hehe, yeah, I'm listening to them. I read them like 5 years ago, and I've forgotten so much stuff. I'm about 3/4 thru the 3rd book and so far nothing has really been explained about "tansy" tho I'm pretty sure lysa did get knocked up by petyr.

10/21/2009 8:07:17 PM

but Petyr thought it was Cat, right? he's all obsessed with her and whatnot.

10/21/2009 8:14:07 PM

^it's been awhile since i've read the series, but if i recall correctly, petyr loved cat but she didn't reciprocate. i think lysa was a cat-substitute for him.

10/21/2009 8:33:54 PM

Fuck George R. R. Martin. He had brilliant storytelling and an amazing plot, and then gave in to the Robert Jordan program: stretch-out-story-for-15-books-and-make-new-characters-out-of-nowhere-so-I-can-keep-selling books. A Feast for Crows was a pile and you'll be lucky if he doesn't croak before he finishes the next one. Horay for authors that can finish a damned story.

I'm guessing work on the screenwriting and production for this series has further delayed the next book, which if you believe his horseshit had basically already been written when the last book was released. bingo!

10/22/2009 9:01:08 AM

^heh, this is why him dying would not be a bad thing -- they could get some other awesome author who cranks out good books (like Brandon Sanderson) to finish the series.

10/22/2009 11:42:08 AM

Sanderson can not write worth shit. That said, his books with "imaginative" magic systems every 8-12 months might be a more palatable alternative than Martin's decade with Ice and Fire.

10/22/2009 5:34:33 PM

Plus martin has a billion side projects and the fucking NFL.




On a side note, I started reading this wheel of time shit and am on book 5. I don't know if I can stand 6 more books of skirt-smoothing and plunging necklines. I should have realized this thing was for children much earlier.

10/22/2009 8:28:12 PM

^ i've got about 100 pages left in book 4. after this one, i'm moving on to bigger and better things. may or may not revisit robert jordan. started awesome, and fizzled in the middle of book 3.

10/22/2009 8:33:54 PM

I thought ASOIAF was fantastic through book 3, but 4 just seems like 1000 pages of filler.

I seriously have a hard time thinking of anything noteworthy or important that happened in that whole book. Whenever I think of something I remember it happened in book 3.


[Edited on October 22, 2009 at 9:12 PM. Reason : It was well written and fun enough to read though I guess.]

10/22/2009 9:10:20 PM

still think Lena Headley is not a fit for Cersei, even as that curly blonde

10/22/2009 9:24:44 PM

she would have been a good ned stark wife, except when they made her ugly

10/22/2009 9:47:11 PM

Quote :

"Sanderson can not write worth shit."

I'm sorry, have you even READ any of his books???

10/23/2009 10:24:48 AM

Quote :

"Sanderson can not write worth shit."

i don't feel THAT strongly about it, but he's definitely far down on the list of authors whose books i can't put down

"elantris" was pretty good, IMO

i read the mistborn series and was kinda "meh"

i picked up "warbreaker" from the library a few weeks ago and eventually abandoned it when i was notified that rothfuss' "name of the wind" was waiting for me

he's not bad, but i don't think he's spectacular

10/23/2009 11:02:21 AM

^agreed. and I am in the middle of "Name of the Wind" myself its taking me awhile just because I've been so busy but I really like what i've read so far.

10/23/2009 11:51:18 AM

^ and ^^ that's just cause he writes in a way women can also appreciate. If you've ever noticed, there's a vast difference between male and female authors, especially when it comes to character development--- ie, most male authors never develop ANY female characters outside of damsels and distress and whores.

I will have to check out this Rothfuss guy.

You want to read a poetic story, check out Kushiel's Dart by Jaqueline Carey.

[Edited on October 23, 2009 at 11:26 PM. Reason : f]

10/23/2009 11:26:22 PM

Are you kidding me? If I wanted to read crackerjack fill in the blank Halo series prose, sure Sanderson is a great author. Oh, wait, he innovated with a brilliant new magical system, how interesting...

I have read everything in his "adult" catalog, including his warbreaker drafts...nice try. I am not impressed.


disclaimer - I have never read a Halo series book, but I can only imagine the horrors within.

