Guys, chill, no spoilers here. It’s just that I need to get something off my chest.
So a long time ago, I tried reading “A Game of Thrones”, the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series.
And I couldn’t even finish the first chapters.
It’s not that the book was bad, it just didn’t work for me. There were too many characters and I couldn’t relate to them. Plus, the flow and pacing was just so damn slow.
It happens, it’s a part of life. Sometimes we don’t like a book that other people love. But what happened next was scary:
Where the book didn’t work for me, the series NAILED it. I LOVE Game of Thrones, the series. Not the books.
Dude, I’m a writer. I take the book over the adaptation at any time of day. Admitting that I preferred the adaptation over the book for the first time in my life felt…wrong. At first, I was terrified.
You know that creeping feeling that tells you something’s off with the Matrix? Well, that was it for me.
And then I watched The Martian, and I LOVED that book, okay? But the movie was pretty darn great, and I even dare say, AS good as the book.
It’s super easy saying that the book was better. So how about we do the opposite today?
I liked the film adaptation of The Shining better than the book. I think that Kubrick is a better director than King is a writer. The book really didn’t move me, but the film really creeped me out.
Oh that movie is excellent, though I didn’t read the book, so I can’t say. I love the King, but sadly, I absolutely hated Under the Dome -_- Love all the other stuff I read from him.
I haven’t read the Game of Thrones books, but the series is like an x-rated Lord of the Rinds. Not that I’m complaining…. 😉
Oops. Lord of the RINGS. 😀
LOL
The Shining movie was a poor adaptation of the book IMHO. I am with King on this. I like the book much better.
You stole it! lol Game of Thrones, adaptation far outweighs the books. I felt the same about reading them as you did. Pacing is super important, for me, if it is too slow I can’t finish it. The series, though, OMGEEZY, LUUUUUUUV it.
Right? : D
The David Fincher version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo added dimensions that weren’t in the novel and Rooney Mara . . . should have won an Oscar. The Name of the Rose was a great film that knew which bits of the novel to leave out. (I wish someone would film Foucault’s Pendulum.)
As for Game of Thrones. I watched a couple of episodes, but when Sean Bean sat down with some inflateable chap and started saying things like ‘Do you remember that time when…’ I thought, no, I’ve had enough of this.
Valid points ; ) But I fully disagree on the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (though Rooney Mara IS a pretty freaking great actress)
If you ‘fully disagree’ does that mean you agree?
loool
Uhm so I have this issue, which is: I am one of those who needs to read the books first. If I read the books after, I end up not enjoying them. I felt the same with ASOIAF simply because I watched the TV show first. So basically, I knew everything already. Specially first volume that is pretty much absolutely the same as the show. It was very difficult to keep going (at least I think that’s the reason haha, because that is what happens every time). So I am reading Dark Tower now in preparation for 2017 🙂
oooh good idea!
I’d definitely have to agree with you the GOT books are painful to read! But the show is amazing, which scares me because I feel like the book has to be much better than the show, and it;s highly likely I’m missing out on something good lol.
Right? It’s so confusing -_-
It was the same with Lord of the Rings for me. I’ve attempted reading the first book a hundred times but couldn’t simply because the pace of the story was slower than a dying snail…then came the trilogy and BANG!! I was blown away.
Which is why Peter Jackson remains one of my favourite people on the planet.
I’ve read all the SOIF books so far, and totally agree that the TV series is sooo much better. This is especially true of the later books, which have many pointless and tiresome plot lines and too much Cersei, who in the books has no redeeming features whatsoever (and is thus hard to take as a POV character), while in the series she remains marginally sympathetic. But all in all, Benioff and Weiss have distilled GRRM’s grape juice into a really fine wine.