# Game of Thrones - is it worth reading?



## Nameless Thing

Everybody is talking about it, but I'm hesitant to read it. Is it any good? Like compared to Tolkien does it have any real value?


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## Starbrow

I didn't care for it because it was too violent, but I know many people who love it.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner

Welcome back, NT, you've been missed!

I read the first three about the time they came out. I found them interesting, but the constant undercutting of romance motifs ( "You think this is the Great Hero? Muahahaha!) grew tiresome.


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## Ithilethiel

I've never read it but I have a lot of friends who love it but as Starbrow shared it does seem a bit gruesome to me too.


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## Halasían

Being that I tried to read the first book a few times only to have it grind to a halt told me it would never keep my interest enough to continue on. I think I got to Chapter 7 on one reading attempt and that was after a few months. I'm glad they made a TV series out of it as I find it rather enjoyable. Yes, there is sex, yes there is violence, so the TV series isn't for the faint of heart.


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## Erestor Arcamen

I read the first three. Book one was good, book two was ok, book three was meh and I only got a quarter of the way through book four before I quit.

For one thing, the show is way ahead of the books (if he ever finishes them) and the story is so complex that around book three and later I was constantly confused on who was who and what was going on. I own book five as well but will probably never read it.

Compared to Tolkien I'd say they're not very good but that's just my opinion.


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## Nameless Thing

Thank you for the answers. Once I started to read the first book, but than i found an article that basically said that even the author doesn't really know where does he want to get andawhy are we following certain characters. It discouraged me and I never finished, i don't want to read a whole series that isn't really hping anywhere. But I was wondering if maybe I should give it another try.


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## Erestor Arcamen

Yup that's also something that discouraged me. Book 6, Winds of Winter has been "coming" since 2014 at least and then he "plans" on one more after that too, if we ever get book 6.


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## Nameless Thing

Erestor Arcamen said:


> Yup that's also something that discouraged me. Book 6, Winds of Winter has been "coming" since 2014 at least and then he "plans" on one more after that too, if we ever get book 6.


I like if a book is well planned. I'm not sure ifiI'm interesint in a long medieval soap opera.
Anybody knows a book that is similar to LOTR? I know there is the silmarillion and all the others, some of them I've already read, some I'm just planning to read, but they are a bit too hard to read to just casually enjoy after a long, stressful day. I need to be in the mood to be able to read them.


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## Erestor Arcamen

Chronicles of Narnia are pretty good fantasy books. A lot of people like Eragon but I wasn't a huge fan of it. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series is also excellent. I haven't read the Stormlight Archives yet but have heard they're also really good. Elysium is another Sanderson book that I really liked a lot.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner

Alan Garner's _The Weirdstone of Brisingamen _and its sequel,_ The Moon of Gormrath, _are both good. And fairly short.


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## Starbrow

I really enjoyed the Winter of the World series by Michael Scott Rohan.


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## Nameless Thing

I've already read Narnia, tried Eragon too but didntd like very much. I will try yje rest, thank you.


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## Halasían

I can throw out her the Black Company book series. I read all ten, but really anything after the first three are icing for those of us who have an interest in what certain characters are up to later on. Book four is more of a side tale based on the story presented in the first three, where books five to ten are the extended accounts of the Black Company.

Also, Steven Erickson's Malazan Books of the Fallen are I understand a worthy read. I read the first one (Gardens of the Moon), and it is a bit tangled and slow starting, it does get interesting. I'm currently looking to track down book two (Deadhouse Gates). These great book posts should be in a 'Book Recommendation' thread'.


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## Kinofnerdanel

Nameless Thing said:


> I know there is the silmarillion and all the others, some of them I've already read, some I'm just planning to read, but they are a bit too hard to read to just casually enjoy after a long, stressful day. I need to be in the mood to be able to read them.



Onve you read it thoroughly (okay, maybe takes reading it twice) and you'll be more familiar with names, bloodlines, history, geography etc. it becomes fairly relaxing and nerve-soothing. At least it took me reading it it thrice to be completely immersed in the story and just enjoy the sheer beauty of the mythology!

Tried to read GOT but didn't like it.
Now as for recommendations for Tolkien-like literature I can only come up with Edda, Kalevala, mythologies like that, and personally I LOVE Mahabharata (novel version, don't even try with the original text).

Tolkien and modern fantasy are two different things. Tolkien's works aren't even regarded as fantasy but mythopoeia, although he has contributed enormously to the foundations of fantasy.


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## Starbrow

Another good series is The Earthsea books by Ursula K. Leguin.


