SAUCY INCEST and brutal VIOLENCE boosts UK space sector

Currently reaching the end of Season 4 in the dead tree version. The TV version is very similar, for a given value of very.

Obviously, a lot of trimming had to happen to fit the series format, but I'm getting on in age now and I understand that they cannot possible keep everything.

There are some shocking suprises though. The biggest one for me was having discovered that the splendid scene where Drogo rocks the yourt swearing that he'll take his khal across the sea and lay waste to all who oppose him in honor of his wife was glorious, moving and quite thrilling on TV. The actor playing Drogo must have had loads of fun doing it, and I look upon that scene as worthy of a Grammy in its own right.

It's not in the book.

But, as usual, the books explain way more than the TV series, and allow understanding the details behind a number of things that the series glossed over. Some things are presented differently in the book, and with a bit of thought, you can understand why they did things a bit different for the series.

That said, I think both are good, in their own ways.

Re: Soft Porn with a reasonable plot

I'll re-bother reading the books once Martin re-bothers writing them. 5 yr gaps, with plot advancement decreasing and page count going up between them, not good.

It does bring the interesting question of how to manage the plotting of a very popular TV series ahead of the very popular books it is based on. I don't remember seeing that happen often, except for the, before Empire Strikes Back, runs of Marvel comics. Also incestuous, where Leia and Luke are an item.

I suspect HBO has contingency plans up the wazoo for their baby and a pretty tight contract with Martin.

Me? I like Martin's writing enough that I wish the series would conclude and he would go back to writing self-contained novels at a more normal pace. He's never written anything as big as GoT, mostly a lot of short stories, really and nothing as successful. It seems to be burning him out and paralyzing him.

Re: Soft Porn with a reasonable plot

( Never read the books but I presume that they are even better, usually they are).

I read the books long before HBO did the TV version, and although I tried to watch the series, I just couldn't do it. I was constantly remembering what happens next, or realising what they'd left out. Even the superb Peter Dinklage as Tyrion couldn't hold me. I wanted to like it, but...

That said, it would be good to have the next book before I retire.

Re: GOT can feck off

I felt for the loss of Srio Forel too.

Re: GOT can feck off

You're not the only one. I have a lot of sympathy for that. I was bought the box set of 7 books and by the end of the fourth one I had pretty much lost interest. Every time I found someone to start rooting for, bang, they're killed in a tiresome way. I too reached the point when I simply didn't care who anyone was or how they were going to die.

I know that good things happen to bad people and vice versa, and I'm no stranger to bleak storylines. I've got Seven on my DVD shelf. But the sheer unremitting misery of Martin's storyline and his determination to pulverise every human in his books with even an ounce of humanity palls after 130,000 words.