Game Of Thrones - Book/TV discussions - WITH SPOILERS

Ah, didn't think about that, but it would make sense as the Targaryen's did love polygamy. I'm just not sure a Stark would agree to such a situation, but it's possible if Lyanna loved Rhaegar.

 

My guess would be Garlan Tyrell

 

Revived! I'm going to have to tread carefully in this thread because I'm only 350 pages into book 3. But it is a little annoying talking to show watchers and them saying things like "Stannis is boring, so uninteresting and uninspiring."

 

And you're only partway into book 3. Just wait.

Man, it sucks I don't have HBO this spring because of the complexities of the move and money stuff. i am such a massive Song of Ice and Fire fan overall despite the letdown of the last book. Particularly books 1, 2, and 3 read as such an amazing trilogy of awesome.

 

So after devouring books 1-3, I put down book 4 months ago. I was probably 75% through and found the reading of it such a chore (despite loving the series in general) that I decided to give it a rest. Pleasure reading shouldn't be so difficult. Are you saying that things pick up again? Or maybe I was just burnt out after reading thousands of pages of pretty complex storylines so quickly.

 

I was more specifically commenting on Stannis being extra cool towards the end of book 3 in that line vs. commenting on the series itself. After book 3 you get the impression that a good editor would be worth their weight in gold in terms of how much better books 4 and 5 could be. At this point, my advice to most people is read books 1-3 and then wait for 6 to come out so you can read 4-6 in one go, based upon my prediction that 6 will pull out of the dive and deliver a comprehensive and cohesive reading experience that will make 4 and 5 retroactively better. But until 6 is written, there's not a lot of reason to read 4 and 5 I think. There's some cool stuff, but it gets harder to find amid the meandering filler. The Cersei and Arya chapters, basically, are worth reading I think (even if the Cersei ones make you feel unclean).

 

Completely agree on Cersei and Arya, Tyrion's chapters were pretty good for the most part as well. Every time I got to a chaper with Brienne in it There was a groan, I didn't really feel as though she added all that much to it.

 

The same thing happened to me. The storylines are weaker and that combined with burnout is a killer. I put it down for 3-4 months, but picked it up when the last one came out and I felt like I was missing out. When I picked it back up I blazed through it and 5 as fast as the first 3.

If your batteries are feeling recharged I would say give it another go.

 

I picked book 4 back up last night actually, about 60% of the way through. Not sure how long it'll take me to get through it, but after taking a long break, and with season 2 of the show coming back, I was definitely itching to get back to the books.

 

Honestly, I really didn't have a problem with the Brienne chapters. But the entire Greyjoy storyline in Book 4 is fucking tedious and completely uninteresting to me. They are all assholes and every character is unlikable. I truly hope the show skips over as much of it as possible in the coming seasons.

 

The Reek storyline, however, is sweet justice and a disturbing look inside the mind of the Bastard of Bolton.

 

I desperately wish some editor would have told Martin that awhile ago. Although I suspect many did...

I'm quite sure the biggest emotional swing I've ever experienced was one day back in 2005, when I was going to Dick's Sporting Goods for something or other and I happened to notice a huge sign outside Border's announcing Feast for Crows had come out the day before. I hadn't heard anything about it before this! I was beyond excited, It had been around four years since I originally read the first three, so I whipped through the parking lot over to the Border's area and sprinted inside, where I sat down in one of their comfy chairs and began reading. It wasn't until I was about 60 pages in that I realized just what the fuck was going on. I frantically began flipping through the book checking chapter titles. No...no Jon?!?! BUT HE'S THE LORD COMMANDER NOW. No TYRION???!?! After he KILLED his FATHER. AND WHAT THE FUCK IS DANY DOING??? You think I give a fuck about Cersei, or Sansa, or fucking BRIENNE?

I bought it anyway and went home to finish reading it in the next two days...but dear God, ridiculous. I know Martin doesn't owe me shit, and I should be grateful for whatever he writes etc..., but fuck him on that one. Fuck him big time.

