Are the Ice and Fire books actually good?

[heydaralon]

A common criticism and about Game of Thrones is that the later seasons suck because they deviated from the books. I am sure this is true. However, I have also been reading analysis of the books and supposedly they start to decline after book 3. and suffer from the same problems as the show. I doubt they will end on a satisfactory note. The sickest joke of all is that the Duke of McChicken has been chugging away for years on his latest tome, but if it is anything like the last seasons, it will be a 1000 page toilet paper roll. Not worth the wait. Martin may turn into a fatter slower version of Stephen King.

Has anyone on the board read the books? Are they any good?

[Ex-California]

They're great. I read them all

[heydaralon]

They're great. I read them all

Do you like them better than the show? Someone I work with told me he couldn't get into the Crow one and stopped reading.

[StCapps]

There are moments where the book deviates from the show and they suck, there are times when the book deviates from the novels and it works out great, and there are moments where the show sticks too close to source material and it sucks because of that. I wouldn't be so sure about those people being right, the people who seem to think the show sucks because it's deviating from the books, they tend to be people who don't get the limitations of adapting a novel to television, and want them to slow the pacing down even more, which I would say is actually the biggest issue of the show, and it's one these book snobs seem to want to exacerbate.

Episodes matter, when GoT understands this, it's at it's best, when it tries to be a 73 hour movie, it's at it's worst. The issues with GoT are not that it isn't more like the novels, that's ass backwards. The shows biggest problem is that it isn't more like a television show, precisely because it's trying to be too much like the novels. The book snobs are way off on this one, straight up.

[SuburbanFarmer]

First 3 books were fantastic, but it started getting too complex in book 4. I think I dropped it for the show at that point. Much easier to read, with the show to put faces to all the names, actually. It does go wildly different from the show though, so don't expect the same story.

[Kazmyr]

I just started the series (books), so I'll be keeping this in mind. Good info.

[StCapps]

Turns out you need a wildly different story from a novel, to tell the best story you are capable of telling, on a wildly different medium like television. Who knew?

[SilverEagle]

Turns out you need a wildly different story from a novel, to tell the best story you are capable of telling, on a wildly different medium like television. Who knew?

Yep. I got through the first 5 books and I liked them. As for the TV show.....I love them!

[DBTrek]

Read the first three . . . by then it was apparent that GRRM was going to Robert Jordan the series and drag it out till he eventually keeled over dead.
They were good.
But if you like to read the end of a series I'd skip it.

[Martin Hash]

The show is better.