Game Of Thrones featurette!

[Omar B]

So if you have not read George RR Martin's Song Of Fire And Ice series then shame on you. For those of you who have, HBO has put up a 10 min feature on the making of the show and I am officially in "freak the F out mode." There is just so much eye candy from the books that I'm covered in goosebumps from watching it ... yes, the books are that awsome.

For the initiated, here's the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJR3eBfcusM&feature=player_embedded

Winter is coming.

 

[Sukerkin]

Ooh! I can't wait!

 

[Omar B]

Wow, one response to a thread about possibly the greatest series ever written.

Did you notice Joff on the Iron Throne? Or Danny holding the dragon egg? Or the tiny peek we got at the wall? Insane! Or The Mountain Who Rides and his dog shaped helm!

 

[Empty Hands]

Now if only George could get moving on A Dance With Dragons...and the rest. I'm not sure he won't pull a Jordan before this thing can be completed.

 

[Omar B]

The thing with this series is, nobody could ever finish it. The cast so large, all the houses vieing for power, etc. I've read through the series twice so far and I still have to consult the glossary and really have to think about who's who.

I'm not going to outright say who I think will sit the Iron Throne, but those of you have read it I think it will be a certain bastard son and a woman from across the sea.

 

[Empty Hands]

The thing with this series is, nobody could ever finish it. The cast so large, all the houses vieing for power, etc. I've read through the series twice so far and I still have to consult the glossary and really have to think about who's who.

He definitely caught Robert Jordan disease. This thing was originally supposed to be a trilogy, then he kept expanding the plot and storylines and complexity. Now he has expanded it to such an extent that he has paralyzed himself, and seems incapable of writing the rest. A Feast for Crows is very instructive in that regard - much like Jordan's later books, the plot moved much slower, less happened over less time, and not all of the major characters were even in the book. I have a bad feeling about this.

At least the show looks cool, although I'm not sure how far it will get. HBO likes to cancel expensive series like this one - see Carnivale or Rome.

I'm not going to outright say who I think will sit the Iron Throne, but those of you have read it I think it will be a certain bastard son and a woman from across the sea.

Oh, that's a given. I want to see the Clegane brothers duke it out, that would be epic. Wait, did Gregor survive his fight with Martell? I thought he did.

 

[Omar B]

Gregor is dead, left on the side of the road by Arry.

My whole thing with the series is that GRRM seems to have no endgame. The story is so complex, it's wheels within wheels. He seems to be one of those authors who writes from the hip rather than outlining in great detail the arc of the story then writing to that. It's the type of story (that if were simpler) could be written by other authors for years to come even if GRRM passes. As it is though, it's pretty much impossible.

But that's apart of the beauty of it. It's so different from the literature I usually read. The characters so gray, that you really have no idea what's coming next but when it happens you are both shocked and accept it because you could see coming from that character conceivably.

 

[Cryozombie]

I am excited, but Cautiously so. HBO NEVER, NEVER, NEVER seem to be able to remotely follow the storylines of the novels they bring to the screen. I worry that they will diverge this so far from the books (ala True Blood) it will just be a story about characters with the same name.

Hey Omar, on a side note as a Conan fan, I'm gonna recommend you check out Joe Abercrombies' First Law trilogy if you haven't already read them... excellent books. Barbarian Tribe kinda stuff.

 

[Omar B]

Note made Cryo.

Tell me more though. Is it more of the Conan type story with a main character or is it more of a GRRM story with many characters and no real lead. I love stories driven by a main character, though, story driven ones like GRRM are good too, though they can get a bit messy when you can't throw your support behind a character.

 

[billc]

This series was great but I stopped at a feast for crows, the magic seemed to have been lost. Yeah, the joe abercrombie books are great. The Blade Itself is the first in the series and it is gritty and fun. The likeable inquisitor is a great character. He manages to make a torturer a sympathetic figure. He is a great author, everyone who likes dark fantasy should give him a read.

 

[chrispillertkd]

I'm looking forward to the series, although I'll probably have to wait until it's released on DVD to see it since I don't have HBO.

GRRM's series is great. One of the best fantasy series written in the last 25 years or so. But Omar is quite right, at this point I find it hard to believe GRRM has an end game. I hope to God he hasn't simply tossed his original outline and has decided to "wing it." I doubt this is the case but he's been suffering from diarrhea of the pen lately and needs to realize that A Feast for Crows, while well written, did little to advance the series. He really should concentrate on about half of the characters he's got in POV chapters, get Daenerys back to the Seven Kingdoms and get on with it. And frankly, if John Snow and Daenerys end up getting married I'll be disappointed as it seems to obvious for GRRM. I'd rather see John become King of the North in an independent Winterfell.

