

The books are excellent stuff full off interesting characters and unexpected (but never inexplicable) twists and turns. The fantasy elements have grown in importance over time but they are initially kept deliberately vague and out of the main thrust of the story to the extent that you could practically turn the first into a straight historical romance just by doing a Find-Replace on the place names.

They're not without their problems, but I can't see any of them being insurmountable to anyone who's ploughed their way through Thomas Covenant and the likes. The individual books are uniformly overlong and Martin like's to give each character their own distinctive little saying or tic, the repetition of which at least once a chapter becomes teeth-grindingly repetitive before you're even halfway through the first book. Secondly, it's taken him about six years to write the latest one and I can't see the story being wrapped up without another couple of volumes, so you might want to wait until you retire and read the whole lot in one go.

[mogzilla]

HBO site has a 15 mins of the first episode to view (sorry stupid laptop doesnt want to post links today!)

ooks good with a smattering of horror thrown in! cannot wait. some good telly at the moment waling dead ,boardwalk empire and this....