Which is better, Books or Show?

[Ursa major]

I come down on the side of the show. ASoIaF is a well-written and interesting story but it is NOT as original as Dune nor as artistically significant as LotR. As writers, we find it very interesting because it's a virtuoso performance by a superior technician who substantially invented the form, but I see Martin as a Salieri, not Mozart. I think it will be a case of "Game of What?" in a decade, maybe two at the outside.


This is reflected best in the binge watching phenomena, where people Tivo (or torrent) it until they have the whole season, and then get some popcorn and a free Saturday. It's a good story but it just doesn't have enough drama and (once you figure out he's going to kill anyone who's even slightly nice, along with everyone else) unpredictability to hold out your interest for 3 months, let alone enough to sustain 7 books and 14 years.


Yes, no, maybe?

Sorry for responding so late, but I seem to have missed this thread until now.

Anyway, I'm confused. You ask which is better, the show or the books, but then say only that the books are not as original as Dune or as artistically significant as LoTR. Whether these two statements are correct or not, I'm not sure how this makes the show better than the books. You compare it neither to the books nor to other works on TV (or on film).

 

[Nerds_feather]

I strongly disliked the show after the first season, so books for me.

 

[Judderman]

The TV series is a great advert for Fantasy epics and very well done. But the book is still much better for anyone with a little patience who enjoys reading. I would definitely recommend the books before the series. If you read the book then the twists are both a reward and surprise after reading a long section. I think if you have already seen the twists on TV then reading the books may seem a little less worthwhile. In addition for the first couple of series on TV it is a little confusing/requires some concentration to keep track on who is who (Rob or John Snow for example) but it is clearer in the books.
As for saying that ASOIAF will be remembered long after LOTR, I highly doubt it. Other than for people who only experienced epic fantasy stories through ASOIAF on TV.

 

[Tywin]

I choose the parody versions on Youtube as by far the best interpretations.

 

[Young stormlord]

I'd say books. For me, it will always be books. Why? My imagination has no damn budget it has to keep inside off. If there are 10.000 people and horses mentioned as being part of the battle, then I see 10.000 people (or at least a few hundred) and horses. I don't see a dozen in a tent. Or two dozen kicking each other's arses. I see a lot of them!
Besides, vision that the book conjures is mine. It is sort of like Ikea furniture: I've assembled it (in my mind), so it is precious to me. What director and actors did is a vision of someone else.

 

[Narkalui]

I don't really have much to add here, like most others I prefer reading the books to watching the tv show. But I'd also like to mention my annoyance at how the tv show has influenced the imagery in my mind when I read the stories.

I started reading GoT just before the first series was broadcast and because of the marketing posters everywhere I assumed Sean Bean was playing King Robert (and I though "oh that's clever, the character was a classic Sean Bean archetype 15 years ago and is now fat and drunk"). I had no idea who was playing Ned and having watched Rob Roy on DVD for the umpteenth time the night before I immediately imagined Liam Neeson as Ned and Jessica Lang as Cat.

Then I watched the show and no matter how hard I try when I re-read I only see the tv cast. Shame.

 

[HareBrain]

It is sort of like Ikea furniture: I've assembled it (in my mind), so it is precious to me.

I wish I could feel the same about my Ikea furniture.

I agree with the rest of your post though.

 

[soulsinging]

I'm not sure. I read the books during law school (that might have been unfair to the books given how little of my attention could be focused on them) and found them strong as potboilers but frustrating and lengthy. I have to say, the show sort of changed my view on the series. I'm not one of those readers who sees whole cities spring up based on an author's description of spires and architecture (I sometimes feel I can't read mysteries properly because PI's are always visiting "stucco" and "tudor" houses and I have no clue what the difference is), so being able to just have the setting shown to me allowed me to focus a lot more on the characters and plotting, which I found very engaging. It excised some of the slower bits and expanded some of the more exciting ones in ways I really liked (until the aforementioned blue energy ball skeleton destruction scene, which I suspect will be viewed as the moment the series jumped the shark). It also reminded me how much was left out of the series (much of it details I was surprised I even remembered) at the same time it was reminding me just how much HAPPENS in those long books.

That all made me very curious to give the series another go. I'm only halfway through Game of Thrones, but I'm finding it much improved from my first go through. The writing is so smooth that even the boring chapters glide by now that I'm not so impatient about seeing some plot progression. I still think it's a bit too long and meandering to wind up on my all-time favorites list, but I'm definitely getting hooked on seeing the Machiavellian games of the characters.

 

[Koopa]

i used to say the books, but the movies are bound to have an ending

 

[Brian G Turner]

blue energy ball skeleton destruction scene

I didn't watch the last season - so what was this bit, please?

