HBO's A Game of Thrones

It's been 4 years since I've read the books, so my memory of them is getting pretty foggy. It keeps sounding like there's a vague possibility of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS coming out sometime soon, so I keep thinking that I should re-read them, because I'm going to have to. It actually works to my benefit now, since the show will hold some surprises as I've forgotten quite a bit of what happens.

I'm that if the show is good (and since HBO ordered more episodes before the pilot was even done, I'm banking on that it is), this will light the FFG game on fire. Not sure if you'll see it in TRU, but B&N, certainly.

Jordan did not have the talent to fill as many pages as he did with WoT. It's still a wonderful world, but he began repeating himself not only in his descriptions (especially of women), but also in the conflicts. And for some reason he also kept on introducing meaningless characters and gave them their on POV.

I think Brandon Sanderson is doing a great job - especially with the most recent book. And I'm also impressed by the fact that Robert Jordan spent a lot of effort making sure that the books could actually be finished even if he couldn't do it himself.

Still, I would like if Martin finished his series himself.

SkyBroadcasting over in the UK seem to have it, and they have started a new channel for it and other US and HBO programes. My cable provider supplies Sky packages that I subscribe to but there have been big arguments betwen the two in the last few years and I suspect this new Sky channel is an effort to extort more money from my cable supplier .... I have a bad feeling I am not going to see this in the near future unless I change from cable to satellite.
So how good is it going to be ....

MattLoter wrote:

Well, the dude that took over and is actually finishing WoT is doing a much better job of it than Jordan ever would have since those books really started to suck around 6-8.

Way too much chaff and repetition and boring storylines (the whole Perrin segment with Faile's abduction for one, spread over 3-4 books, 'kin useless). I heard some people say that they stopped at book 7 and picked up 4 books later without missing much, and I'm not surprised.

mads b. wrote:

I think Brandon Sanderson is doing a great job - especially with the most recent book.

Is he really though? I thought his second book (Towers of Midnight) felt rather rushed (can't really fault the author though, more like the pressures from TOR and his contract), both in writing and editing. Some of the text is really pedestrian, and I mean really bad. Plus the split with Gathering Storm means all of Perrin's parts were in this book instead and Tam appeared in two places at once (different timelines, but same chapter or two consecutive ones at any rate). Anyways, if his books are any good, at least it's because he's getting to the point and we're finally getting to the payoff from so much buildup.

Sanderson's been working on his own stuff plus the huge WoT ending project, those are very large books and he's churning more than one of them every year...no wonder the quality isn't so great, but the guy must work 80 hour weeks to get this done.

And I'm also impressed by the fact that Robert Jordan spent a lot of effort making sure that the books could actually be finished even if he couldn't do it himself.

Yup.

I think Martin's too much of a perfectionist, and that's really slowing him down in his output. Attention to detail and a good story is important, but so is getting it done. You can't keep on rewriting everything, at some point you need to put it out there. It will soon be 11 years since the publication of Storm of Swords, and he hasn't finished the complete sequel yet. Reminds me of Guns & Roses (Axel), working too long on his music and when it was done and finally out it was way past its best before date. But Martin intends two more novels that will likely never see the light of bookstores? What's so important that you can't wrap it up in one more after the much delayed Dance? Every year since 2006 he's been saying he was hoping to put it out this year...how much faith can his readers have now?

Hitting the screens in the UK on April 18th.

moss_icon wrote:

this is going to fucking rule.

Since I'm a far too lazy a sod to go look--and other people might be interested too--when is this supposed to kick off?

April 17 on HBO in the US/Canada, on the 18 in the UK.

After a 12 year hiatus, we ordered cable (satellite actually) in anticipation of this. Richard Sharpe is one of my favorite fictional characters. Bean is one of my favorite actors. There's promis here, but HBO has FUCKING BURNED US before by yanking the rug under its own fans.

I wish this were happier, but LAST CHANCE, HBO.

-S