My impressions of a Game of Thrones, book 1.

[trickofthedark]

I read the first book out loud to Meesto over many evenings. I read it out loud without having read it to myself first or having seen the TV show. My impressions were basically this:

Comments

[karisu_sama]

Have seen 3 episodes; if Theon's dick made an appearance in any of those, I missed seeing it, not that I look for that stuff in a show. I normally read the book first anyway (and also normally like it better), but in this case I have had no leisure time to read books lately. :/

Am not letting my under-18-year-old (who whines that "all her friends" saw it) watch the show with us - I told her "go read the books" :p. (She is not at all oblivious to occasional indications of sex occurring in movies, but there are certain visual levels (and quantities) of "gratuitous" and "issues" that exceed my permission comfort level as a parent.)

[trickofthedark]

The quantities of 'gratuitous' and 'issues' in this show are extreme enough that I wouldn't let a teen watch it either. It's SO icky.

[karisu_sama]

Have seen 8 episodes now, including Theon's fail-fuck. :p

I wish they'd stop interrupting the story with cheap porn scenes. While the acting in regular porn movies could probably no doubt strive to this level, if I wanted to watch a porn movie, I'd just go do that. These scenes are gratuitous and serve no purpose in the show except to lure in extra viewers who probably watch it only FOR them. :/

[ymfaery]

So basically GRRM writes grimdark fantasy?

Which character does Sean Bean play?

[trickofthedark]

Um. He plays Boromir. *laughs*

[ymfaery]

XD

I meant in the show version of Game of Thrones. I'm assuming he's on the show since he's on some of the covers of the recent paperbacks.

[trickofthedark]

He plays Lord Eddard (Ned) Stark and he looks just like Boromir.

[vincentursus]

I confess that I got about 100 pages through the first book of the Game of Thrones and came to the conclusion that the series consisted entirely of new characters being introduced, fleshed out in a realistic manner, and then killed. At which point I stopped reading.

[trickofthedark]

And that strikes me as entirely reasonable. *shudders*

[neotoma]

I read the first three, and then gave up. The weird sex issues got to me, and the worldbuilding began to piss me off -- you don't get a European-style feudal economy without a reliable temperature seasonal cycle. An unpredictable seaonal cycle like on Westeros would be more like the El Nino Southern Oscilation, and thus you'd get something more like pre-European-contact Australia with many fewer people per square mile -- because without a reliable growing season, you don't get a feudal farming economy

[trickofthedark]

Oh, dear. I have been expecting to see the very extensive snow-insulated specially-lighted magma-heated farming facilities/magical greenhouses ever since the hot pools of Winterfell were mentioned, but are you telling me they don't exist and instead ... the disorganized uneducated poverty-stricken peasants ...save grain to last ten years for everybody. Whaaaaat?

an economy where men can't *buy* anything, or even buy any luxury goods, is an economy that doesn't work. I'm reading that Iron Islands bit now in the book and it makes no sense. How does a person commission a ship, a sword, a house, a coat, a beer- if there is no buying- only taking by force. There's no incentive for a free person to knit a pair of socks if all personal property goes to whoever is the most able to take. ...Unless all labour is done by slaves? Is there a gift economy? How do they stave off scurvy if they never sow anything? ...And I was all set to like Squid Boy (Squids!) if his whole Island way of life hadn't sounded quite so ridiculous

[heavenscalyx]

My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic would likely be more enjoyable

The Season 2 finale was fucking EPIC. Just sayin'.

[dipping_sauce]

WORD.

[lisafeld]

Yeah, one of the reasons I stopped after the first book was this shortcut of "I can't think of characteristics that will tell you this person is evil right off, so I'll just make them commit incest." The other reason was (and I said this back in 1997, so I'm proud of how prescient I turned out to be!) the structure made me feel like he didn't know how to end things, and I didn't trust him to take the series home.

I *am* really liking the TV series, though!

[pornography]

'Yeah, one of the reasons I stopped after the first book was this shortcut of "I can't think of characteristics that will tell you this person is evil right off, so I'll just make them commit incest."'

Oddly though, in the next few books, Jamie becomes one of the most likeable characters. Incest not always the indicator of evil!

[azurelunatic]

It's one of his more endearing traits. Weirdly.