HBO Game of Thrones

[Hedwig]

I´ve it preordered for my kindle I basically Wheeee loudly when the date of publication was announced

To be honest I was expecting the book to be published close to the series TV start. It was perfect timing and the end of a long waiting (even if in my case it has been just slightly more than three years since I discovered the books.)

2011 is being a great year for ASOIAF fans

Three years, bah, I give you 8!! I discovered the series in 2003 and then thought that I waited long for book 4 which came out "only" two years later.
Me and my friends did a big release party with meat and mead and bonfire the night before A Feast for Crows came out.
I wish I could do this this time as well. Do you happen to be in Germany for the release so we could feast together?

[sweetsparky]

I´m afraid I won´t, but we can anyway party at FSU Yours friends idea was really cool, a pity if you cannot repeat it.

I´m not a big fan of fantasy, but I don´t dislike it either. I just had read some good reviews and found the paperback Spanish edition of the first book visiting one of my favs bookstores. It was published by an editorial which publishes really good science-fiction and fantasy books in Spain. It was summer, I read the synopsis and how it was described as a mixed of historical and high fantasy nove, and decided to give it a go, and from them I bought all the published books in English immediately.

I also lent the book to my brother and he become a fan too, and I have been spreading the word since then.

I hope rfisher (and all the FSUers who decide to read the book) enjoy the experience.

[gkelly]

Well, I started the first book a couple years ago at Impromptu's recommendation and got a couple hundred pages in, but at a certain point I put it aside and didn't feel compelled to pick it back up again. I'll see if watching the show inspires me to continue reading.

[ioana]

Well, I started the first book a couple years ago at Impromptu's recommendation and got a couple hundred pages in, but at a certain point I put it aside and didn't feel compelled to pick it back up again. I'll see if watching the show inspires me to continue reading.

I thought book one was very 'expositional' (is that even a word?) and it wasn't until the shocker at the end I started getting into the series. Up until that point I just looked at it as a good summer read. I re-read the books last year and found a lot more things to like about the first book second time around. Of course by that point I already had a better idea of what some of the 'gray' characters were really like, so it was good to look back at some of their earlier actions in light of things that get revealed later on.

[emason]

Three years, bah, I give you 8!! I discovered the series in 2003 and then thought that I waited long for book 4 which came out "only" two years later.

Sorry, my dear, but you are a latecomer. I have a first edition, copyright 1996, and have had to wait much longer than you for succeeding volumes.

[Jem X]

Well my daughter gave me a Barnes & Noble giftcard for my birthday, so I used it to buy the ASOFAI paperback set. Will get started tomorrow.

[Hedwig]

Sorry, my dear, but you are a latecomer. I have a first edition, copyright 1996, and have had to wait much longer than you for succeeding volumes.

You win! Not bad!!



I am happy that so many people are interested in starting reading it. It is my favorite series of books and even though not everyone likes it, I hope you are among those who do and enjoy it as much as I did!!!

[emason]

You win! Not bad!!



I am happy that so many people are interested in starting reading it. It is my favorite series of books and even though not everyone likes it, I hope you are among those who do and enjoy it as much as I did!!!

I love the books and have tried to get all my friends to read them. Alas, I have one friend who started reading these and stopped almost immediately; she just didn't like them and said it's not her thing, so I guess these are not for everyone.

[Satellitegirl]

Fantasy is certainly something not everyone gets into, and some are more averse to it than others due to it being considered somewhat of a "nerd" thing to read. I'm just happy I'm a nerd

[Hedwig]

I like being a nerd too.

But I am not so much into fantasy normaly. I read Harry Potter but other than HP and LotR I don't really like fantasy all that much.

To me ASOIAF is different as it IS fantasy but has more of a medieval feeling to me. And even that is, IMO, not the most important part of the book, but it is the characters and their struggles and them being grey and not good or evil like in so many fantasy books where a good hero destroys the bad guys.

Most of my friends - who I could bring to read the books - loved them and started to be obsessed to. But two of those who tried stopped after a couple of hundred pages. So, yeah, it is definitely not for everyone.

[Satellitegirl]

Most fantasy is based around medieval type things, but yeah the "gray" part would be more different I guess...although considering I haven't read loads of it I can't say whether it's only good vs evil in most fantasy books or not...and I'm only going with the medieval generalization due to the covers of most of the books I've seen. I'm not hugely into fantasy...I've read Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles of the Cheysuli...and Harry Potter...and the first book of the LOTR trilogy. I think that's about it(unless you include silly books like Twilight).

[emason]

Fantasy is certainly something not everyone gets into, and some are more averse to it than others due to it being considered somewhat of a "nerd" thing to read. I'm just happy I'm a nerd

This "it's a nerd thing" is beginning to bother me. A good book is always a good book. Why does everything have to be pigeonholed by genre and "target audience"?

