Game of Thrones

clarkey cat
clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
edited June 2014 in Commuting chat
I consider myself a serious reader. I pour scorn on people that read Twilight and Harry Potter and Dan Brown. My regard is only slightly higher for those millions of podgy fingers hungrily licking and turning their way through a David Nicholls or a Stieg Larsson book on the train.

So... someone recommended I read Game of Thrones.

Give it a go, they said. You might like it.

Not likely, I replied, snootily. I'm a serious reader.

Anyway. I fooking LOVED it. And I have burnt all Penguin Modern Classics.

Any other Throners (?)
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Comments

  • Just about to finish book 4

    He does like culling his main characters doesn't he?
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  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    AARRRGGGGH!!!!! DON'T RUIN IT FOR ME!!!
    I've only read Book 1.

    I would love to pop Dany. Oh yes.
  • asprilla
    asprilla Posts: 8,440
    edited December 2011
    I was expecting toilet humour. I'm disappointed.

    Careful, it's a gateway drug
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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    The program is just like that blood sand and sandles or whatever it's called on bravo.

    Gratuitous violence and breasts.
  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    edited December 2011
    Yup! Read them all apart from 'A Dance with Dragons'. Probably the best SF&F series out there.

    I've watched the first 4 episodes of the TV series and it's not too bad either. Lots of nudity and breasts and stuff! :mrgreen:
  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    Careful, it's a gateway drug

    Thats what I'm worried about. I used to have dozens of the Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone books when I was a kid. I used to make my own maps of the local heath... marking out areas known for Orcs and Dark Elves.

    I'm well adjusted now. I ponder Julian Barnes' novels like a grown-up...

    But dragons. I mean, come on. How cool?
  • Gratuitous violence and breasts.

    Shurely shome mishtake?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Why what should it be?
  • Oh yes, and I've had 5 years to wait for 'A Dance...' to come out.

    5 years! :evil:

    It's a blooming good read though and I'm glad that the TV series was just about a spot on adaptation of the book. It even made the wife who usually hates SF&F want to read the rest of them...
  • Why what should it be?

    *Sigh*

    How can breasts and violence ever be gratuitous?
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Oh.

    I guess when you don't read nuts.
  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    Come on RC... chill out, mate. Not everyone with a pair of cojones and a taste for bedding wenches is a Nuts reader.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Come on RC... chill out, mate. Not everyone with a pair of cojones and a taste for bedding wenches is a Nuts reader.


    Ah, lighthearted chat doesn't always come out that way on here.

    I would suggest, if you have a pair of heaving cojones, and a taste for bedding wenches, but are inevitably stuck at home, you should check out the internet ;)
  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    No thanks. Bike Radar, Game of Thrones and copy of Nuts suits me fine.
  • Heh, no worries. Actually, that reminds me I've got to pick up this week's Nuts

    *Adjusts cojones*
  • AARRRGGGGH!!!!! DON'T RUIN IT FOR ME!!!
    I've only read Book 1.

    I would love to pop Dany. Oh yes.


    I won't ruin it for you - just don't get attached to anyone....

    It's one of the better things about the series: you are always outside of the comfort zone and never quite sure what the hell is going to happen

    Although the bit with Danearys and the slaves was hilarious!
    Chunky Cyclists need your love too! :-)
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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    *Adjusts cojones*

    Who are you, eminem?

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  • No, but coincidentally I am rocking dungarees and mitts on my commute atm.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    He's obviously a cyclist.

    They're just gansta winter bib shorts.
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    He's obviously a cyclist.

    They're just gansta winter bib shorts.

    I wouldn't wear them to a doctor's appointment though.

    Game of Thrones is a brilliant series. HBO does it again...

    I might get round to reading the books at some point...
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    notsoblue wrote:
    He's obviously a cyclist.

    They're just gansta winter bib shorts.

    I wouldn't wear them to a doctor's appointment though.
    Neither would I apparently.

    Can anyone explain why GoT isn't just an excuse for gratuitous violence and breasts?
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    Can anyone explain why GoT isn't just an excuse for gratuitous violence and breasts?

    The most violent scene (imo) in the first series gives huge depth to one of the characters. And it has no more nudity than a show like The Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire. Comparisons to Spartacus are invalid. The characters are interesting and follow logical narrative arcs. The violence and nudity is only ever contextual. Theres nothing gratuitous about GoT.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Fair enough.

    The first episode looked the spitting image of Spartacus - just with moody churches over palatial Roman houses.
  • Wait until you've read / seen the next books in the series - not wanting to give much away to those who've not read them but: massive battles galore! With limbs getting chopped off.
  • dhope
    dhope Posts: 6,699
    Fair enough.

    The first episode looked the spitting image of Spartacus - just with moody churches over palatial Roman houses.

    Nope, Spartacus is what Rome would have been if Channel 5 made it.
    Game of Thrones is what Rome would have been if it was Fantasy.
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  • Agent57
    Agent57 Posts: 2,300
    Any other Throners (?)

    I've read them all in the past 5 months. After watching the HBO TV series of A Game of Thrones, I bought a box set of the 4 (in 5 parts) paperbacks that had been published by May (in the new typeset print edition, which I think is a lot easier to read than the previous publication). I read book 5 (A Dance with Dragons) on the Kindle.

    It's the most reading I've done since I was a teenager. Last week I read "The Restraint of Beasts", and this week I've started reading Lord of the Rings. I've seen the films, but never read the books. Last time I tried to read it (maybe a couple of years ago), I stalled at Tom Bombadil's house. I'm hoping to make it all the way through this time.

    Anyway, can't wait until GRRM finishes book 6; but given the time between books 3 and 4, and then 4 and 5, I probably shouldn't hold my breath. I just hope he lives long enough to finish the series.
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  • Jay dubbleU
    Jay dubbleU Posts: 3,159
    If you want the real thing try the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf or Laxdaela Saga
  • The first 3 or 4 books are brilliant. Then it goes downhill rapidly. The list of characters grows and grows until it becomes just stupid. There are so many characters and everything they do is decribed in so much detail that nothing ever gets resolved. No wonder it took 5 years to write the latest book. There are still 2 or 3 still planned to be written, which means at current rates it'll be finished around 2030. A real shame as the first 3 books were so good. He needs a good editor, a kick up the arse and a nice large drink of MTFU.
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  • *duplicate post*
    <a>road</a>
  • Just started the 5th book in the series
    Only got into it after doing some extras work on set for the HBO adaptation

    8)