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Post by Miisa on Jun 20, 2013 16:16:24 GMT
Any lovers of The Song of Ice and Fire series, aka. Game of Thrones series? I am in the middle of it now and very hooked. I have not read a lot of the swords & sorcery genre before apart from Lord of the Rings, but I have to say I am pretty impressed with the world, characters and emotional pull it manages to achieve. Maybe the incredibly well-made TV series has also got its own effect on how I relate to the stories and characters, I know I would be unlikely to have ever started the books had it not been for liking the show, what with my reading schedule.
I quite like the method of it being a series of chapters all seen from different characters' points of view, giving insight into people's motives in a way you can't get without being in their heads. Such as hating a person for two books until you get to see the world from their point of view and then... almost loving them.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 21, 2013 8:38:15 GMT
I enjoyed the series but the latest book I found a bit boring and haven't even finished it. Will pick it up again at some point as others have told me it does get better later. The start is just all exposition about people and places that don't mean much. The first three were really good but it seems to be going downhill a bit in my opinion.
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Post by Miisa on Jun 21, 2013 8:51:44 GMT
Interesting, my sister said the fourth one (the one I just started) is rather slow, but that the fifth one is amazing. We shall see. It is also a little unsettling to have such a tight "point of view" of certain characters for a long time, and then the next book - nothing of them, and you have to jump to seeing the world via a whole new set of people.
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Post by Kye on Jun 21, 2013 10:57:10 GMT
I loved the books. I can't wait until the next one.
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 20, 2014 17:50:41 GMT
I enjoyed the series but the latest book I found a bit boring and haven't even finished it. Will pick it up again at some point as others have told me it does get better later. The start is just all exposition about people and places that don't mean much. The first three were really good but it seems to be going downhill a bit in my opinion. I think book IV and V were supposed to be the same book, but it got too long and the deadline to submit the writing was long past, so Georges R.R. Martin had to split them in two, probably leaving the most boring stuff for the first part (the events in the two books take place at the same time). I'm personally still halfway through book III (just started the second part), and like Miisa, I probably wouldn't have picked up the books if I hadn't watched the series first.
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Post by jayme on Jun 20, 2014 20:30:10 GMT
I just finished season 3 of the series, and now you've all convinced me that I need to read the books until I can get my mitts on season 4.
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Post by Miisa on Jun 21, 2014 7:35:37 GMT
I did that and I realize I enjoy the series a little less after the point I read before watching. I would personally recommend watching the show first. But your choice, of course.
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 21, 2014 8:52:29 GMT
Well, she can safely read the first two books and part 1 of book III. I agree that the series seems less enjoyable after you read the books. But I still hope that book VI will be complete before the TV series catches up.
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Post by Kye on Jun 21, 2014 11:38:21 GMT
I read the books first --the first ones long before the show was ever conceived. But I still really like the show.
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 21, 2014 12:07:06 GMT
Well, you probably had forgotten many details by then. The same thing happened to me with LOTR. I was unable to enjoy the first movie the first time I saw it, because I had just read the book. Then years later, when I rewatched it, I liked it very much. I didn't have that problem with the other movies, because by the time they were released, I had already finished all three books a long time before.
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Post by jayme on Jun 21, 2014 15:36:11 GMT
Thanks for the advice on which to read!
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 22, 2014 9:50:44 GMT
I enjoyed the series but the latest book I found a bit boring and haven't even finished it. Will pick it up again at some point as others have told me it does get better later. The start is just all exposition about people and places that don't mean much. The first three were really good but it seems to be going downhill a bit in my opinion. I think book IV and V were supposed to be the same book, but it got too long and the deadline to submit the writing was long past, so Georges R.R. Martin had to split them in two, probably leaving the most boring stuff for the first part (the events in the two books take place at the same time). I'm personally still halfway through book III (just started the second part), and like Miisa, I probably wouldn't have picked up the books if I hadn't watched the series first. I read the split up ones. I'm talking about the very latest book which I'm not sure any more if it was the second half of the split up book. Think it was. Anyhow, much more boring than the first half. Never did get round to picking it up again and we sold it to the bookshop back in NL so I don't think I ever will read it now.
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 22, 2014 13:51:52 GMT
The one that was split up into two books in most editions was book III (A Storm of Swords). I was actually talking about book IV (A Feast for Crows) and V (A Dance with Dragons). I was told that book IV was the most boring, but I didn't get there yet.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 23, 2014 10:10:12 GMT
I was talking about Book V - Dance of Dragons. Boooooring!
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 23, 2014 13:15:19 GMT
If that's the case, let's hope the show will make it better..
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Post by Miisa on Jun 23, 2014 14:27:21 GMT
I suspect they will condense books 4 & 5 into one season. It seems a stretch as they actually split book 3 into 2 seasons, but on the other hand some storylines are already books ahead of the others. 7 books are planned and HBO have said they will be making 7 seasons, no more.
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 23, 2014 19:34:12 GMT
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Post by Miisa on Jun 24, 2014 8:29:29 GMT
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 24, 2014 9:31:04 GMT
We'll see.. I'm pretty concerned about the show catching up though.. G.R.R.M. should spend more time writing and less time on tours.
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Post by Miisa on Jun 24, 2014 10:36:50 GMT
There was already spoilers past the current books on the last episode.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 24, 2014 11:25:17 GMT
As I get older I notice I'm quite content to not know stuff. Like, now I really couldn't care how it all ends up and once upon a time it would have bugged me even if I had stopped enjoying a series; I'd still want to know how it ends. I'd watch crappy movies just cos I'd invested time in them. Now I'm like "nup, boring, don't care". Do you suppose it's because time is shorter as we get older so we don't feel inclined to waste as much of it?
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Yuki
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Post by Yuki on Jun 24, 2014 13:37:42 GMT
The same happened to me as well. I stop watching/reading TV series, manga, animes, and books the moment I realize they don't seem worth it, even after I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited for a few more episodes/chapters. I would have been unable to do that just two years ago. I think it's because I value time a lot more than I did before, and I regret wasting so much of it when I was younger, when I could have done so many things that would have benefited me a lot by now (improving my level in some language, writing articles or stories, getting more experience in some field like programming, etc).
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Post by Miisa on Jun 24, 2014 14:32:23 GMT
I think too many of my favourite things have had long slow bits for me to quite that blasé about quitting franchises I have found promising.
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