[dbell1]

I remember trying to read "Dune". I kept getting bogged down by the first 60-100 pages and gave up a few times. Finally took the book to my boring job (I was alone at the job site, very few visitors, no distractions) and once I 'got' the idea behind the book and grasped the characters, it flew for me.

I've got a few 'read part of it and gave up' books. Some were parts of a series, others looked interesting, but never grabbed my brain.

[MarieM]

I read mainly fantasy and science fiction. That's why I kind of love / hate GoT !
Because I've been waiting FOREVER for the end of it.
It's like the wheel of time !!

[intheknow]

The New Yorker of a couple of weeks ago had a very good article about GRRM and many quotes from an interview with him. There was a lot of info about the fan clubs, web sites, etc., and the delays in the new book's release (slated now for July 12, I believe). (I'm sorry--I'm at work, and can't look up the exact day and link it--I shouldn't even be on this site!) I loved the books, and love Sean Bean--but oh dear! I will have to go back to my Sharp movies to put the right image of him back in my mind.

[emason]

The New Yorker of a couple of weeks ago had a very good article about GRRM and many quotes from an interview with him. There was a lot of info about the fan clubs, web sites, etc., and the delays in the new book's release (slated now for July 12, I believe). (I'm sorry--I'm at work, and can't look up the exact day and link it--I shouldn't even be on this site!) I loved the books, and love Sean Bean--but oh dear! I will have to go back to my Sharp movies to put the right image of him back in my mind.

The Sharpe movies? Please! Go get Stormy Monday and see him as a janitor in a tight white t-shirt, IIRC.

[znachki]

The Sharpe movies? Please! Go get Stormy Monday and see him as a janitor in a tight white t-shirt, IIRC.

Or Lady Chatterly, as Mellors the gamekeeper, without the shirt, and other things ........I'll be in my bunk.

[Satellitegirl]

This "it's a nerd thing" is beginning to bother me. A good book is always a good book. Why does everything have to be pigeonholed by genre and "target audience"?

Because things usually have a target audience? I was mostly speaking tongue in cheek. It doesn't stop people from reading them if they want to, and the only thing holding people back from reading something, is their own insecurities. Those who are averse to something are usually the ones that create the negative labels to start with. As I said, nothing wrong with being a nerd, if that's what people want to call it. Most people embrace it these days, therefore cutting off the people who would dislike it, at the pass.

Labels have been around for centuries...it's nothing new. You're lucky it's only just now starting to bother you

[dinakt]

Because things usually have a target audience? I was mostly speaking tongue in cheek. It doesn't stop people from reading them if they want to, and the only thing holding people back from reading something, is their own insecurities. Those who are averse to something are usually the ones that create the negative labels to start with. As I said, nothing wrong with being a nerd, if that's what people want to call it. Most people embrace it these days, therefore cutting off the people who would dislike it, at the pass.

Labels have been around for centuries...it's nothing new. You're lucky it's only just now starting to bother you

Have you heard of that NYTimes controversy surrounding HBO's GoT? The reviewer implied that they added sex scenes so that female demographic would watch it ( relying on the fact that most urban fantasy and paranormal romance series nowadays are slated towards women and are highly sexual), and that otherwise GoT is male geek literature . It produced a storm of indignant e-mails, and NYT had to turn off the comments... I heard about it later, went and read the article and was rather offended myself. First of all, all the sex shown on HBO so far is written in the books; so the reviewer had not read them. Second, as a woman I don't need sex to enjoy fantasy and sci-fi; I like a well-written fantasy whether it is sexual or not. Third, women have eclectic tastes these days; I certainly do; reading "high literature", travel literature, historical novels, fantasy, non-fiction, history, biography, you name it. I think it's much more typical than reading just one kind of book. The stereotype that elaborate fantasy is for computer programmers is way outdated.
Anyway, that was a sucky bigoted review, and I resent that my beloved New York Times printed it.

[danceronice]

I was one of the PO'd people after reading that review. Thank you, reviewer (who was female, no less) for assuming that because I have ovaries I require sex and male beefcake to appreciate anything fantasy. I'm not the least surprised by the review (if you read media by women, for women, you quickly realize that the women writing it, at least in the 'elite' media, really do think we all wish we were in Sex And The City.) But it's STILL annoying.

I don't JUST watch HBO or Showtime for the men with their clothes off. (Though I have to admit, it's a nice fringe benefit.) I definitely don't need romantic sex added in. Or any sex--I loved "From the Earth to the Moon" and there's hardly any sex at all, if any (and quite possibly the worst or second-worst part was the 'wives' club' episode that practically screamed 'we stuck this in so girls, who hate things like rockets, will watch.')