So, quite recently I really got into the Game of Thrones, literally caught up to S02E03 in two nights or so, just amazed by the series, AND BOOOOOOOBIESSSS.

How are the books? Are they just as amazing? I must admit, lately I've been an illiterate pleb so haven't read anything in a while but the fantasy is just up my road. But if I do buy books... I want to buy the full set of them. Now that series 2 had ended, I cba to wait a year just to find out what happens in it :|

Yes. I started the books after watching the first season of the show. I hardly ever read, but I read all of the books back to back using all of my free time. They were great. I can't wait till the 6th book is released.

The first season is pretty similar to the first book, but the second book has a ton of characters and small story arcs that are glossed over or not mentioned in the show. They are easy to read as well. Though when you get to the fourth book, you are going to miss a lot of your favorite characters, because they wont show up until the fith book.

Happy reading.

The books are fantastic, better than the show.Book 3 especially is one of the greatest books ever written. Unfortunately books 4 and 5 are fairly weak in comparison. Just be ready for very long descriptions of every single meal in the novel.

Just start reading and don't look at this thread again

Much better than the show. Give them a read. Dat Book 3.

Books are great. All do have some oddities. Fusioncode mentioned one. The description of food at times goes from descriptive into bizarre. Like he was getting turned on by writing about the food.

Series is great as well only I have one BIG issue with it. Something that I suspect some other people couldn't care less about. However it is so typical of American fantasy. It's in this fantasy medieval setting yet you get all these characters with perfectly straight bleached white teeth, perfect professional make-up, styled and dyed hair. I know for some people it would be a tiny thing but for me it totally pulls me out of the immersion and makes it look cheap and carelessly made.

The books sucked. They're to fantasy as Twilight is to Vampire stories; trashy, and essentially about a bunch of characters who aren't interesting, and the only depth they have is that bad stuff happens to them all the time. Also, just about everyone is a pedophile, and the author writes gratuitous pedophilia scenes; so maybe the series is interesting to pedophiles.

The books are okay, possibly enjoyable if you're into the genre. They are definitely worth checking out, so you can make your own decision. I personally only enjoyed a small section of what I read; I stopped reading after the 3rd book. The writer's style was just too unappealing. He tries to do too much. He attempts to broaden his story's appeal so much that it occasionally gets away from him, and he loses focus. The books just seem needlessly bloated, with unwarranted attention being paid to the most unimportant and sometimes distasteful aspects of the books.

The books are fucking fantastic. As good as the TV show is, it just doesn't do the books justice, and I suppose that's to be expected. There's just way too much material in the books to be fleshed out in a TV series unless each season was 30 episodes long.

Read the books. You won't want to stop once you start.....well until book 4 maybe. It focuses on the characters I enjoy the least, but book 5 gets the series back on track.

I started reading the first book a couple months ago, and I thought it was too slow for me. But that's just me.