 

I thought the Cersei chapters were interesting, and Brienne is at least readable, but it got to the point where Sansa chapters were my guide for when to stop because goddamn she grates on my nerves. I don't mind so much that Martin likes killing main characters, but that he kills really interesting ones and keeps forcing Sansa on us is my biggest gripe with the series. I'd rather read Rickon or Hodor's perspectives than hers.

 

I can just imagine Hodor's perspective. "Ok, small creature on back, check. Bewildering world of confusing change, check. Good attitude towards life because I know I'm hung like a horse, checkitycheck. Crap, it's cold"

Brienne annoyed the shit out of me because of how much meandering happens. Page after page of her wandering in circles in order to accomplish nothing except getting hung. Fine, but i didn't need to read every step of it.

The Cersei chapters were really well done. That unreliable narrative thing where she doesn't grasp what's going on but you, the reader, know. And feel horribly unclean.

 

I didn't mind most of the 4th, except for the goddamn Brienne chapters. Holy god damn, the absolute worst of the entire series. It's made even more terrible because we KNOW where fucking Sansa is the whole time, and we have to watch her go through the whole "oh have you seen some maiden fair and she has hair and shit and is totally nowhere near I am right now?" It's not like it's some mystery, we watch her just continually fail at the one thing she was trying to do. Fuck I hate Brienne.

 

I'm 448 pages into the 4th Book, and it isn't as bad as everyone said it was. I don't find any part particularly boring, I like getting out of the mix and bouncing around to all these places because I keep looking at the map and thinking "What's that place like?" Thank god he's not as detailed as Tolkien with the descriptions, that'd make it worse. I've heard people complain about the Brienne chapters but every chapter she's going to fight someone, which is always exciting. Arya is Braavos is also super interesting as I've been curious as to how Jaqen pulled his kills off.

 

So, it's the spoiler thread so fair warning and no tags, just a few lines of space before I answer:




It's the sheer pointlessness of so much of it. Brienne meanders around for awhile, doubles back some, accomplishes nothing and gets stung up. Dorne? I mean, cool, a conspiracy and attempted daring escapes and so on, but again, too many pages for something that goes just about nowhere except to set up some intrigue later on. Someday. The riveting stuff, the character stuff that seems to really matter and shows Martin's talent, is interspersed amongst this crap. You get Cersei's deluded and horrific POV, you get more of Jaime's arc, you get cool Arya stuff (finally, after she too wandered the wilderness for ages meeting nothing but assholes in the the second and third book), and then you get bogged down by Brienne which has basically no payoff an ddorne which seems like it's going somewhere very cool, but also has basically no pay off. Which maybe is the main problem here, the order things are presented in Crows and Dance make for long investments into mini-arcs that don't pay off in any kind of enjoyable to read fashion. My memory of Dance is not great at this point since I've only read it once, but if i recall, the Crows stuff doesn't even pay off in there except maybe once you're 1,000 pages in. Bad structure that makes you feel cheated and disconnected.

 

This last episode was great for so many reasons. The scenes between Arya and Tywin are incredible, Tywin fucking kills it and Arya is better on the show than she is in the books. The Ygritte and Jon Snow exchanges are also slightly on the show than they are in the books. She just fucks with him like I've never seen a girl fuck with a virgin before. I might have a thing for gingers, but I can't wait to see her naked. Thank god they didn't go the route of fake teeth.

 

Yeah, I think the issue with Brienne is that her entire subplot could have been skipped over and just picked up at the end of it (didn't she reconnect with Catelyn after her....errr....well now that she is somewhat alive? I haven't rea d it in a while). The beginning of book 5 is the same of sorts, it's a whole lot of setup and boringness (especially Dany's chapters). The second half is back to the same old good stuff, so here's to hoping that the 6th A. Comes out soon and B. has lots of goddamn action and fucking. Action fucking.