good idea GB.

i was bereft at the end of book 5. so what i did was subscribe to the boars, gore and swords podcast. it started out as a couple of comedians who hadn't read the books doing a show by show synopsis of season one, and when that was done they turned it into BOOK CLUB. they're currently going through book 1.

a lot of the hilarity come sout of them misunderstanding virtually everything that's going on and making bullshit predictions about future happenings.

anyway it's helped me deal with my cold turkey after book 5.

also george railroad martin has released a sneak peek of the first chapter of book 6, the winds of winter.

sweet! i fucking gorged those books.

neat. when's it going to be published?

that's the 64 million buck question slothman.

hopefully before he dies of a massive coronary.

yeah. i just went snuffling around for some more details but it looks like he's gonna take a well earned rest for a bit. he does say that there will be a different sample chapter when the paperback of Dance... is released

such a tease.

I'm only just starting the first book, but I reckon I'll plough through them pretty quick.

I've read the first of these books years and years ago - I only realised this when I watched the first couple of episodes of 'Game of Thrones' on a plane recently and thought the storyline seemed familiar, then realised I had totally read the book when I knew that Bran was going to be pushed from the tower by the Kingslayer.

So I thought I might revisit the story and go further into than I had before and ordered the first four books. Having had some holidays recently I have read through the first book and am about half way through the second.

So far am really loving it, even though I haven't read any of this sort of stuff for a good 15 years or more.

I'm about a third of the way through the forth book... wtf is Littlefinger playing at (don't tell me)?

good books. i smashed through them in about 3 months.

I'm nearly finished book 5 so SPOILER ALERT for anyone reading 4 or before.

Littlefinger has been markedly absent from the Varys and Illyrio/Targaeryan connection that has dominated the latter part of book 4 and most of 5. His rationale in 4 is that by creating disorder he can improve his position. Most likely he is aware of the likelihood of Cersei creating a massive power vacuum by undoing all the allegiances Tyrion put in place and just wants to be the fuck out of King's Landing and her court when the trouble starts. After all he's tying himself to the Vale, the only non-partisan kingdom in Westeros. Presuming he doesn't know Bran and Rickon are dead he could figure that if he keeps quiet till the Lannisters are spent then he can marry Sansa and become Lord of Winterfell.

It is becoming quiet marked how Martin needs to bring in ever more character POVs in 4 and 5 to tell the story. It certainly helps advance the plot but I enjoyed the way in books 2, 3(i) and 3(ii) he let parts of the plot be reported via hearsay the way the POV characters heard it. It's becoming quite a mess and it introduces some POVs that aren't very interesting. Victarion, Areo Hotah and Barristan Selmy are bat shit, boring characters to live in the head off.
Also the fantasy genre is really a solid part of the story now. I was expecting it to stay backgrounded. Thankfully even though it is more present it's still not being used as a primary way to determine plot events in the way another franchise might.

yeah the whole iron islands leadership tustle thing seems like a massive fuckaround. bit players in the coming shitstorm?

i do believe selmy has a big part to play in future though. he seems to be the only person dany trusts in book 5, he is her new jorah mormont. and the only person who doesn't really want anything from her that goes against her own desires. he genuinely wants to serve her, because that's what he is trained to do - to serve kings and queens. plus he wants to shove it up the lannisters arse once dany and her dragons inevitably head for kings landing in future installments...

but the iron born are tough as fuck

except for theon greyjoy. dude's a fucken weasel.

goes without saying. little ponce was brought up at winterfell. what can you expect?

haa. i expect a child of winterfell to have more honour than that. so much honour that it ends up being the death of him.

I don't like the sound of that, Loady...

I seem to have been stuck around page 800 of Dragons for the last week. Too many peripheral characters, anot enough Arya!

anot?

bloody arya's character arc is one of the most annoying (as much as i love her). time for her to do something awesome.

Moke- I think the duel between the Red Viper and the Mountain will be pretty epic, along with the fallout from that (for Tyrion).

I really never got the intrigue with Jeyne in the books, so along with a few other bits of bizarreness/over-complication it seems a great thing to cut.

I wonder if they will have the direwolf sew to Robbs head in the next ep or are they going to skip it entirely.

Hopefully they will reference it without showing it, which is pretty much what happened in the book IIRC.

the ''purple wedding'' was such a spin out in the books. i would LOVE to see them double down.

open the next season with some third rate lord saying ''i hear wedding feasts are more dangerous than battlefields in Westeros.''

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

I'm kinda screwed up on the timeframes myself but I did hope that the ''purple wedding'' would happen this season leaving next season to focus on the stuff with Tyrion and the larger role of the Tyrells. I'm guessing that's not going to be the case though... assume they'll end with the shit going down at The Wall as that seems to be the only suitably dramatic way to end things.

stannis saving the day by sea was a highlight for me. there's so much great stuff i'm surprised the show can cram it all in.

I was totally prepped for the TV season to end with Joffrey's death. Putting it into season 4 will give them space to make it all come together, but I really wanted to see that little monster clawing at his own throat before expiring.

We hope...

...that you choke...

...that you choooooooke.

I was totally prepped for the TV season to end with Joffrey's death

I was hoping this would happen - go out with a bang.

Clearly its now going to be midway through the next season.

I suspect that the red viper v the mountain duel at Tyrion's trial will be very close to the end of season 4. That was one of my fave scenes in the books.

Glad they include ol Wolfy head!

I was expecting after the wolf head bit, they would show Mrs Stark being chucked into the river, naked.

arya's innocent act was great. can't wait to see more of her and the hound just fckng sht up in the country lanes of westeros.

I was expecting after the wolf head bit, they would show Mrs Stark being chucked into the river, naked.

Will they include Arya's dream about Nymeria finding Cat's body? I hope so.

i can't wait for the purple wedding but i'm deffo gonna miss king joffrey. his acting in the small council meeting was brilliant!

It's almost being set up that Tywin is as keen to get rid of Joffrey - and install tiny Tommen - as Varys and the Tyrells.

Has anyone here read the 'Hedge Knight' books, and are they worth reading?

Yep, I've read The Hedge Knight - well the first one anyway. They're shorts rather than books and the first one is enjoyable.

i read a graphic novel version of the hedge night. that was pretty engaging but i think only essential if you simply MUST know how and why certain houses etc. got the sigils and colours that make up such a huge part of the ice and fire saga.

Cool, thanks! Think I'll give them a crack.

Prediction: By the time the TV show gets to the Dorn and Iron Islands intrigues shit is going to be so unfilmable that they will end up cutting and rewriting so much to make it workable they will then realize they might as well just keep going and write the ending to the series themselves rather than wait for Martin.