Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
You should always read the book first! And stop after the third, because GRRM loses the plot, both figuratively and literally, with book four. Then you can watch the series which at least will tidy up some of the mess of the fourth and fifth books and achieve closure.
[P.S. If you’re squeamish, the HBO series might be too hard to take.]
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I have a bone to pick!
I would rather never have an ending than to have endure the agony of the television show's eighth (and seventh) season again. That was, I think, the biggest downfall of a tv show that I've ever seen.
The showrunners proved that while they're superb adapters of dense and complex material (the books, which correlates up to around the fifth/sixth season of the show for those unaware), they're atrocious at writing their own material based on a very vague outline (the last two seasons, which were entirely based on the very broadest of beats of what Martin had told them of his idea of an ending and everything else made up by the showrunners). It went from more of a Da Vinci or Michelangelo sort of complex quality to a child's paint-by-numbers, colour-in-the-outlines blunt force trauma. Like, do you guys know the old lady in Spain who thought she was improving that church fresco of Jesus and instead turned it into a cartoonish horror? That's what happened to the show. She swooped in for the last couple of seasons and did her magic.
I don't think Martin lost the plot in the fourth and fifth books per se; the world and story aren't chaotic or disorganised, they've just grown so large and complex. He can't even figure out how to get you-know-who out of you-know-where (the 'knot')! It's a testament to how much he cares about wanting the characters and story to develop naturally and realistically (despite the fantasy elements). I think he still knows where he wants to go but he's just set himself up about a thousand detours to write through them all, and his plan is to do just that (whether he will succeed is another matter entirely). He may have lost the plot in real life since who knows when he'll ever publish the next book, let alone the last book, but I don't think he has in the story itself.
Books 4 and 5 were really one book split in two, and I think they're on par with the quality of book 2. Books 1 and 3 were a bit better, but I think that's because they both had some excellent earned twists. I think, based on what happens in the tv show, he has another big twist coming in book 6 that will start to end some of the detours and coalesce things more.
I'm actually not a huge fan of the books - they can be a bit wooden and plodding - but I respect Martin's ridiculous imagination, his commitment to natural progression and his ambition with the series, and the series does have some great characters and especially some great twists, which work so well because he does make sure they're earned and not just randomly thrown in or deus ex machinas. I do plan on reading the last books if they ever come out. I was a fan of the television series though... at least the first six seasons.