(08-28-2017 08:54 AM)eagle04 Wrote:  Artifice, just curious, you seem to be well informed on the show/book. Is it just from reading the books or have you dove way off in the family lines, etc? Not a knock. I find it interesting but I have not read the books (plan to though).

I read the books, twice, but my memory is starting to slip because it's been so long since I did. I was waiting for a release date for book 6 to do another re-read... since 2010. So... yeah.

I also bought and read these:



These are the tales of Dunk & Egg. It happens about a generation before anyone on the show. I could be more specific but it'd kind of ruin some of the surprise. It reads a bit like Forest Gump in Westeros. It's a fun premise, and the deliberate pace is actually very rewarding. You get a nice little dose of history in some familiar general surroundings and with some recognizable names.



It is what it says it is. The pretense is that it was compiled by a grand Maester. It's a bit dry, but sketches out the world in great detail.

They're both good reads, though the first is much more fun.

The ASOIAF books are great reads but very dense and at times as uneven as the show. GRRM hated writing the last two and it shows. There are entire plotlines I could have done without. But then, at other times, what he wrote is so much more dense and grand and thrilling than even the show. He spends a lot of time on tolerable exposition - this house and that lord, etc etc, but he does a remarkable job of characterization. And I think having the show as baseline for reading the books, where there are SO MANY more characters, will be hugely helpful for a first time reader.

Quote:Also, has there been any indication what the spin-offs will be from the show? I read there could be 3-4 separate ones.

Lots of rumors, nothing firm yet. GRRM has said it wont be Roberts Rebellion. He is busy writing a Targ history called Fire & Blood (parts I & II) that covers all the way up to that era.