Topic: Game of Thrones: Books vs HBO Series

[Cory Magel]

I am curious who has read the books and also watched the HBO series of Game of Thrones so far.  I have actually not read the series, so I'm wondering how people feel they compare.  Obviously video never really truly covers the written in almost all cases, but do they have the same 'quality' I guess I'd say?

[markc]

  I have read and seen the series but I read the series so long ago I cannot really remember any differences. But I can say that I love the TV series.
MDC

[DangerMan]

I read the books very recently, because I wanted to have read them before I started to watch the series. Loved the books!

The HBO series is very good IMO. Casting is mostly good, with some exceptions (Jon Snow is not at all as I imagined). The only real problem IMO is that the series does not spend enough time on introducing the characters. There are so many interesting persons and getting to know them adequatly from the series is hard. My wife, who has not read the books, seems to have trouble following who is who and what motives they have etc, and I don't blame her.

[markc]

 While thinking I seem to remember that Hodor caries Bran on his back instead of in a cart. But I can see why that changed in the series.
MDC

[Defendi]

Jon Snow is way more passive and way less cool in the series.  Other than that I think I like that series better.  If the series holds its quality even when the books spiraled down (book 4 and 5) I will be very happy.

[ironmaul]

I read the first few books and thought they were better than the series at first but then the story plummeted after that and now I think the TV series is much better overall. If your looking to buy the books get them cheap at a second hand store is my advice.

[Cory Magel]

Ah, it sounds almost like the Wheel of Time series in how there are declines in the 'quality' of the writing.  The fourth book is often when things start to get flat (although in the WoT things got better, then went flat again imo - still have not finished the series).

I've noticed that with a lot of TV series too, the fourth season is often when even pretty good series start to lose a little of their shine.

[mocking bird]

I have read all of the books but only seen series one.  The casting is pretty good - Littlefinger is awesome as is the Imp.  Jeoffrey actually reminds me of a nephew when he was younger and is portrayed well.  Dany too cardboard, Jon too whiny.  The issue I had with the tv series is that there are so many characters running around they usually aren't actually introduced, as in named, until their fourth appearance so even I was confused.  I haven't seen the second series yet but from descriptions the battle on the river is much more impressive and longer in the books.

As for the books Martin needs to redo the last two into some sense of chronological order.  Dance of Dragons had some good parts but way too many sudden character apearances and seemingly random story lines whose actual importance other than filler has yet to be determined - in 5-7 years...

[Turbs]

Short answer.

The TV series do adequately represent the books (To about 95% accuracy)
 Downside. Not knowing the in depth character backgrounds makes understanding a lot of the nuances in the TV series very hard to pick up.

[Cory Magel]

Thanks for the replies everyone.   Just deciding if I should go read the series or not.  I don't have much issue with following things (although I can see how some would) but I suspect what I'm missing are things like the full motivation behind why certain parties do things (like Stannis(spl?) - you don't know a whole lot more than he wants the throne and has, supposedly, some claim to it).

[mocking bird]

The show did take some liberties with Stannis - or at least made some things blatantly obvious that I did not get at all from the book.