iron_city_ap: Wicked Chinchilla: BigSnatch: Got HBO a little while ago and I burned through both seasons in a week and a half. I'm thinking of getting the books but I'm always weary of reading source material after I've seen the tv/movie adaptations. Is it worth it, or are the differences too drastic?

Minor differences. I would honestly advise you to NOT read the books if you want the series to surprise you. HBO has done a marvelous job of changing very little.

Season 1 and book 1 are extremely similar. Book 2 and Season 2 start to split. I'd read the first 2 then read 3 after season 3. Each book is a solid 900 pages (150 if you take out the descriptions of food), so it could take you a while to get caught up, depending on how fast you read &much time you have. I'd say go ahead and read 4 ahead of season 4 (which is probably the second half of book 3), but that depends on how they do season 3. Book 4 was necessary, but it sucked, especially after 3.

I read them all in the space of a month a year or so ago now. Besides forcing me to swear off all uncompleted series from now until forever (You better not farking die Martin, or I will hunt you down in the afterlife and kill you again) I enjoyed all the books. I was told by few people to just NOT read anything after 3, but I think that is a disservice to the books.

SPOILERS--------------SPOILERS-------------SPOILERS

As someone else said, an astronomical amount of stuff goes down in book 3. The trajectory of the global story is essentially turned on its head (more than once, depending on how you parse it out). When you have that many things going off at once you are going to have to have more build-up if you want it to make sense. That being said, he has been building for the course of 2 books now. He has moved a lot of pieces around the board, knocked some over, and placed new additions in their starting positions. I think book 6 MUST have serious stuff go down or there will be too much to resolve without getting overly muddled (some would argue this is already the case...I dont personally think so, but it IS an extremely detailed world)

Needs more Joffrey slap.

Your favorite character dies.

I would very much appreciate a similar montage of all the tits of season II. And season I.

All the tits, in fact.

/ Hail the God of Tits and Wine.

ConConHead: RIP Rodrik Cassel - your sideburn beard will be an inspiration to us all.

[winteriscoming.net image 146x190]

Every time I see a picture of him, I think "My beard is sideburns. Your argument is invalid."