[Edited on October 24, 2009 at 1:24 AM. Reason : contraction]

10/24/2009 1:22:15 AM

alright, I'll bite, what's your idea of a good book then?

10/24/2009 9:53:18 AM

In the overlapping category of scifi fantasy, some authors with amazing catalogs

Roger Zelazny
Gene Wolfe
Ursula K Le Guin
Stephen Donaldson

These writers are all stars obviously, their work blows away 99% of the rest of whats out there.

I believe Sanderson falls into this whole area of new sff writers who are cranking out shallow and mildly interesting writing, along with Scott Lynch, Daniel Abraham, Greg Keyes etc, but not on par with them. I found Lies of Locke Lamora a fun read, the same with the Briar King and the rest of that series, however they do not measure up to any work by the authors up top.

10/24/2009 5:14:44 PM

for those interested, this is the blog I have been following for a few weeks now:

http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/

Figured I'd link it up since I didn't hear anyone else talk about it/link it up.

11/12/2009 12:07:41 PM

So when does this start? Not soon enough?!!?!

12/1/2009 12:54:02 PM

well shooting for the pilot episode is completed but all the post production will take awhile etc. etc. If we're lucky we could see the pilot this time next year. I can tell you that HBO is scheduled to make a decision and announcement on whether to go forward into full production by March 2010.

If this gets picked up it will be interesting to see what they choose to cut out. Even doing these shows as 12 episodes/1 season for each book, certain elements will have to be trimmed. But at least someone isnt trying to force these into 3 hour movies.


[Edited on December 1, 2009 at 1:46 PM. Reason : ]

12/1/2009 1:30:11 PM

Quote :

"But at least someone isnt trying to force these into 3 hour movies."

Agreed, way too much in each book for even a very long movie. The layout of the books with 15ish POV chapters each does seem to translate pretty easily into a tv series, although I'm not sure if they would devote entire episodes to a specific character. I could definitely see them jumping around between POV chapters just to keep people fresh on all of the moving parts.

Any info on when we might see the pilot?

12/9/2009 7:59:14 PM

http://www.valyriansteel.com/2009/12/31/needle-shipping/#comments

I saw this and LOL'd, at least I'm not the only one who's transposed "ice" and "fire" in the series name

1/30/2010 8:19:46 PM

actually, ncsu alums are required to write "fire and ice"

1/30/2010 8:25:53 PM

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/hbo-will-play-game-of-thrones/

Greenlight from HBO on the series, ftw

3/2/2010 8:54:45 PM

was just about to write this!

First official image from the pilot:



[Edited on March 2, 2010 at 9:02 PM. Reason : ]

3/2/2010 9:01:41 PM

I really hope that people who weren't already a fan of the books don't get turned off by the fact that this is considered a "fantasy" series. I think people who would never normally watch anything related with the "fantasy" tag will still love this show if its done right/in the spirit of the books simply because the character and plot development is so solid.

3/3/2010 9:31:33 AM

how is it that they have images of the pilot when

Quote :

"Production on the series is to begin in Belfast in June; a premiere date has not yet been set."

is it standard practice to do a single episode for demonstration purposes?

3/3/2010 10:13:42 AM

hey guys what does pilot mean

[Edited on March 3, 2010 at 10:17 AM. Reason : it means "a single episode for demonstration purposes"]

3/3/2010 10:14:16 AM

^^ yes

they mean that after seeing the pilot hbo has decided to air the series. production will start on the official series now. although the pilot will probably be episode 1.

[Edited on March 3, 2010 at 10:15 AM. Reason : ^'s]

3/3/2010 10:15:14 AM

yea, as they stated, thats exactly what a pilot is. Casting was done last summer and fall, and the first episode was shot between October and November. Editing and all the post-production was going through the winter and HBO screened it in February I think. The people involved with the show were just waiting on HBO's approval to continue at this point, which came through with HBO ordering the entire first season.

Filming will mainly be taking place in Morocco and Northern Ireland. The cast so far looks really solid and there are still some big characters left to fill.

