A Song of Fire and Ice aka Game of Thrones.

Status
Not open for further replies.
tgraveline

tgraveline

Harley Quinn *growls*
Knight of the Noble Order
Emeritus
Ok, I have to say it has been a long time since I have found a great fantasy series to read that is more for older people, or people who have just gradually found more and more serious fantasy books. This series, and I must say I'm still on the first book, is awesome. I've enjoyed just about every page of it, and I have to warn you though, it doe,s get a little dirty and that surprised me. I think I understand why HBO bought the rights to do each of the books in the series as a season, which I think will truly do this series justice as HBO has done some amazing work in the past, think Band of Brothers, and Rome I hear is great, but too dirty for me.

I am truly excited about this though, I have been this pumped over a series since I got excited about Robert Jordan and Harry Potter, but seriously, I like it more than both right now. I love the other two, but Jordan is starting to bore me, and Harry I have one last book with that, and I know there are going to be like 2 more books in this series the guy hasn't written, yet. I believe he is also doing a seven book series.

I should also mention that the first book is titled, A Game of Thrones.

tg

PS let me know if there are enough people who have read and like it to make this a sticky thread.
 
Last edited:
In my opinion this series is extremely offensive, there are a lot of almost porn scenes in it, the violence and the gore are waaay over the top and while some people find the lack of good and bad characters (there are "grey" characters), I don't like it.
 
Wow, old thread and I missed it. :D

This is just a fantastic series. I first read the books when I was about 14 and fell in love with them straight away. I like the fact that the story is really layered... that you see everything from the perspective of various characters and that there is such humanity to be found in all of them... despite the fact that the happenings in the books are violent at times and that there is quite a lot of sexual content to be found in various scenes throughout the novel.

It just took my breath away when I was younger and it still takes my breath away whenever I pick it up again now. I felt like I was a part of that world for as long as the book was in my hands and in a sense I guess Martin makes his readers play along with the Game of Thrones through making them experience every aspect of life in the world he designed. I found that I related a lot to Arya Stark when I was younger, recognising a part of myself in her, but that I now also see hints of the characters of Daenerys Targaryen and Brienne of Tarth in myself. The characters from ASOIAF have always been entirely recognisable for me... either as parts of myself, or as parts of people I deal with in my own life... and I have enjoyed my journey in their world immensely.

I would not recommend reading it at such a young age already, though. My parents only allowed for me to read all of the books because I was already well on my way through book 3A when they found out that the books had some offensive content. :) I can't say the books have damaged me in any way... but still, it is better to wait with reading them until you're an adult. :)
 
I read the first...um, 7/8 chapters of the first book. Martin is an exceptional author. Really, he is. I think I could enjoy his writing immensly. But...I just could not get into the books. When I was reading them they were captivating, but once I put it down it didn't call me back. I just thought 'Maybe, someday, I'd like to finish that...maybe.' So I haven't gone any farther in the books because it just didn't hold my attention past putting it down.
 
*re awakens thread*

Just feel like throwing in that I've started the show based on the books. I've heard it's a decent representation, though I haven't read the books to know for sure.
 
A Song of Fire and Ice is an epic fantasy series that takes place in the fictional lands of Westeros and Essos by American novelist and screenwriter George R.R. Martin. It is steeped in fantasy elements, but also has feelings of the real world incorporated into it. The novels depict graphic imagery of battles, and other events using foul images and language, as does the tv series.

HBO adapted the series for television which debuted last year, which was the same year that the fifth book in the series "Dances with Dragons" came out. Martin is said to be working on the 6th book in the series which is currently titled The Winds of Winter. A Song of Fire and Ice is labeled the American version of Lord of the Rings. They are similar in ways. One thing Martin does is have you make up your own mind, as to who you think is good and evil, because you never know which side someone is on, or which characters will even survive.Even though I love both series.in other ways A Song of Fire and Ice is sometimes more captivating than LOTR. If you take offense to dirty language and are offended by crude humor than this isn't a series for you.
 
Last edited:
It's still another fantasy world. That is why I placed in here. Plus the characters are really memorable and highly enjoyable. It's also becoming one of my favorites. The books are one of the best fantasy series that I read to date. It's going to be another seven book series, which means we have two more books left.
 
Well, it is possible to say _something_ about the story, without _quoting_ any of the nasty language. I speak from a neutral position, having never seen the show or read the books. Still, "not knowing who is good or bad" has limited appeal to me. There is already too much moral ambiguity and moral equivalence in modern society.

It's interesting that the start of this thread mentions "a feeling of the real world." The talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt, who is a Catholic and who deals with real-world issues every day, uses the theme from the "Thrones" TV series as the opening music on his program.
 
Mozart the Meerkitten said:
I maintain the view that unless the author can write a book without much language and inapropriate stuff in it, its not a good book.
Click to expand...

I disagree with that.

Sometimes, for a book to be good, it HAS to have "inappropriate stuff" in it.

I love Stephen King's book Misery.

It is terrifically well written, and it has a good deal of language and grisly violence. And that's what makes it so terrifying.