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I used to think the books but after the last 2 and becoming lost with the ridiculous amount of needless side plots I'm thinking show - at least it's sticking to the story.

 

[soulsinging]

I didn't watch the last season - so what was this bit, please?

There's a .gif of it on the first page of this thread. I think it's supposed to be a character called Leaf (who I don't really know as I've not read book 5) and apparently he's VERY different from the book version. All I know is at the end of season 4 (ASoS), there was out of nowhere a completely cheesy Army of Darkness style skeleton army rising out of the ice to chase Bran down, and then Leaf appears to lob balls of blue flame at them and save him. It was the only time a change from the book struck me as truly awful, most of the rest I've been able to accept as legit choices when adapting from book to tv.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

There's a .gif of it on the first page of this thread. I think it's supposed to be a character called Leaf (who I don't really know as I've not read book 5) and apparently he's VERY different from the book version. All I know is at the end of season 4 (ASoS), there was out of nowhere a completely cheesy Army of Darkness style skeleton army rising out of the ice to chase Bran down, and then Leaf appears to lob balls of blue flame at them and save him. It was the only time a change from the book struck me as truly awful, most of the rest I've been able to accept as legit choices when adapting from book to tv.

Only that? You are lucky! The show gave me so many reasons to rant, especially in season 4.

 

[Narkalui]

I think one of the great things about the show is all the clips on You Tube of people who haven't read the books watching the Red Wedding...

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

I think one of the great things about the show is all the clips on You Tube of people who haven't read the books watching the Red Wedding...

There is a clip where Martin reacts to such clips on Conan O'Brien's show.

 

[soulsinging]

Only that? You are lucky! The show gave me so many reasons to rant, especially in season 4.

Yeah, I'm not much of a purist. I know a lot of LOTR fans that flipped about changes in the movies (very justified when it comes to the Hobbit), as if it was ever possible to adapt a book like that for the screen and not have some things altered or excised for that medium. So I'm willing to accept a lot of changes and view adaptations on their own strengths and for the most part I understand that they had to make some hard decisions and they wouldn't always be ones I liked. That one was just so cheesy in addition to being egregious that it galled me.

In their defense, I get the impression that HBO was doing some of the distancing it on purpose, since the show is rapidly getting ahead of the books and they've stated that if his books aren't caught up to their production schedule, they're just going to write their own plotlines/endings.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

Yeah, I'm not much of a purist. I know a lot of LOTR fans that flipped about changes in the movies (very justified when it comes to the Hobbit), as if it was ever possible to adapt a book like that for the screen and not have some things altered or excised for that medium. So I'm willing to accept a lot of changes and view adaptations on their own strengths and for the most part I understand that they had to make some hard decisions and they wouldn't always be ones I liked. That one was just so cheesy in addition to being egregious that it galled me.

In their defense, I get the impression that HBO was doing some of the distancing it on purpose, since the show is rapidly getting ahead of the books and they've stated that if his books aren't caught up to their production schedule, they're just going to write their own plotlines/endings.

I'm not a purist either and I can see why some changes have to happen (budgeting for example), but when a change is just downright awful and doesn't have such a justification, I can't stand it especially if I find it to be something which cheapens the story. (The entire Tywin-Jaime-Tyrion conclusion for example. Thenns are another great example.)

For that last part, that wouldn't be a bad idea if they weren't contradicting themselves heavily in the process (Jon's flip floppery opinions on Wildlings for example).

 

[Brian G Turner]

There's a .gif of it on the first page of this thread. I think it's supposed to be a character called Leaf (who I don't really know as I've not read book 5) and apparently he's VERY different from the book version. All I know is at the end of season 4 (ASoS), there was out of nowhere a completely cheesy Army of Darkness style skeleton army rising out of the ice to chase Bran down, and then Leaf appears to lob balls of blue flame at them and save him. It was the only time a change from the book struck me as truly awful, most of the rest I've been able to accept as legit choices when adapting from book to tv.

Cheers for that!
http://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/549197/#post-1835354

All I can say is...odd. Completely and inexplicably odd.

 

[Groot]

I'm absolutely loving the books again, and flying through them on a re-read, and would say overall they are better, but I think that some of the best moments were better on screen than in the books, Jamie getting his hand chopped off, Joffrey's death, the red wedding, the viper dying, will all stick in my memory for a long time.

 

[soulsinging]

I'm absolutely loving the books again, and flying through them on a re-read, and would say overall they are better, but I think that some of the best moments were better on screen than in the books, Jamie getting his hand chopped off, Joffrey's death, the red wedding, the viper dying, will all stick in my memory for a long time.

I guess this shows how truly split I am... I found Jamie losing his hand and the red wedding far more compelling in the books, but Joff and the Viper more so in the show. Talk about evenly balanced!