Game of Thrones 10 minute preview

There is always that. And he gets to play the hands-down coolest character in the story. I was worried about some of the casting choices, and I'm still unsure on the guy playing Jon Snow and Daenerys and Viserys just look like the makeup and hair department just couldn't make them work, but the others seem to fall into place just fine. Especially Littlefinger struck me as surprisingly well-done.

Curious to hear the melody to the Rains of Castamere.

"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill

I'll just watch it via Netflix, or just buy it on DVD/Blue-ray.

Yeah, we cut off HBO to save a few bucks. This makes me tempted to get it again.

I really enjoyed the 4 books out so far (and I'm re-reading them now). George Martin created great, complex characters and a story with lots of complex twists and surprises. The HBO series looks really good. My one small complaint is that it appears that some of the young people are cast to look too old. Jon Snow looked like he was in his early 20's, when he is supposed to start out at age 14. Daenerys also looked too old -- but I understand that due to the practicalities of filming, they probably had to make adjustments. Daenerys has some pretty adult scenes, and they could not do those with an actress whose age matches the age of the character in the book.

Peter Dinklege is probably the only "little person" actor who could pull off Tyrion, an amazingly complex character whose physical limitations are a huge part of his character. I also think that Tyrion is probably the best acting role for a "little person" possibly ever, other than maybe Willow.

Of course, Sean Bean is always awesome. Lena Headly is great casting for Caetlin, too.

The second novel was easily one of the best Fantasy novels I've ever read; fast-paced, cool characters, interesting world with intriguing politics.... then the 3rd one came out and it was just lame. The fourth one is easily one of the *worst* fantasy novels I've ever read. The series was a best seller by that point and apparently Martin's editors decided to just let him have his way, which was a huge mistake. I suspect the reason #2 is so good is because they made him tighten up the prose instead of just vomiting everything all over the page and repeating himself over and over again. He could've excised 400 pages from #3 without an issue.

That said, the story has good bones so the streamlining necessary for a televised adaptation can only improve it. Unfortunately, it seems like every character in that preview actually says what they're thinking and half the dialogue shown was completely on the nose.

I'm a big fan of Dinklage (no pun intended) and have been ever since I first saw The Station Agent. He really has had a decent career, his size apparently no real impediment to getting work. It didn't hurt that he had a scene-stealing turn in Elf, which was a huge hit and is now taking on a life as a modern holiday classic.

Dinklage was born to play Tyrion, no doubt about it. He has both the charm and the sense of darkness about him to pull that role off.

You didn't... like Game of Thrones?

/eyetwich

Same thing happened in the Wheel of Time series. The author got long winded and it extended beyond what was the original target number for books in the series. I believe the original target was 6 books, but it might have been smaller. Series is targeted at 7, but considering Martin's current pace and his health, this is major deja vu for WoT fans.

no, it bored and annoyed me. two things id like fantasy books not to do when im reading them. that being said, it looks like there is quite a bit of cool stuff in the books, but IMO it felt like all the wrong things kept getting emphasis. ive got a rather sizeable stack to get through, but one of these days ill get around to reading the second book and might change my mind. but yeah, the first book, not all that great.

Did Jordan have an original target? It seemed like once the initial four book story arc was done he was content to go on forever.

I see GRRM as the antidote to Jordan. Yes, he's gone on one book more than he originally planned (so far), but at least you get the idea that he knows where his story is going and he isn't adding arbitrary new characters and plot lines like Jordan did.

I'm sure he did. I think I read the original target for books was 8. (looks at number of WoT books) Um, yeah. He went a wee bit past that. I remember when I started to get lost in the WoT series, Book 6 maybe. I read reviews about Games of Thrones and it was literally billed as for people tired of the WoT series.

WoT series is going to be so huge I wonder if a credible 8 book series could be made out of it, but I would be curious how it would read. I had never read anything over 1K in pages. For me to read a series with multiple books like that and keep track of everything was an achievement. It just got too much for me when the list of characters grew to where I started losing track of people and somebody who I thought was awesome in one book doesn't show up again until late in the next book and not for long and book 6 wasn't even that part where it really got bad for being long winded either.

