Are the books time-consistent? Are Ned and the others in each book?

Are you asking for spoilers here? Without revealing any spoilers, I will say that none of the characters are immortal, so some characters are not in all of the books.

For the most part so far, the series has followed the order of the books, but there are a couple of storylines we will get into later in the first season of the show that don't occur until the second book.

The structure of each of the novels actually jibes well with episodic television, probably something to do with GRRM's background as a showrunner. Each chapter of the novels follows the story of a different protagonist for a brief period.

I definitely don't want spoilers. I asked if there was a time difference in books, i.e. are the settings of the first and second books a couple years apart or are they almost directly continuous?

They are continuous. Feast and Crows and Dance of Dragons actually overlap, but other than that they follow each other.

All seasons of HBO's show will be called Game of Thrones, iirc.

Loving the show so far, can't wait for next week.

Sean Bean is Winning :trophy: :bowdown:

I still haven't finished reading the book just yet, about half way through, so I'm wondering if I can watch episode 3 or not. Anyone willing to give a brief spoiler-free summary (hard to do I know) of episode 3? In the book I'm a bit passed the part where

Pretty amazing show. One of those where, when you realize an episode is coming to an end you get mildly depressed. I kinda' wish it just went on and on and on... And yeah, Sean Bean is definitely winning. Jon Snow is a beast too.

Episode 3 did not reach up to that point, at least not in Catelyn's storyline. Probably wouldn't watch Episode 4 yet if I were you.

It was a great episode.

So, I should be okay to watch this episode and then catch up on the reading by next week?

Exactly!

They do move around slightly differently with the different character storylines, but I think you are farther ahead in your reading so far.

where are you in the story with respect to Dannaerys at the point where you are reading?

The storyline as revealed in the show isn't consistent with the book. It tries to give the characters equal screentime, which results in Jon Snow's and Daenerys' sections proceeding faster than the others. It also interrupts some important chapters before they see completion to make sure that they don't focus on a single character for too long. The books follow an uninterrupted timeline, but it's left up to the reader about when some things occur, because some of the storylines of different characters drift on their own before reaching an overlap, and they are delivered in different increments. For instance, the events involving Daenerys in the first book can exist at just about any time relevant to the other storylines with the exception of the ending because her story barely interacts with the others at all. And when there is brief mention of her back on Westeros, it is via reports from spies that take who-knows-how-long to actually get reported back. Isolation is a big theme in the story, and it often leads to characters being completely ignorant to some very important events that happen elsewhere. The show is sticking to events in proper order at least.

There has not been a chapter on Dannarys in quite a while, the last one I read is where it left off in episode 2.

OK, well, Dannaerys has a couple scenes in Episode 3, so perhaps you want to read a bit further before watching.

So....finish the darn book already

Soon, finals week is next week, so once that's over I have a whole month to finish it.

Or you can do what I did and read the Daenerys chapters separate from the rest of the book :shrug:

Didn't he release a book made only of her chapters?

It was part of some sort of promotion, iirc, or maybe a magazine? But yea, he did.

No but he's released a few sample chapters from Dance With Dragons, and one of them was about Dannaerys.

The Tyrion chapter is really good - highly recommend all of them if you've read all the other books.

DANCE WITH DRAGONS SAMPLE CHAPTERS (do not read unless you have read A Feast for Crows)

• http://tinyurl.com/cn7tdg
  
• http://tinyurl.com/buce5s
  
• http://tinyurl.com/aelth9
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_70104465_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000194603&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=special-offers-3&pf_rd_r=1Z2NZAYPSJGZQK87N8ZZ&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=201833191&pf_rd_i=0002247399

It's funny...I just started reading these books in December and I hadn't heard they were making the series until last month. Right now I'm wrapping up book 4 (A Feast For Crows). I don't see why so many people complained about A Feast. I can understand being disappointed that the story broke away from some of the main characters (the ones that are still alive, anyway...), but I appreciate some of the lesser-known characters being brought to the forefront. It's a nice change of pace. From what I understand A Feast and the next installment (A Dance With Dragons) were originally going to be one volume, but Martin had to split them up per his publisher, so he split the stories more or less geographically, with A Feast For Crows focusing on the Southern portion of the continent and A Dance With Dragons focusing on the North.

So far I'm liking the series. It always drives me nuts that movies and TV shows based on books are forced to skip over so much detail due to time/content constraints, but they're doing a decent job of getting the major points across IMO as of episode 3. I have had to pause and give some background to my girlfriend a couple of times (she obviously hasn't read the books) because she wanted a better understanding of a few of the conversations they sort of slipped in there with little explanation. I'm looking forward to next season, as A Clash Of Kings was a great book. I hope they get a third season...A Storm Of Swords is fantastic as well. I'm guessing they won't change the name of the show, though...they'll probably keep the 'Game of Thrones' title to avoid confusing people.

To those that haven't read the books...it's a daunting prospect. There are hundreds of characters, but Martin does a pretty good job of using certain devices (clothing, speech, surnames, nicknames, facial features, etc.) to help you keep them straight. I'll be hitting the paperback equivalent (reading on a Kindle) of over 3,800 pages when I put down the 4th book. It's worth it, IMO. It's a great mixture of a pretty convincing medieval setting with some fantasy elements thrown in, and there are a plethora of truly entertaining characters. Be aware that it's a story about characters first and foremost, though. It's not Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. It's a very mature, gritty story that tends toward realism. You're not going to see bearded wizards battling in towers or throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at each other. There is some magic, but it's not overstated...rather, it's more mysterious.

I should also note this show has made me get back into Oblivion. I only wish it was a bit like show in the sense that it could use a tad more realism, though as far as high fantasy settings go, the world of Nirn is one of the least ridiculous. Currently looking for mods now to assist my roleplaying a "Stark". Curious, I'm leaning towards a Nord on account of the whole "Winter is coming" theme. Anyone have thoughts on this?

nord is fine. The Stark is like Scandanavian splited into Northmen and Wildlings.

Starks are all Yorkshire folk! Well, Ned is, in any case.

Is it just me who've considered the issue with a second season?

[THIS SPOILER IS MASSIVE, IF YOU HAVEN'T READ GAME OF THRONES DON'T PRESS]

he won't die from taking roles in other shows

Thanks for the reply. Just found a mod featuring the "Long Claw" sword that's apparently given to Jon Snow for Oblivion so that'll go great with my character. May have to delve into the books during the down time between episodes to get my "Thrones" fix.