[Note from Prim: This thread contains spoilers for all aired episodes of Game of Thrones. Beginning with page 14, spoilers from the books, for events/characters that have not yet appeared in the series, should be behind spoiler tags. Spoilers for episodes not yet aired (season 5, etc.) should also be behind spoiler tags. Thanks.]

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Ok, so I know very little about this apart from the buzz about both the book and the HBO series. My wife read the first 4 books and said they were brilliant. I was waiting until he finished the series to read, but then the buzz started to build around the HBO series.

Its being compared to LotR, not so much in content, as in scale, and ambition. Just as LotR was the first serious attempt at fantasy for the Cinema, this is the first serious attempt for TV. This is no Merlin or 12th Kingdom, its a gritty realistic Fantasy in the vein of Rome, Deadwood etc.

So is it any good? I have no idea! But I imagine it will be worth watching anway.

Exclusive 14 Minute Preview

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

Sean Bean as Eddard Stark? Cool!

I wish there was some way I could see this without having to wait for DVD.

Me, too. I'm curious. But nothing on HBO is worth $180 a year to me.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Nothing with Sean Bean in it is worth 2 cents to me.

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Dig deeper.

I bet you've paid more than 2 cents in LOTR viewing.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Oh, yes. But only the first FotR ticket was an actual gamble.

(Adding it up, I've probably spent $300-350 on movie tickets [counting mine only] and DVDs in the past 10 years. But I knew what I was buying.)

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

The more I read about this show, the more upset I'm becoming at the thought that I won't be able to see it for a year or so. Maybe I can watch it on hulu? We can download stuff over my husband's cellphone if we give it enough time.

This is the downside of being out of range of cable companies and fiber optics. We used to have satellite, but they kept limiting our speed until it really wasn't much better than a modem and a phone. Using a cell phone as a modem has been the best option yet for a decent transfer rate.

This is probably the first time in my life I've wished I had HBO.

Whatever. Where there's a will there's a way. I'll just be watching a few months later than everyone else.

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When you can do nothing what can you do?

I'll be there with you, I think. Entertainment Weekly had an article on this that made me feel deeply rather than slightly curious to see it.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

The trailer looks awesome. I know I'll be watching it!

I'm going to go over to my cousin-in-law's house to watch it, since we also don't have HBO. But to judge from the preview, I'll be watching through my fingers most of the time.

Rolling heads are so much easier to ignore on a page than they are on screen. It would be a fine moment to get up on a soapbox about gratuitous violence except that whole preview was more or less out of the book and, if anything, gentler than the book.

The books are loaded with sex and violence. GRRM actually authorized the scriptwriters to write some of the younger characters as older in the TV series just to cut down on some extreme squick. But it'll still be pretty intense. My sister's partner had to put down the first book. She's a huge fantasy and sci-fi fan (the two of us can drive my sis right up the wall and through the ceiling when we get going) but she just couldn't get past the opening chapters and a certain event. And, to be fair, that event almost put me off as well. I literally had to remind myself it's only a book. In my sister's girlfriend's case, she only picked it up again after I reassured her with some spoilers. She settled down enough that I ended up giving her my extra copy of the second book. Which means my brother will probably be giving me a new extra copy of the second book for Christmas, but that's another story.

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When you can do nothing what can you do?

And having HBO do it almost guarantees a level of sex and violence above and beyond what the original author wrote. The Sookie Stackouse novels weren't near as .... sordid as the resulting HBO series, "True Blood". I'm not really that squeamish about that kind of thing, but I saw the series first and that's the thought that kept coming mind. "It's so sordid!" I kept watching in morbid fascination. I almost didn't read the books afterwards, but eventually got around to it and liked them. Because, you know, the book is always better than the movie!

Anyway, if "True Blood" and "Rome" are any guide, HBO will put at least one or two intense sex scenes per episode and occasional full frontal nudity, both male and female. I dont' remember the violence as being particularly icky in those two series, except for the vampires being messy eaters. But there was serious violence in almost every episode.

This series is perfect for HBO.

I have never read the books, but I saw the preview and I even read the Entertainment Weekly article. Not sure if it's my thing.

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I've read the books, so actually I would have been watching through my fingers even if I hadn't seen the preview! That first book especially just does a number on the reader. I am a fairly jaded consumer of books, and it managed to totally SHOCK me. On the other hand, the world he constructs is completely fascinating and I found myself caring about all of these characters (ouch!), so that's what makes me want to see the film version. Plus, unlike vison, I happen to think Sean Bean is mighty okay.

Well, that't that, then. <orders book 1>

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I am willing to talk down anyone who hits the ceiling in the opening third of book one.

I am not willing to talk down anyone who hits the ceiling at the end of book one...but by then you'll likely be hooked. And by the end of book four you won't even be sure who to root for anymore. Except full subversion of a number of fantasy tropes.

I'd be shocked if HBO manages to out-sordid the source material for Game of Thrones. Seriously.

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When you can do nothing what can you do?

I found a way to watch this...

(And are the books worth reading? How difficult is the English?)

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"nolite te bastardes carborundorum".

I haven't read the books and probably won't watch this, no particular reason beyond Sean Bean.

But Maria's comment about adding extra sex and violence - is it really "adding" or "making it worse" or is it that the events in a book SEEM worse when they are translated to the screen? I've read many scenes that I don't even TRY to visualize, I just accept them in my brain that they've happened and move on. A couple of scenes from John O'Hara's novels - and heaven knows O'Hara was no fantasy writer.

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Dig deeper.

I'm about a third of the way through the first book and still going. I have read what I presume is The Event and lived.

Honestly, so far I don't find it any more cruel than anything by Sigrid Undset (which is not saying it's painless, not at all). I do care about the characters, and so far I like the world-building. I still want to know what happens next.

As for the HBO series, I also have no problem with Sean Bean, and in fact think he's perfect for that role. If I stick with the books, I'll probably read the first three before watching the HBO version. Being spoiled for a film or television show doesn't bother me, but reading a long book without "What happens next?" to pull me through doesn't usually work out.

I've read that the fourth book doesn't cover the characters that have come to be the focus of the first three, and leaves them hanging from a cliff; and the fifth won't be in paperback for a long time.

BTW, if you're thinking of buying any of these in the U.S., I'd opt for the mass market paperback. The trade paper edition is less than $2 more on Amazon, so that's what I ordered; but it's poor quality. It's one of those heavy, floppy paperbacks whose cover is permanently bent open once you start reading it, and it's printed on rough, gray, obviously cheap paper. The mass market paperback will probably last as long and will be lighter and easier to read.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King