[Edited on March 3, 2010 at 10:21 AM. Reason : ]

3/3/2010 10:20:13 AM

= solid

3/3/2010 10:47:56 AM

i always thought the pilot was simply the first episode of a new series

THE MORE YOU KNOW

3/3/2010 10:49:00 AM

^^ looks like a monster

3/4/2010 12:25:50 AM

More like a dragon lol

/nerd

3/4/2010 2:51:03 AM

^^ Considering the character comes from a long line of inbreeding, I think she suits the part

3/4/2010 7:02:36 AM

I'm excited about this!

But I'm worried that the show will be too expensive and get canceled

3/4/2010 7:32:36 AM

we'll have to see. Their first season budget is not crazy high so we'll see. It is rumored to be about $40million which is about on par with Tudors. Rome had around $100million a season for comparison. They are certainly going to use visual effects teams for a ton of the scenery and settings but I think/hope they can make it work.

3/4/2010 7:46:53 AM

I imagine that compared to Rome, they won't need to do nearly the same amount of set building, costumes, etc. After all, between all the different shows and studios out there, there must be a ton of stuff they can recycle for their production.

3/4/2010 12:50:50 PM

Woder how they plan on representing Gregor Clegane



Dude's almost 8 feet tall and over 420 pounds ("30 stone") of pure muscle.

Also he's a total bastard, one of the few people in the books who's pure evil.

3/4/2010 8:14:23 PM

^yea im definitely interested in that as well. His character is awesome though. Someone you just love to hate.

3/4/2010 9:12:10 PM

yeah imagine if he were a zombie! wouldn't that be scary

3/4/2010 9:40:38 PM

Just finished rereading book 1

Not sure if I'll read the other ones as well. As good as they are, it's kind of a chore to plow through them.

It did help refresh my memory, and if nothing else, I might have a chance at keeping all the names straight

Also.. Daenarys looks too old

3/25/2010 7:03:38 PM

^ George Martin has addressed the age thing. In the show, all the prominent kid characters are starting out being a couple years older than they were in the books. Along with that, as you know, almost all kid characters in movies and tv shows get portrayed by actors who are slightly older than the actual character is. These two things factored together mean the actors are definitely several years older than the book version of the character is. There is also a plan to have the time span slightly changed. It wouldnt affect the story at all, but instead of the first 4-5 books only covering 3 years, they would cover closer to 5 or so.

This is for several reasons. One is simply the fact that Martin himself in hindsight has stated that he wished he had started the kids as being older in the books but he doesnt really want to go back and change it in the books at this point, but rather will correct it in the TV adaptation. He also felt like he should have "aged" the characters more through each book: Basically what I stated above about the time frame between book 1 and 4 being longer than 3 years.

Another factor (although actually small) was that if you cast an actress to be the original, true age that Daenarys was in the books, he said he would have had to rewrite a lot of her scenes to feel appropriate for TV.

Hope that clears that up for you

3/25/2010 10:05:50 PM

Quote :

" This is for several reasons. One is simply the fact that Martin himself in hindsight has stated that he wished he had started the kids as being older in the books but he doesnt really want to go back and change it in the books at this point, but rather will correct it in the TV adaptation."

I've said this exact same thing! I think if they started everyone at 2-3 years older it would have been more believable.

3/26/2010 1:30:39 AM

Quote :

"Also he's a total bastard, one of the few people in the books who's pure evil."

I see what you're saying, but Sir Gregor does have his redeeming qualities. He's definitely a shit, but I think you could see the other side of him when he was traveling with Arya.

Sandor Clegane, however, is absolutely without redemption.

[Edited on March 26, 2010 at 9:29 AM. Reason : THE MOUNTAIN THAT RIDES]

3/26/2010 9:29:28 AM

I think you've got them mixed up.

Sandor is the one who travels with Arya. Gregor is the Mountain.

3/26/2010 10:00:05 AM

^exactly

Also, I love this book series and I also wish GRRM would either get off his fatass and finish the series (or at least the next book in the series) or just croak so some other author can finish the series.

3/26/2010 10:12:32 AM

shit

you're right

sandor is the hound

its been too long

3/26/2010 10:37:32 AM

Also Sandor isn't a "ser"

He's not a knight and he's never wanted to be.

3/26/2010 1:33:32 PM