I figure that not titling the thread “Game of Thrones” saves me having to make a distinction between books and television.
Seeing as we had two threads on the old forum I thought it was best we do the same here, though we’ll see if it gets the same usage.
Just finished A Storm of Swords the other day, and I have to say, I have a hard time believing that any of the other books will top it. Having watched the series first, I knew what was coming, but boy did I fucking enjoy it anyway! The denouement just makes for fantastic reading, though as much as I enjoyed it I am kind of mourning the loss of Tywin Lannister. What a brilliant character.
One thing that did shock me was Littlefinger throwing Lady Lysa through the moon door! That doesn’t happen till much later in the series if I remember correctly, definitely not in the same series as the Red Wedding etc.
I was also shocked that Catelyn is reanimated/a zombie/proto-Mountain! My girlfriend informs me that henceforth she is referred to as Lady Stoneheart, which definitely isn’t in the telly series, so I’m very interested to see where that goes.
I keep intending to take a break and read some other stuff but I have dived straight into A Feast For Crows anyway!
Out of interest, has anyone bought and read A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and is it of the same standard? Also, The World of Ice and Fire is a companion book which according to wiki is a “326-page volume is a fully illustrated “history compendium” of Martin’s fictional Westeros, featuring newly written material, family trees and extensive maps and artwork”. Looks worth buying, anyone own it?
Storm of Swords is probably the album with the most hits on it, put it that way
Feast for Crows is unfortunately going to be a downer. It’s good but just not as good and it’s slower paced, new characters etc. Just make sure you jump straight into Dance with Dragons after too which is really good.
Or, because #4 and #5 are side by side just different characters (it was originally meant to be one book but he split it into two because it was too big) if you google it there’s an unofficial reading order if you can be arsed to jump between books, I’ve heard it’s more enjoyable but I didn’t do it first time around so I’ve no idea how practical it is. Basically half the characters aren’t in #4 at all and the ones that are aren’t as interesting (off the top of my head I think it’s mainly Cersei, Brienne, Arya, Sam, Dornish peeps) so you’ve basically got to wait a whole book to see what some characters were up to at the end of #3.
I’ve bought all the supplementary books for my wife and she’s loved them. I haven’t read World of Ice and Fire fully but it’s worth it just for the pictures of castles and stuff so if you get it make sure you get the hardback rather than kindle or whatever.
Yeah I got a kindle recently and have registered it as my girlfriends second kindle so I can read all the ASOIF books without paying for them again, but this one seemed like it would have to be purchased in the physical form cos the maps that accompany each book look like shit on the kindle.
My birthday is in February so I’ll probably just ask for it from someone seeing as I’ve missed the Xmas boat. Looks like it would be a great accompaniment to the books, something to dip into from time to time as a point of reference.
My god I envy you sir. Take your time with the books, i thoroughly enjoyed each one and wish I didn’t rush through them in anticipation for Winds of Winter.
Storm of Swords is the one, but as @Craigie sad Dragons is pretty damn good too.
I might be one of the few that thoroughly enjoyed Crows though (in contrast to the others that is).
Edit 500: anyone done the other books? With erm, dunk?
I really think the hate for Crows is unjustified. It’s just a different kind of pace but it still tells some important stories; books like this can’t be all action all the time and I really enjoyed Crows.
Haha love it. I agree - Cersei and Jaime chapters are still great. Not a fan of Brienne or the new Greyjoy chapters particularly. I think Theon’s chapters are my favourites in the series though.
I’m looking forward to the bits involving Theon, haven’t seen him in a while and Ramsay Bolton hasn’t been touched on yet really apart from what other characters have said about him.
Reading A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms at the moment and really enjoying it. Burned through 5 (I think) ASOIF books back to back and grew slightly tired of the same old characters doing things I already pretty much knew about from the books, so it is pretty cool to stay in the same universe but with a cast of new characters, or characters we’ve only briefly heard about.
Plus I’ve always wanted to know more about Targaryen rule.
I just picked this up in the airport on the way to Switzerland as I was browsing in WHSmith. I’ve heard so much about the short stories with Dunc and Egg but never really found a way to read them, so stumbling across a copy with all three of them together was a pleasant surprise.
I’m going to finish the book I’m currently reading and then get stuck in with that. Apparently they’re awesome and give a fair bit of context for 7 Kingdoms in general. Plus apparently there’s quite a lot of between the lines stuff in them that give away secrets for the book series.
I’d been reading a lot of fantasy at the time, just finishing the second to last book of The Witcher Saga when I bought Seven Kingdoms and needed to read something else so I ended up getting into a bit of sci-fi.
Once I finish The Difference Engine I’ll crack on with Seven Kingdoms.
Listening to the audiobooks on Audible. I feel like these recordings were probably done before the show got huge because this guy is not up to scratch, his pronunciations and accents are pretty annoying.
Tyrion has this odd Welsh lilt to his accent, which inexplicably doesn’t even match a single one of the other members of his family. Varys has a very saliva heavy lisp, that makes it sound like his tongue is approximately 40% too big for his mouth. Missandei has an almost comical far east Asian sounding accent that makes her say “Your Glace” instead of “Your Grace”.
Yeah I think they’re quite old. I think he may have won a world record or something for doing hundreds of voices in one of them. I think in reality he recycles like 12 English and strange Welsh ones
I’m interested as to what reading that bit in the book will be like having seen it in the show first. I did it the other way round and despite knowing what was coming it was still worse than I thought it would be in the show