Sometimes a well placed curse word will be perfect. (who can forget Rhett Butler's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a.....")

Further, it's just the way some people talk. If you are writing about clean cut church folk, then yes, swearing wouldn't be appropriate.

But say your main character was raised in a rough area and has had a really hard life. I'm not saying he should cuss every other word, but he wouldn't have the mouth of an angel.
 
Copperfox said:
Well, it is possible to say _something_ about the story, without _quoting_ any of the nasty language. I speak from a neutral position, having never seen the show or read the books. Still, "not knowing who is good or bad" has limited appeal to me. There is already too much moral ambiguity and moral equivalence in modern society.

It's interesting that the start of this thread mentions "a feeling of the real world." The talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt, who is a Catholic and who deals with real-world issues every day, uses the theme from the "Thrones" TV series as the opening music on his program.
Click to expand...

Really? He does? Awesome! I also posted this, because some we're asking what the content of the stories were like. It is epic fantasy, but with a lot of gruesome stuff and descriptions included. Just because some literature has bad language in it doesn't make it a bad series or the author bad. It could be certain people spoke during that time.
 
The Spanish Inquisition said:
I disagree with that.

Sometimes, for a book to be good, it HAS to have "inappropriate stuff" in it.

I love Stephen King's book Misery.

It is terrifically well written, and it has a good deal of language and grisly violence. And that's what makes it so terrifying.

Sometimes a well placed curse word will be perfect. (who can forget Rhett Butler's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a.....")

Further, it's just the way some people talk. If you are writing about clean cut church folk, then yes, swearing wouldn't be appropriate.

But say your main character was raised in a rough area and has had a really hard life. I'm not saying he should cuss every other word, but he wouldn't have the mouth of an angel.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting your comment. I feel the same way. I mean if it is done right and has a meaning behind it. Stephen King is a fantastic writer and yes that is one of the things that make his books so terrifying.
 
"Les Miserables," which Span-Inq and I both love, contains a bit of rough language too, but it's there to make people understand what manner of world Valjean and Fantine have to cope with. Yet I can sympathize with Mozart's wish to avoid nastiness. I spent twenty years in the Navy hearing foul talk that some of you kids have not yet encountered; I could endure it, but I sure never LIKED hearing it.
 
Copperfox said:
"Les Miserables," which Span-Inq and I both love, contains a bit of rough language too, but it's there to make people understand what manner of world Valjean and Fantine have to cope with. Yet I can sympathize with Mozart's wish to avoid nastiness. I spent twenty years in the Navy hearing foul talk that some of you kids have not yet encountered; I could endure it, but I sure never LIKED hearing it.
Click to expand...

Oh, I agree that if every other word is a profanity, it gets old really fast. And if a book is nothing but dreariness, violence, and profanity, it gets old pretty fast as well (Although I'm partial to A Clockwork Orange)

But sometimes it just makes a book more realistic. People talk that way.

I mean, think about it.

Say there's a book with a murder.

Murder is bad.

Does that make it a bad book?

Of course not.

Nobody wants a book that's all nastiness (which is why I hate most of the 'lit fic' out there today). But if there's a shining beacon of goodness among the nastiness, the goodness shines all the brighter.
 
Sopespian said:


If this is the case, then I suggest (quite strongly) that this isn't a series for this forum.
Click to expand...

I think Mike's point here is that if you post it on the forum, then members will think it's a series that's okay to watch, whether you say it is or not. I'm not saying not to discuss it...but the impression is given that a family friendly forum endorses a beyond R-rated TV series.

I've seen enough clips and videos of the show to know: R-rated doesn't even begin to cover the series' content. It's revolting. And curiosity will drive members to look into the series, whether you tell them that there's foul language and graphic violence. It goes wayyy beyond just those two things. There's so much perversion in this series that I can't really even sum up how I feel about the series. And you guys know: I'm almost never speechless.
 
Well, here's my stand: I'm not for censorship, never was -- but Martin Luther King spoke of the power of good things to crowd out bad things. If "Game of Thrones" has MORE THAN the "necessary minimum" of crudeness to create atmosphere... if it REVELS IN foulness... I will never positively ENCOURAGE others to read/watch it.

Dang it, everybody, read my Alipang Havens novels instead! In the second one, still in progress, there are characters who are understood to BE horribly perverted, but their perversion is not made blatant onstage.
 
I wouldn't say anyone had to read it if they can't handle obscene scenes or images. It's not as clean cut as LOTR or Narnia, but is still good fantasy. Again I was just giving a look into so people know how it is and they can make up their own mind about reading it. I believe the rating for the tv series is MA, which stands for Mature Audiences, because of the content of the series.

I think the way those certain characters bring a realness to it, because of it's time of place and how certain people acted back then. Not all fantasy lit has to have language like that, and not all of it does, but this is a series of the time that it does, and still has great and memorable characters. I'm not saying that I recommend it for others, but that I highly enjoy the series and the books that I am reading so far.
 
Last edited:
Not gonna touch the mortality thing and just say;

I think there is already a thread for this show. I know I saw one a year or so ago when I started on the first season. Just saying.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top