With all the talk of the three-headed dragon of course, that will mean Daenerys will take two husband as an "unforeseen" twist on Aegon marrying his sisters. I'm betting Tyrion Lanister is husband number two - if GRRM continues in the way that he seems to be going with this topic. I hope that I'm wrong about this but I've read the series each time a new book came out and after 4 times through, especially after Crows I'm afraid Martin thinks this would be "k3wl."

This all being said, the trailer looks great. Hopefully the fact that HBO actually has the series in production will motivate GRRM to get on the ball with his writing. I mean if one more Wild Cards volume comes out before A Dance of Dragons I'm going to kill someone.

Pax,

Chris

 

[Omar B]

I don't so much think he tossed out his outline, I just don't think there was one to begin with. He comes from a TV background first and I think he had a great concept, great characters and had a general thrust of what he wanted to happen, that is a united kingdom thrown into war after the king dies with the specter of limited resources because of the winter coming and the true heir to the throne amassing an army in another country. As a concept it works and could drive a TV series, comic series or hell, even a series of books seemingly forever (if the author just wrote the damn things).

To me I never understood the authors who just wrote from the hip. Sometimes the books come out good, most of the time they are a meandering mess then the book ends.

I'm of the Victor Hugo, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ayn Rand, Ian Fleming, John Gardner, Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Deaver mindset where you plot, outline, research, figure out all the mechanics of the story, then write. Deaver has been known to have 150 outlines that condense the outline, research, character sketches into one piece, yet his books come out to be about 300 pages. Thing is, everything works perfectly. It's also the method most mystery and thriller writers use. He's been known to go through this process for some 6 months to make sure everything works, but the actual writing of the book is just a few weeks, enough time to write it out in long form and add the dialog.

 

[WC_lun]

I really enjoyed this series when it started, but feel it is starting to flounder a bit. Seems to have gotten lost in the world he created. I hope a conclusion is coming soon.

TV or movie versions of good fantasy work make me nervious. They rarely come close to the picture my own mind created. There are notable exceptions, but they are just that, exceptions. Hope springs eternal though

 

[Omar B]

Behold, the Iron Throne!

New preview - http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/2011/1/16/iron-throne-preview.html

 

[chrispillertkd]

Any idea who has been cast as Syrio Forel?

Pax,

Chris

 

[billc]

Chrispillertkd, I don't know where you live or if you already have it but Netflix is a great way to watch a television series. I have watched several that way and it is pretty cool.

 

[chrispillertkd]

Yep, I have netflix. Usually have to wait until the series - or at least the season - is completed before it goes to netflix, though. I'm really lookig forward to it. I just hope we don't get to the end of season 4 and are still waiting for GRRM to complete book 5!

Pax,

Chris

 

[Nomad]

I really enjoyed the first book, but have to say that I think the quality (and my interest) dropped quickly after that. I haven't bothered with Book 4.

Agree that he has the same bug that hit Jordan... too huge and complex to make a cohesive story out of, and too large a cast. 1000 page books where very little actually happens. Too bad.

That said, I might redo The Wheel of Time now that Brandon Sanderson has picked up the torch (and there's an end in sight). Just finished "Mistborn", and was quite impressed with his writing.

 

[CoryKS]

I really enjoyed the first book, but have to say that I think the quality (and my interest) dropped quickly after that. I haven't bothered with Book 4.

Same here. I might reread it if I'm shown evidence that the man has a point and is eventually going to reach it. The first book was very good, but I stopped reading after Book 3 as well.

 

[Omar B]

Jordan never appealed to me, too high fantasy for my tastes. Besides, I read his Conan books when he was doing those and they were pretty dreadful. You could have replaced Conan with any other character and told the same story, he seemed to not know what made Conan unique, ever story had an evil wizard to defeat and there was always a damsel who annoys the crap out of Conan but he keeps her around and protects her for some reason. Yes I read all 6 of them but that's because I'm at heart a complteist and I can't help myself.

As for ASOFI, I think GRRM could bring it back in. Firstly, limit the "chapter characters" I never understood why you could not tell a good part of the story in one chapter involving more people in one place ... he's done it before, during most of the big events and wars. Dudes like The Onion Knight don't need their own chapters when he's with a king and army and that king has chapters devoted to him.

From there you can tell the story in a quite linear fashion. In fact, forget character chapters and just name the chapter after the location it takes place and stick to a straight 3rd person narrative.