The Official Game of Thrones [A Song of Ice and Fire] Thread (includes spoilers)

My wife was pregnant when House of the Dragon came out, and knowing about the first episode, I put it on the back burner.

We just started a bit ago. On episode 8 of the first season right now.

It's... fine. I feel like it's probably a poorly written drama that will have good suspense that ends up being a waste of time, but I'm willing to see it out.

The second Rhaenyra actor after Milly Alcock feels like a cheap Hunter Schafer knockoff.

They keep aggressively timeskipping and age people, but don't age Matt Smith (who is quite good in this).

I can't believe George wrote a book in 2018 and still won't finish Winds of Winter. It's been 15 years. At this point just bring someone in to write it for you and let them ask you questions and pick your brain before you're in the ground.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
At this point just bring someone in to write it for you and let them ask you questions and pick your brain before you're in the ground.
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He literally doesn't even have to do this because he already has James SA Corey, the guys who wrote The Expanse. Ty Franck was GRRM's assistant for years and extensively knows the lore of Westeros and Daniel Abraham is an accomplished fantasy author himself, and together they wrote The Expanse, which is basically sci-fi Game of Thrones right down to the looming existential threat to mankind that everyone ignores while they kill each other.

And while I don't think The Expanse ever quite reaches the heights of A Storm of Swords, it comes pretty close at times, and I can't think of another fantasy author better suited to finishing Martin's work.
 
Jack Brickman said:
He literally doesn't even have to do this because he already has James SA Corey, the guys who wrote The Expanse. Ty Franck was GRRM's assistant for years and extensively knows the lore of Westeros and Daniel Abraham is an accomplished fantasy author himself, and together they wrote The Expanse, which is basically sci-fi Game of Thrones right down to the looming existential threat to mankind that everyone ignores while they kill each other.
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Well, that's pretty positive. For what it's worth, I have The Expanse > GoT/Asoiaf... by a significant margin.

One of the top 5 TV shows of the era, and might be #1.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
Well, that's pretty positive. For what it's worth, I have The Expanse > GoT/Asoiaf... by a significant margin.

One of the top 5 TV shows of the era, and might be #1.
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I'm strictly talking about the books here, as we're talking about who to bring in to finish Martin's work. The Expanse books are fantastic, but I don't think any of them individually hits the highs of A Storm of Swords. Nemesis Games comes pretty damn close, though, and The Expanse sticks the landing at the end of nine books, which deserves bonus points imo.
 
Jack Brickman said:
I'm strictly talking about the books here, as we're talking about who to bring in to finish Martin's work. The Expanse books are fantastic, but I don't think any of them individually hits the highs of A Storm of Swords. Nemesis Games comes pretty damn close, though, and The Expanse sticks the landing at the end of nine books, which deserves bonus points imo.
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I'd be lying if I claimed to read either.

Their TV adaptations are all I have to go off of--and I prefer the world building (universe building?) of The Expanse to ASOIAF but maybe that's my personal bias in favor of sci-fi over fantasy.

Like you said, good hands.

... just let those hands work
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
I'd be lying if I claimed to read either.

Their TV adaptations are all I have to go off of--and I prefer the world building (universe building?) of The Expanse to ASOIAF but maybe that's my personal bias in favor of sci-fi over fantasy.

Like you said, good hands.

... just let those hands work
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If you liked The Expanse series, there are three books the show did not adapt that wrap up the whole protomolecule plot line. Highly recommended.
 
Jack Brickman said:
If you liked The Expanse series, there are three books the show did not adapt that wrap up the whole protomolecule plot line. Highly recommended.
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If I only ever get to one in my life... and assume I listen to them as audiobooks... those books or Dungeon Crawler Carl series?

Considering how much you've talked up DCC I figured it was worth an ask.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
If I only ever get to one in my life... and assume I listen to them as audiobooks... those books or Dungeon Crawler Carl series?

Considering how much you've talked up DCC I figured it was worth an ask.
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That's a tough one, because The Expanse actually has quite good audiobooks as well. I listened to them last year in lieu of re-reading the series.

