At What Point Do I Give up on GRRM and Just Watch the Show?

[Lady]

I stalled out on ASOIAF somewhere in the middle of Dances with Dragons. Or maybe I finished it. With audiobooks it can be hard to remember. This was late 2016, iirc.

In 2012, I quipped that at the rate books were coming out vs the rate I was listening to them, I would be finishing the extant books around the time the next would come out... in 2017 by my model at the time.

I had intended on refraining from watching the show until I could finish the series, but it seems unlikely to happen in the lifetime of the author. Honestly, he probably wrote himself too thin into too many directions, so what I believe will happen is he'll die, the rights holder will tap some Brian Sanderson type to finish the books and somewhat tie them into the HBO series.

My question is do I wait for that or just release myself from the moratorium?

 

[Mightyblue]

The early parts of the show are both good and entertaining, the later seasons once they ran out of material are usually bad and sometimes entertaining.

 

[Issun]

You're fucked either way.

 

[Rascally Badger]

2015

 

[JBear]

As someone who gave up on GRRM in... probably 2002 or so, I found the show a delightful low-investment way to finish things out without subjecting myself to nigh-erotic descriptions of food and the consumption thereof.

I didn't enjoy the latter acts of the show much, but I doubt I enjoyed them any less than I would have the rest of the book series.

 

[ThornGhost]

The show is a hilarious ironic testament to GRRM's folly. Having worked as a writer for television for many years, he had grown tired of the budgetary constraints placed on his scripts.

To free himself from this, he decided to write a sweeping epic fantasy book series completely untethered from the chilling effects of television budgets.

Well.

Anyway, enjoy watching naked people describe interesting things happening off screen because they'd be too expensive to film. You won't realize that's what's happening because booooooobs

 

[Isrieri]

Just watch the show and feel no shame in doing so. What are you holding out for, the book fairy?!

The show is a little weird at first especially having read the books. However there's a few changes here and there (mostly dialogue and who speaks it) that are definitely much better choices with hindsight, and the actors give it appropriate vim. The first three seasons are fantastic, the first especially with the set design, costumes, and overall presentation. Seasons 4 and 5 start getting a little ho-hum. Then past that I'd still recommend watching them, but go in with a riffing mindset rather than any attempts to take it seriously. This was nearly a decade of high-budget television and it lost it's footing near the end.

I highly recommend watching it with friends: I garnered years of joy watching it with my bros who hadn't read the books. Now he's been glued to them and praising them up and down the last few months.

 

[Adrenaline]

If you want to see the story end you can watch the show. If you want to see the story end well all you can do is wait.

 

[Sprite]

The show is like watching a Let’s Play where they start off doing all the side quests and drinking in the world but eventually end up skipping cutscenes and abusing fast travel. The plot itself is satisfying and the show never stops being entertaining but hoo boy they do not know how to turn it into a good story without the books to guide them.

 

[Reinforcements]

There's a lot that can be said about the show, good and bad, but if you're trying to wait for more books to come out it is absolutely never going to happen.