I don't think fans of the Game of Thrones series really worry about the quality of the books. They just want them finished. I just went and looked it up. I know a singer/songwriter and author who has put out 3 albums, 2 albums of B-sides, and two novels since A Feast of Crowns came out.

The original target of the series was six books. Also a nice tidbit of course GRRM target was three(Which in the series A Storm of Swords was my fav).

The first came out in 1996, and he's claimed to have "finished" the fifth one (really #4 part 2) at least 4 times on his website over the past 5 years. There are so many other books to read -- my current pile of just SF & Fantasy books is about 15 tomes high -- that I've completely given up on this series. I'll watch the show, though, whenever it hits Netflix.

I just cant disagree with you enough. Im a huge fan of Martins and more than content to wait. Theres plenty of other things to read and watch that Im patient to wait for a quality product. Itll get here when it gets here.

WoT Book 7 (A Crown of Swords) for me is where Jordan needed an editor to stand up to him or something. The whole book was about grimaces, and adjusting skirts, and angry glares. I struggled to find a spot where the main plot moved a fraction. It was a 10 page short story squeezed into an 800 page tome.

Regardless, I wonder how HBO is going to handle some of the more delicate matters of AGoT

1. Danys love-scene? A 13 year old and a barbarian horse-lord getting it on?
2. Bran and Jaime....nuff said


Is it odd that Im already looking forward to Season 3 for the Mountain/Viper tilt?

--Frog

It appears from the casting that HBO is making the young people a bit older, so that the actors can be adults. Daenerys looks to be at least 17 or 18, and Jon Snow looked like he was in his early 20's -- I suspect that the 13-14 year olds in the books who have some more adultish things to do will become 17-18 in the TV series. To modern TV audiences, that will still seem very young to be doing the stuff they do. Plus, it will allow HBO to use older, more experienced actors for those tough roles.

Sometimes things that work in a book will be upsetting to TV and Movie audiences. Remember the big stink about Hit Girl's language from the movie Kick-***? Imagine the uproar if HBO featured a sex scene with a 13-14 year old!

As for Bran and Jaime, I suspect it will be handled with a cut-away and a sound effect at just the right time. No need to show that image when the idea can be expressed otherwise.

I remember hearing 3 as well I had thought. It's a big reason why I switched over.

5 years between books. Endless rumors of it being near done and yet no book. Known health issues. At his current rate we are looking at a kind estimate of 15 years. He's 62 now. I'll hopefully assume he gets off his butt and finishes it and then kicks back and simply does editing for the Wild Card series and other stuff. I'm just saying that I and others are taking a wait and see approach in terms of this series being actually finished by him.

Oh no, my point wasnt that the actors or actresses are a given age, what age are their characters going to be?....are they going to doctor the timeline a little bit? Are they going to ignore the timeline and let the chips fall with a slightly older actress...never stating overtly whats going on (but if you pay attention can intuit how old she is and then go "ewwwwww")....Im vastly curious.

No, you missed my point. Not all fans are as impatient as described. I understand he doesnt write for the sake of writing and is taking a few minutes (or years) to enjoy the largess of his labors. As for comparing his health with Jordans, thats a trifle unfair. Jordan died of Cardiac amyloidosis (according to Wiki). I have no idea what that is but I doubt you get it from eating an extra cheeseburger or two or having nautical looking facial hair. Regardless I did a search for George Martin and health issues and didnt find anything. Other than the obvious overweightness...but judging from the picture on his website and the interview on that HBO piece he's lost some weight. Please cite something so I can see for myself what these known health issues are....honestly thats the first I heard about it.


Addendum to no on in particular

Have you taken a look at his schedule? No wonder the man hasnt gotten any work done, one minute he's in Spain, the next Ireland etc....slow down George, yer 62. Smell the roses or something

I think a lot of people (not including you on this), need to remember: George R.R. Martin is not your *****.