Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire buddy read [seeking participants]

[Sarah]

Are you itching for a behemoth book? Look no further because at over 5,000 pages (and still counting) is George R.R. Martin's mutli-award-winning A Song of Ice and Fire series.

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons

Start date: now!
End date: ???

This will be a VERY relaxed/unstructured buddy read due to the length of the books and commitment required to finish it. But it's a great excuse to talk about (what seems to be) a great series.

If you want to join in, then just post! If you've already read the books, please stop by. If you've only watched the TV show, perhaps it's time to experience it all again but with a better ending.

Please keep all spoilers under a <spoiler>spoiler tag</spoiler> like this:
(view spoiler)[so we don't have to murder anyone :) (hide spoiler)]

Don't assume that everyone here has seen the TV show!

So with all that being said, who is planning to pick this up within the next few months? Who wants to join on this journey? :)

[Sarah]

My expectations: epic fantasy, dragons(?), and a healthy dose of gore, rape and incest. I'm wary of the level of violence in here, but I hope that it won't be too much to put me off. I've also heard the odd spoiler over the years, but hopefully not enough to ruin it for myself.

I chose to read this series now because I've never seen the TV show, and with the recent finale I got major FOMO. I've also heard that the ending for the show was incredibly disappointing, and since the TV series diverged from the books some time ago, reading seems like the best way to experience the story.

I would personally love to crush the whole series by the time the next instalment, The Winds of Winter, is released. But who knows when that will be?

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

I've read it in 2015 and while it was interesting, I guess it is overrated as "the best modern fantasy". For reading, get a paper or anything similar to put all the names, for there are many.

re next installment - it was initially due in 2015, but it is constantly postponed, I guess that the popularity of the series played a bad joke: there are high expectations and anything he produces will be crirticised as 'not up to the standard' by some. And quite likely the true fans uncovered most twists of the latter volumes, which also diminishes the surprise

[Allan]

I read the first four books a couple of years before the TV series started. I had discovered Martin through his Hugo/Nebula winning novella Sandkings, a fantastic read I found in an anthology. I remembered his name when I found Game of Thrones and it looked pretty juicy. Later I read Dying of the Light, which was also very good in an old school sci-fi way, but not Thrones caliber. I've been making my way gradually through Dreamsongs, Volume 1, an anthology of his early stories. His earliest stuff is very Robert E. Howard-like, deliberately targeted to the 'zine market of the time.

Thrones has so much hype from tv but don't let that influence you. I don't find it overrated at all. Sure, it's grittier than Jordan and not as literary as Tolkien, but it is a well-plotted, well-written, engrossing, entertaining series that I liked better than both of those revered references. My recommendation is to forget all the hype, popularity & criticism and enjoy it for what it is.

[Allan]

As for the show, I found the finale not so much disappointing as anti-climactic. Through the 6 episodes of the last season, you could see very quickly where it was going. That's the difference between tv and book - if that ending had been in a book before the series was over, it would have been surprising and classic. No guarantees George keeps that ending either!

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

As a sidenote: I still haven't watched any episode of GoT. I fully agree with Allan that books are quite good (I guess I gave 4* to most of them)

[Silvana]

Allan wrote: "I read the first four books a couple of years before the TV series started. I had discovered Martin through his Hugo/Nebula winning novella Sandkings, a fantastic read I found in an anthology. I re..."

Well put!

It is also one of the series good for rereads as you find something new in every read. The fandom community (the readers, not just the watchers) is great as well in keeping the flame going.

[Sarah]

Oleksandr wrote: "re next installment - it was initially due in 2015, but it is constantly postponed, I guess that the popularity of the series played a bad joke"

Ironic that the popularity of the show and the work he put into it inevitably delayed him from finishing the series. I read that the last two are going to be a whopping 3k pages combined.

Great idea about noting down names as they come up - I'll do that! Also I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who hasn't watched it :')

Allan wrote: "Sure, it's grittier than Jordan and not as literary as Tolkien, but it is a well-plotted, well-written, engrossing, entertaining series that I liked better than both of those revered references."

That's quite the glowing review! I haven't read his other stuff, so hopefully I'll like his style.

