/tele/ some advice needed please.

I'm completely up to date with Game of Thrones and I'm wondering if there is any point starting with the books?

I'm considering buying all 7 but I'm wondering whether there's much point now. How far ahead are the books compared to the TV show? Are there more books in the series to be released? How closely does the TV show stick to the books?

Thanks!

Yes.
The books are a different story/experience altogether.
Also there's 5 books thus far lad.

>>2
Thanks. Yeah Amazon has the box set, and 2 of the stories are split into 2 books. My bad.

>>1
I wouldnt bother, to be honest. And this comes from someone who prefers books. The TV show is damned close to the books and GRRM writes like a tortoise on ketamine. I've been reading the damned series since high school and I am 34 years old now. Two books in the last 11 years. I have no idea how he is going to have book 6 done by the time the series catches up. There are currently 5 books out and the series is up to book 4, I think.

TL;DR Skip the books, stick with the show.

>>1
I am in the same situation like you and I figured for myself that I wont start reading the books.

The books have really much differences and I somewhat want to stay with the series story.

>>4
That's what I was afraid of. I find it quite hard to stay interested in books when the writing is very slow. Would be even worse if I knew what was going to happen for the entire book.

>>4
the show WAS close to the books. until this season. they've gone totally rogue now. this sansa bullshit. barristan dead. tyrion meeting dany .... The show will outpace the books unless book 6 comes out before next season.

>>4

the TV show is damned close to the books

Is this post from 2011?

Books are different. Especially season 5 of the show, which splits in a completely different direction.

For instance, some minor details are:

- Daenarys is 12 in the books when we are first introduced. Arya is 8. Rickon is 4.

- Rickon goes south, while Bran goes north after escaping winterfell.

- Jorah and Tyrion are sold to the second sons mercenaries, and up to the latest book have not ran into Daenarys.

- IIRC Tommen was influenced by someone else to arm the Faith, not by Cersei.

>>4
Well he (GRRM) already said he will help the screenplay writers and directors finish the tv show, before continuing with his books.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/03/game-of-thrones-tv-show-will-spoil-books

>>6
I didnt mean to imply the writing in each book is slow, but rather the fact that he takes forever to write a book. The books, in and of themselves, are quite good. It is the equivalent of waiting for 6 years between season 4 and 5, waiting 5 years between season 3 and 4. That is what makes the series superior in my mind. I love his writing, but who wants to wait 6 years for something that will take you 4 days to read?

>>10

before continuing with his books

He is already continuing his books.

>>4
I do not agree with this fag.
The books and the show differ in vast, surely small, but still in a long term massive scale.
The books themselves are a damn grind but honestly, as a wise band once said "Hollywood cannot live up to the power of imagination"

take this from someone who watched and loved the show and decided to read the books. i hated em up until book 3. long and boring when you already know what happens, took me years to bother finishing them

if you're into reading then knock yourself but if you're kind of indifferent about it and you just wanna see if they're as amazing as potheads say they are then just stick to the show, it's better as a tv series

not reading the books is like me explaining the new mad max to someone and them deciding not to watch it because they know what happens.

currently in bookland:
barristan selmy is still alive
robb starks wife is still alive
jamie didn't go to dorne, he went to the riverlands to end the final pockets of resistance.
Bronn married rape girl and thats the last we see of him.
tyrion gets greyscale, not jorah
sansa is not married to ramsay, her friend jeyne poole is, posing as arya stark.
sansa is still with littlefinger under the name Alayne.
mance rayder isn't dead, they burned rattleshirt in his place, mellisandre cast a spell to change his appearance.

>>9

IIRC Tommen was influenced by someone else to arm the Faith, not by Cersei.

I think that was her doing, actually. She just didn't do all this nonsense with the queen and her brother.

The books are excellent. There are lots of interesting lore, hidden secrets, hints at theories, easter eggs and prophecies that I personally find interesting to keep note of.

It's fun hearing at council meetings in the first and second books about the Brotherhood without Banners forming and how everyone keeps claiming they killed Beric Dondarrion for the reward...it makes it better when you meet the Brothers in book 3 and find out he keeps being reanimated.

There are enough differences to keep you interested and a few major twists the show left out too.

I recommend the series, as well as the prequel spin-off The Adventures of Dunk and Egg. There is also another prequel series about the historic war the Dance with Dragons, but that's a boring recount of a fictional war and not much different than the history you'd find in the World of Ice and Fire encyclopedia.

Don't waste your time. The books are terrible. GRRM is a terrible author.

>>1
Well Dany chapters are boring as fuck in the book. TBH only chapters worth reading are Jon, Tyrion and Aria, and maybe Jaime, in my humble opinion.

Also characters in the book are like 10-16 year olds, unlike they seem in the tv show.

it's better as a tv series

Absolutely untrue, unless you are a pleb who prefers a watered down version of a good story.

>>21
It's not watered down though. If it was a 2 hour cinematic movie it would be watered down, but it's not. It's a 50-hour-long-episode series that doesn't cut out anything important. The only parts left out are the annoying ramblings of GRRM going off on some pointless plot tangents while creating 50 new characters that never do anything. This is an improvement.

>>1
The books tell the story in a sharper way, also, every event in the tv show is a watered down version of the books. Tyrion's sassiness is turned up to 11, Ned's stupidity is doubled and with 100% more lesbianism from the female characters.