That being said, I think that, if you're going audiobooks, DCC has to get the nod because I don't think that series would be what it is today (aka a major bestseller to the point that you can buy it at Wal-Mart and with a TV adaptation greenlit and in production) without the audiobooks. The entire series is consistently in Audible's top 20, which is insane. Jeff Hays, the narrator, is truly phenomenal. He's so good that he was the first (and thus far, only) actor cast in the TV series, in the role of Princess Donut, the talking cat and one of the series' two main characters and one of his best audiobook voices.

They're very different series, though, so it's going to come down to what you want. The Expanse is more or less a hard sci-fi space opera. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a science fantasy litRPG with a lot of comedy and horror (both cosmic and body). DCC is tonally similar to Rick & Morty. AKA anything can be ridiculed or played for laughs, but the writing is good enough to nail the emotional moments when required.

I will note that the first DCC audiobook is markedly worse than the rest, as Jeff Hays was still figuring out some voices and also some of the production aspects. Carl's voice, for example, goes from being a discount Patrick Warburton (who notably guest stars in a later book as a direct result of that influence) to more of its own thing over the course of the first three books. There's also a chat feature in the game within the series, and in the first book, it's all read in Carl's voice. Starting with book two, chat messages are read in the voice of the character sending them, which is a vast improvement, particularly when it comes to humorous or dramatic lines.
 
Jack Brickman said:
The Thrones fandom has gotten mighty toxic since the original series caked its pants with that godawful ending.

And to be fair, I do get a lot of what they're saying. I don't think House of the Dragon is a particularly good show. It's just enough of a spectacle to be entertaining because it has that HBO money and production quality behind it. The difference is that I'm at a point in my life where I can accept that it's okay for things to just be good and not the best thing ever and a lot of people seem to think that everything either has to be amazing or dog shit. I think that's a disappointing way to go through life.
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Totally, totally agree. The absolutism is just mind-numbing and exhausting. I’m really enjoying HotD. I look forward to it weekly. Is it a great show? No, it has great moments and some great performances, but overall it is just a solid time set in one of my favorite IPs.

That’s enough for me.

Critique is fine but some people are just insane.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
My wife was pregnant when House of the Dragon came out, and knowing about the first episode, I put it on the back burner.

We just started a bit ago. On episode 8 of the first season right now.

It's... fine. I feel like it's probably a poorly written drama that will have good suspense that ends up being a waste of time, but I'm willing to see it out.

The second Rhaenyra actor after Milly Alcock feels like a cheap Hunter Schafer knockoff.

They keep aggressively timeskipping and age people, but don't age Matt Smith (who is quite good in this).

I can't believe George wrote a book in 2018 and still won't finish Winds of Winter. It's been 15 years. At this point just bring someone in to write it for you and let them ask you questions and pick your brain before you're in the ground.
Click to expand...

The time skip shit is season 1 only. It was a bit jarring.

Don’t get me started on TWOW. Gave that shit up years ago.
 
Jack Brickman said:
They made some really weird casting decisions for the age ups as well. Olivia Cooke is like the same goddamn age as her show kids in real life. They are peers.
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Yeah. It’s a common casting dissonance I think lol. I forget how old Alicent is in the book universe when she has her kids but I’m guessing younger than 20. Cooke can pass for a woman anywhere in her 30s. Aemond sticks out like a sore thumb but I find Aegon could pass for his age despite his actor being way older
 
Chris said:
Yeah. It’s a common casting dissonance I think lol. I forget how old Alicent is in the book universe when she has her kids but I’m guessing younger than 20. Cooke can pass for a woman anywhere in her 30s. Aemond sticks out like a sore thumb but I find Aegon could pass for his age despite his actor being way older
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Yeah I like the guy who plays Aemond but if you told me he was ten years older than Cooke I’d believe it and that’s a problem.
 
That fucking ruled. As much as I expected to hate the obvious choices to make it fit TV, it truly wasn’t awful. Really great battle as far as GoT goes. Some really gruesome bits.
 
So Alys claims to be the wife of Harrhen the Black.

Now the question is: who is her son and what became of him.

The initial 3 eyed raven?
 
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