Silvana wrote: "It is also one of the series good for rereads as you find something new in every read."

That's promising for the buddy read, but I can't even comprehend rereading such a long series. Although if the final instalment takes 10 years, I'd need a refresher haha.

Now my main problem is: the book is almost too big to take to work in my handbag.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Here is a useful list of characters and their first appearances https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nSbZ...

to make it spoiler free - hide columns G, H, I - there is dead/alive status

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

Sarah--books too big to put in your purse--great reason to buy a Kindle. (this is NOT a commercial endorsement, but ereaders have greatly enhanced my reading speed and consumption)

And Z, thanks for the spreadsheet. I always have trouble keeping characters straight.

I ignored the Game of Thrones books initially--never read any of the books. Why? Because, for the longest time, I thought GRRM was the same guy who wrote those "Books of Swords," (The First Book of Swords, The Second Book of Swords, etc. ), which I didn't like. Turns out those were by Fred Saberhagen.

Besides, I am not really an Epic Fantasy sort of gal.

In 2013 or so, I bingewatched the first two seasons of the TV show by getting the DVDs from the library. I decided not to watch the rest because they kept killing off the people I cared about and also kept introducing more people that I didn't care about.

But then, in 2014, my husband decided that he wanted to see it, so I watched the first two seasons again. When it was time to watch the third, he decided he had had enough, (also because he just wasn't in the best mental state to continue a show we both found semi-depressing after losing his dad) So I saw the first two seasons twice and none of the rest.

The bright side of seeing the first two seasons twice is that I remember them pretty well, and if we are ever in the mood to watch them, we can start with season 3 . . .

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Another great source of chapter by chapter reviews of the series https://www.tor.com/features/series/a...

[Allan]

Spoiler: Season 3 doesn't exactly slack off.

[Silvana]

Sarah wrote: "That's promising for the buddy read, but I can't even comprehend rereading such a long series. Although if the final instalment takes 10 years, I'd need a refresher haha.

Now my main problem is: the book is almost too big to take to work in my handbag."

I planned to take a refresher once every three years but I ended up following my friends' rereading schedule or a podcast I listened to, so it's been random. I did read A Game of Thrones more than the others (i.e. three times), since I proofread the Indonesian translation and there's an illustrated version a few years ago.

I plan to do another reread but in chronological order, once there is a release date for The Winds of Winter. In the meantime, there are so many books in my TBR!

As for the size, my deadtree (mostly paperback) copies were barely touched since I used Kindle most of the times. But, I only read the Dunk and Egg graphic novels in hard copies due to the illustrations.

[Allan]

I've been making my way slowly through Dreamsongs, a two-Volume anthology of GRRM's early short stories, novelettes, novellas, etc. I'm up to where he starts winning Hugos and I have to say that this is really an excellent, worthwhile read. His flowing style really develops, so it's easier to read as you move forward chronologically.

[Oleksandr, a.k.a. Acorn]

Are these stories from the same universe or are they stand alone?

[Allan]

Stand alone. He separates them chronologically into small groups, with an introduction for each set, giving some background on what was going on with him at the time he wrote them, his friends, his influences, etc. That structure helps you connect and allows you to see how he developed as a writer. Plus Vol. 1 has Sandkings in it!

[Silvana]

Some stories are set in the Thousand Worlds, a far future setting he created back in the early days of his career.

Asoiaf is another world entirely (the Known World) though I know a publisher claimed that the Ice Dragon story is set in the same world when they were promoting the new edition (but Martin debunked it).

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

So, although I am not interested, I was wondering if this buddy read was doing ok. Is it going on?

[Sarah]

I actually put it on hold since it seemed like nobody else was reading it *right now*. I'll change the title of the thread to reflect that.

Do appreciate all the posts and discussion, though <3

[Kateblue, 2nd star to the right and straight on til morning]

I'm glad you are having fun here, and I am sorry that you could not rouse interest in this read.

Have you heard of a group called The MacHalo Asylum for Mischief and Mayhem? https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

They do SO many buddy reads and quite a few are epic fantasy. Maybe you could get someone interested in a buddy read over there . . . probably not me though, not your epic fantasy type of girl, generally . . .