It's a big investment of time, but if you're gonna read before you go to bed or when you're commuting or something, you might as well read the books, you've got nothing to lose by reading the books

>>23
i am quite annoyed they skipped over the cersei/tyene thing. i was looking forward to seeing that. hopefully the naked shame walk is still on the cards

>>1
Don't do it. The books are even slower than the show and focus on boring characters for hundreds of pages.
There are even more uninteresting details than in Tolkien's books.

>>23
They're just different. Some quality moments in both. Books are obviously more detailed if you're into that.

>>26
they made a huge deal about filming the naked shame walk thing and how they couldnt film nudity in holy places so they had to build...oh right spoiler alert...cersei get snaked and does the walk of shame with stunt doubles

>>4
Don't listen to this guy. The show used to be close to the books but isn't anymore. GRRM also said that the two were going to diverge plot wise. For example, SPOILER ALERT btw, Cat gets brought back to life in the books and plays a significant role, they're not doing that in the show.

Honestly, there's a lot better fantasy books that you should read above asoiaf. The Kingkiller chronicles and anything by Brandon Sanderson are way better.

Game of Thrones isn't that great in comparison.

>>29
or if you want somtehing good, go for The First Law by Abercrombie

>>1
Books are pretty good but the show is surpassing the books, they differ somewhat but you will mostly just be reading stuff you've already seen in the show.

I'd say just stick with the show, the last two books are not going to be released before the show ends, in fact it's unlikely TWOW will even be released before the show ends so don't bother.

>>31
GoT makes HBO mountains of money. They will keep the show going at least as long as GRRM is writing.

But for me I stopped watching when I found out Stoneheart wasn't going to be a thing.

no zombie bandit queen
no ruthless killing of lannister and bannermen
no Pod character growth
no Brienne cliffhanger

I mean it also affected a bunch of other characters stories to make show make more sense.

Brienne has to go somewhere else because she's not looking for the stark girls anymore, I doubt Pod is super important in the show, Sansa's in a completely different story because I think they are thinking of making her pick up the vengeful queen role.

Did anyone watch the last episode with it's zombie white walker slaughter/invasion battle at the end gave me such chills, more than any movie in a long while. The white walkers have barely been shown much over the years, but that leader dude looked like some kind of popsicle version of Darth Maul, creepy as Hell! It's changed the entire course of the series, really good stuff!

>>33
Yes, it was one of the deviations from the books that was really worth it and needed for the show. I've felt S5 had been a little too slow-burn until now but it sure as hell erupted in E8!

Yeah (book spoilers ahead), in the books Jon Snow doesn't visit Hardhome personally. He sends another member of the Night's Watch (Cotter Pyke, who to my recollection hasn't appeared in the TV show) to treat with the Free Folk at Hardhome on his behalf.

The White Walker attack at Hardhome occurs but is not depicted in the books, as Snow learns about what has happened there via a messenger raven. Consequently, the outcome of Hardhome is unknown to Snow and the rest of the Night's Watch. Logic dictates it isn't particularly far removed from what occurs in the TV show, save for the wildling evacuation, although this had begun in other areas anyway and the show has condensed different strands of the story into one.

The show has increasingly strayed from the books over the past couple of seasons, with some episodes consisting of almost entirely original content (I think it was S4E3 that contained next to nothing that came from the books). It's become a necessity for the show makers to change direction or condense plots and characters. There's been mixed results with these deviations, Hardhome being one of the positive changes, but you're quite right that Martin is never going to keep pace with the show at this point. He's hoping to release the next book to coincide with S6's debut but we'll have to see on that one.

>>33
I absolutely loved it. Totally took me by surprise. The scene with them on top of the mountain looking down gave me chills.

>>36
It gave me chills too. I think that was the intention. It doesn't happen this way in the books and so even those who read them would be caught off guard. Exciting final moments, best thing I've seen on a TV show in quite some time. Jon Snow looks totally unprepared!

The show fucking butchers Martin's books. I tried to watch it, go through season 2 and decided I hated how they portrayed certain people and then how they decide to just change the damn story. Seriously, that Sansa faggotry? Here name should be Alayne right now.

Lots of Game of thrones fans think themselves smart and deep for being able to just follow a show.

To be fair, the plot of Game of Thrones is at least more complicated, if not more complex, than most of the drivel that's on TV. There's a bunch of plot threads going on at once, and not in the typical manner of having some menial side story that goes along with the main story, there's legit like three major story threads going on at any time.

why the FUCK are they making the unsullied seem like a bunch of worthless weak ass clowndicks this season?

They're supposed to be the greatest warriors ever, and they get taken out by a bunch of rich faggots with daggers. its almost comical how pathetically inept they are. shits pissing me off because its so damn unrealistic.

Also her dragon could've fucked way more shit up. he was just looking around instead of burning motherfuckers that whole time

also, why the fuck did she leave all her friends to die in the arena rofl.

If you didn't see this coming last season you must be pretty thick.

An indictment of Organized Religion, and the Holy Roman Catholic church in particular. This is what happens when people suppress their critical thinking skills and follow the dogma of an entity which disregards the innocence of children and then uses fear and guilt as weapons against the believers.