'Game of Thrones' on HBO HD *** WARNING - Spoilers allowed ***

I saw the ad for this show prior to the True Blood season premier. Looks interesting.

Loved the first three books, the fourth not so much. And it looks like eorge has become the new Robert Jordan in that he's extending the series for more books than originally intended and taking way too long to write them. Hopefully he does not meet a similar fate and is able to complete these books in his and my lifetime.

Looks like the casting is pretty much complete - and it's a big cast, with most of the "secondary" characters from the book. Cast announcement page from George RR Martin's blog:
http://grrm.livejournal.com/164794.html

And here's a discussion forum with lots of cast publicity photos, including a book signing with Martin, and even a bit of swordplay:
http://www.empireonline.com/forum/tm...2&mpage=1&key=

I'm impressed by how one cast member after another looks like a close match to how I imagined the character in the book. Probably a good thing that Martin was involved with the casting. Warning: be prepared to lose your heart as you get to know the Stark kids!

Another warning: I found at least one other site with cast photos that also reveals some (hisss!) plot spoilers - not posting that one here. I wouldn't be surprised if the authors of that sleazy site

Finish the damn books, Martin! And stop spending so much time writing about what people are eating or wearing!!! Maybe then the books wouldn't take so long. Of course, maybe the speculation is true that he doesn't know how it ends.

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Series could be spectacular. I'm going to have to keep my expectations low cause if I don't there's no way it will live up to my self-hype. Yeah, I love these books.

A Feast for Crows is particularly frustrating because he spends so much time describing what they eat and wear. You end up thinking the book didn't need to be split in two if he had just got to the point. I'm all for setting the scene but he went too far with AFFC. The first 3 books are amazing, though.

You should be worried - he does not look like the picture of health from his pictures.

Gonna pick these books up when Wheel of Time finishes. I read WoT over the course of 18 months. All caught up now. I can see how it would be extremely frustrating to have such agonizing detail and little forward motion when having to wait YEARS for the next book...but being able to read them back to back, it didn't bother me so much.

Topic title edited.

When I heard about this coming to HBO, my initial reaction was "a mini-series is how they need to bring 'The Silmarillion' to life". Peter Jackson...I'm looking at you.

I'm a fantasy fan and I read the first 3 books. I liked the 2nd the best, but I could see this was going into the endless blackhole that Wheel of Time did. Martin is brutal with his characters. I like to see some spark from protagonists especially if met with the over-arching selfish evil of the villians. Not happening here, they stand right up and take it in the chops doing exactly the wrong thing at the right time.

I'll watch the series. What else is there to do. I'd much rather see an adaption of Gene Wolfe's "New Sun"...probably the high water mark of fantasy since LOTR.

Definitely have to train your mind to follow his cadence, but once done, he's one of the richest reading experiences out there. It might never happen, but the story is epic and I think doable. I wouldn't let Wolfe write the script just advise...probably what Martin is doing...and yes, he's not nearly as popular, just better.

What is this Game of Thrones?

I wouldn't expect any dragons for quite some time.


I don't know why you'd think that.

Not really. The wizards certainly aren't the Gandalf-type, they are more like alchemists, and arguably what they do has a scientific basis, just one that isn't understood as such. (Any sufficiently sophisticated technology will be seen as magic by a population that doesn't know that technology.)

What other magic are you thinking of? There really isn't much magic at all "seen onscreen" in the books. You have the creatures like the wraiths and such from the north, but that's a bit different.


It's HBO. Have you seen their shows? I don't think they've suddenly become prudish.

If anything, I'm more concerned that the series will follow the books *too* slavishly. Not everything that works in a book works onscreen.

there is no magic other than dragons. and they are basically extinct. There are some pyromancers that made basically fire grenades of 'green fire' and the things in the north that are like wraiths. but other than that its basically medieval hack and slash.

It will be interesting on how they handle the kids as the kids in the books sure did not act like kids and were placed in adult situations especially Daenerys who was 13 in the first book yet got pregnant.

All of the kids have been aged up for exactly this reason.

Really looking forward to this, has such potential.

Anyone have any good rumors on the Book 5 status? I had heard third-hand that there could be a Book 5 announcement in line with the premiere.

It was rumored that he delivered the finished fifth book around Christmas but then denied it was so. I have heard the sixth book is well along as well but way back in (2004?) when the fourth book came out we heard the fifth book was close to finished and now its 7 years later and nada.

My guess is the new book will be done right around when the premier airs. If you keep up with his blog ( titled : not a blog on his site ) it sounds like he's nearing completion. The man needs to stay at home and finish the book and stop galavanting all over the world to this convention and that. As selfish as it sounds, I'll be pissed if he croaks before finsihing the series. It's one of my favorite all time reads so far.

i find it ironic that wheel of time will be finished first and the author died

http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/03/03/...-dragons-date/

looks like good news...Finally !