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## Thistle Bunce

The Arbai trilogy by Sheri S. Tepper might seem to be an unusual choice for recommendation of a "Tolkien like" series, but despite her reputation as an 'eco-feminist' author, she is one heck of a gifted story-teller. Her characters are vivid, her worlds are plausible within their own context, and her battles of good vs. evil are epic in scope. Of course, her evils aren't a Dark Lord in a tower, but her determination to have her characters overcome that evil is every bit as compelling as Tolkien's brave little hobbits on the slopes of Mount Doom.

I would, however, strongly recommend that this series be experienced in strict order. First is _Grass_, then _Raising the Stones, _then finally 
_Sideshow. _Tepper, unlike many authors, does not waste a reader's time by rehashing events from previous works at great length, leaving newcomers confused and frustrated. I would also issue a caution about _Sideshow. _While I find it to be brilliant fiction with outstanding new concepts and characters, it is HIGHLY unsettling. It challenges many pre-conceived notions about the relationships between men and women, society's rather narrow view of certain elements of modern culture, and is somewhat (all right, outwardly) cynical about religion, the treatment of under-represented people and co-existence with our one and only planet. 

For those that do not want to commit to a full trilogy of an author whose views are uncommon, may I suggest tasting Tepper by reading either _The Gate to Women's Country _or _The Family Tree. _


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## Aewon

> Thank you for the answers. Once I started to read the first book, but than i found an article that basically said that even the author doesn't really know where does he want to get andawhy are we following certain characters. It discouraged me and I never finished, i don't want to read a whole series that isn't really hping anywhere. But I was wondering if maybe I should give it another try.



That's not really true at all. He's said that he gets bored if he knows where the story goes, but he does have a general idea. The books are filled with symbolism and foreshadowing. The story of Young Griff/Aegon Targaryen, for example, isn't something he came up with on the fly in A Dance of Dragons to give Daenerys a rival. It was foreshadowed as early as the House of the Undying chapter in A Clash of Kings where Daenerys sees a vision of a cloth dragon.



> I read the first three about the time they came out. I found them interesting, but the constant undercutting of romance motifs ( "You think this is the Great Hero? Muahahaha!) grew tiresome.



That only happens twice. Ned's beheading and the Red Wedding. The latter isn't even a POV character.



> Being that I tried to read the first book a few times only to have it grind to a halt told me it would never keep my interest enough to continue on. I think I got to Chapter 7 on one reading attempt and that was after a few months. I'm glad they made a TV series out of it as I find it rather enjoyable. Yes, there is sex, yes there is violence, so the TV series isn't for the faint of heart.



Game of Thrones is great, but it's extremely dumbed down. People who only watch the show loses out on amazing plot lines like the Dornish master plan (Doran Martell is NOT a weak leader), Young Griff and the REAL Euron Greyjoy. Not the joke in the show.


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## Nameless Thing

Aewon said:


> That's not really true at all. He's said that he gets bored if he knows where the story goes, but he does have a general idea. The books are filled with symbolism and foreshadowing. The story of Young Griff/Aegon Targaryen, for example, isn't something he came up with on the fly in A Dance of Dragons to give Daenerys a rival. It was foreshadowed as early as the House of the Undying chapter in A Clash of Kings where Daenerys sees a vision of a cloth dragon.
> 
> 
> 
> That only happens twice. Ned's beheading and the Red Wedding. The latter isn't even a POV character.
> 
> 
> 
> Game of Thrones is great, but it's extremely dumbed down. People who only watch the show loses out on amazing plot lines like the Dornish master plan (Doran Martell is NOT a weak leader), Young Griff and the REAL Euron Greyjoy. Not the joke in the show.


 Maybe I should try to read it again.


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## Squint-eyed Southerner

I posted this on the Humor thread, but maybe Epic Rap Battle's take could be of interest here too ("Mature Themes", so I'll put it under the Spoiler button):



Spoiler











Enter at your own risk.


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## Aramarien

Nameless Thing, I smiled when you called GOT, a medieval soap opera, because it could be called that. 

I don't know if you really could put GOT in the same genre as LOTR. It does have its fantasy elements and a bit of history, but there are a lot of politics and scheming going on. It was a good read, but as the series went on, there were a lot more characters put in and the story line was expanding out instead of weaving a more concise web. I do have to admit, though, that I would put Tyrion Lannister as one of my favorite characters from all the books I've ever read. 

Believe it or not, I found The Dark Tower series by Stephen King to have more of a mythological/fantasy depth to it than one would expect, but again not in Tolkien's league.


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