I am not picking up any Martin book until the series is quite done, and even then I may not end up doing so -- it all depends on what I hear of it. But I would invest less emotionally or of my time in a television series, and so am willing to watch it before reading the book.
However, I am usually very opposed to people watching adaptations before reading the books. The question then becomes whether Martin's writing is so good important stuff is lost in the translation to screen which cannot then be recovered if I choose to read it later.
Any thoughts?
However, I am usually very opposed to people watching adaptations before reading the books. The question then becomes whether Martin's writing is so good important stuff is lost in the translation to screen which cannot then be recovered if I choose to read it later.
Any thoughts?
The TV show so far is really good and I'm pretty certain you'd enjoy it (if you like Medieval-like political storylines anyway - it's quite a bit a more machiavellian version of the War of Roses with dragons and some magic). It is probably one of the shows on air that is most likely to really be of interest to you, so in some way it's almost pointless to miss it to wait to read the books in many years, if ever. It's also probably better now than it will be in many years, when Martin finally finishes the last book (not that the series is likely not to age well, though). The adaptation is well-done and stands really very well on its own. By watching it first, you also avoid the "LOTR" effect of being often irritated by little changes, missing scenes and other misrepresentations (though so far, the series is pretty faithful, more so than LOTR the movies, for instance). I've re read the first book after ep. 5, and frankly I don't think having watched the show changed much of anything.
I'm not what I'd call a huge fan of the books. I read the first three years ago - I had forgotten nearly everything when I started watching the show -, and I had promised myself not to continue the books before Martin was done with the whole thing, but the show has convinced me to re read the first three and read AFFC to read ADWD in July. I'm still not a huge fan. The books are really good, and for the most part well-written (and I'm puzzled why many people didn't like book 4. I think it actually has much less of the jumping around between storylines that I found irritating in the other three). It's just not the sort of series that I'd feel passionate about or would start re reading many times (perhaps because of the worldbuilding aspect that never wowed me as other series have done, for some reasons), It's just a good rea, good story with some very solid characters (and some not so interesting, so far).. There are many more layers in the books, that's for sure, and much more backstory and more worldbuilding, but I don't feel you'd destroy the pleasure of the books by following the show, in this case (though in most cases, I like you prefer to avoid reading a book after watching an adaptation).
Should I watch Game of Thrones without having read the book? Edit: I started watching it
- 13/06/2011 02:26:48 PM
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Probably
- 13/06/2011 08:28:24 PM
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If you're going to read it, the book should be first, but you don't need to to enjoy the show.
- 13/06/2011 09:18:32 PM
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