Should I read Game of Thrones?

amother

Amethyst

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:26 am

I felt that way about Harry Potter when it first came out. I read the first book and hated it. My friend and DH Waited with anticipation for the second to come out. I got to page 5 of the second and realized-Hey I am not in HS, it is not assigned reading and I do NOT need to read books that I don't like.
(Only exception is, if you have kids who want to read a book and you need to check it first-then you're stuck reading it).
Enjoy the genre and books of your choosing.

tigerwife

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:42 am

It’s really well written and immersive. The characters are so developed- you’re sure the one person is good/ evil and suddenly you’re reading another point of view and realize things are not so black and white. You are living the book, and of course if you’re a medieval/fantasy lover, then it’s all even better. Each book is really long but doesn’t get boring because there is so much going on.

That said- It’s also very graphic and and explicit (violence and zxual) and the has a lot of bad and coarse language, which is ultimately why I stopped. (I still spent many hours reading the plot on wiki to follow up on the vast character universe and I won’t pretend I’m not waiting for the finale to air tonight so I can finally see how it ends lol).

dee's mommy

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:46 am

I am currently reading the first book, and hopefully will finish in the next day or two.

I am enjoying it, and hope to continue on with the next book sometime.

This is not clean reading. It is not a kosher book. I wouldn't recommend it to a frum person.

This is in the fantasy genre. If you like that sort of thing, you may like this.

(If you have read and enjoyed Lord of the Rings, you will probably like this.)

I would take one of the other posters' advice about being careful of your children wanting to read it if they see it. (Do not let them read it.)

If you start it and don't like it, you can always stop.

Don't purchase it. Use the library.

If you don't want to read it, but don't want to feel like you are living under a rock, then google the Wiki or Wikipedia pages on game of thrones, and read summaries of the books.

Last edited by dee's mommy on Mon, May 20 2019, 11:24 am; edited 2 times in total

sushilover

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:52 am

tigerwife wrote:

This exactly! I stopped reading the books and watching the show because of how violent and zxual it was. The book in particular was so graphic, it made me sick to my stomach.

I'm still following along by watching youtube summaries and analyses though.

PinkFridge

Sun, May 19 2019, 2:32 pm

tigerwife wrote:

I won’t pretend I’m not waiting for the finale to air tonight so I can finally see how it ends lol).

I'm not into fantasy so I'm not about to read it anyway but my understanding is that the series doesn't follow the book.

FranticFrummie

Sun, May 19 2019, 2:36 pm

It really depends on how sensitive you are. The books are very interesting, and I love the characters.

However, it's rape, rape, murder, violence, war, rape, and more rape - with a bunch of torture and kidnapping thrown in for fun.

If you can compartmentalize and look at the books as something that will not trigger you, then you can try them. If you are the person who gets too deep into a book, gets too attached to characters, or gets upset easily, then you should stay FAR away.

tigerwife

Sun, May 19 2019, 2:40 pm

PinkFridge wrote:

I'm not into fantasy so I'm not about to read it anyway but my understanding is that the series doesn't follow the book.

Correct, the series already went beyond the 5 books written, but I believe the author gave them the general ending (who sits on the iron throne). There are also changes made mid series but from what I understand it’s mainly some characters merged together (like Sansa/Jane) and sub-plot lines left out. There is so much detail in the books, it would probably need many more seasons to be adapted correctly.

ora_43

Sun, May 19 2019, 3:00 pm

Game of Thrones is the ultimate nerd book, alongside Lord of the Rings. I mean that in the best possible way.

It's a book that you can read four times, and on the fifth time, you find something new. The world building is incredible. The way George R R Martin takes familiar tropes and twists them is a thing of genius.

If you only like books that tell a fun story with a satisfying conclusion, you won't like Game of Thrones. If you like books where every little detail makes sense and there are twists within twists and clues within clues (and this is what I mean by nerd book, a book you can pick apart to your heart's content without finding plot holes), you will like Game of Thrones.

The violence gets very graphic. So there's that. (There are s-x scenes, too, but that's a lot less graphic.)

If you just want to know what happens so you know what the heck people are talking about, just read the plot summaries for the show episodes on IMDB. It will take like 1/1000th the time.

youngishbear

Sun, May 19 2019, 3:58 pm

ora_43 wrote:

I was coming here to say NO, because as much as I'm a nerd, it was hard to look past the grossness of the content.

But oish your post makes me want to try it again. I do love good twists and clues.

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, May 19 2019, 4:42 pm

I really enjoyed it. (and I could never get into Lord of the rings, although I have enjoyed other fantasy books) I also watched all the tv series except the last one and I am pretty sure the way the tv series is ending is not how GRR martin would have written it. Or, maybe its just happening all too fast. I hope when he does get round to writing it (hope he lives long) it will end differently.

Lots of rape and s-x and incest (the incest is mostly with some unpleasant characters) but also some excellently drawn characters like Arya and Tyrion and Varys. (cant stand Sansa for some reason). Sadly, they left out a whole plot line involving Catelyn Stark in the tv series.

amother

Seashell

Sun, May 19 2019, 5:39 pm

I read all the published volumes, and I’m sorry I did. First of all, I plan to never again begin a series that has not been finished - and who knows if it will ever be finished. . .

In addition, although I can’t say I only read clean books, all the explicit $exual content, and even more so, the frequent, very graphic violence and brutality is sickening.

amother

Olive

Sun, May 19 2019, 10:58 pm

seashell, why did you continue reading if you found the content offensive? And not just one volume but all of them? When a sensible person is reading a book for pleasure that turns out to be not pleasurable, the sensible person stops reading it. She does not go on to read the whole series as a penance for having read the first book. What are you not telling us? And why are you annoyed that the series was never finished? If the books were so awful, you should be glad there are no more of them.

amother

Seashell

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:17 pm

amother [ Olive ] wrote:

I probably should have stopped, but I’m a voracious reader, and I usually finish what I start - unless it’s just too hard to get through. These books are page turners and not hard to read. And once I started, I was curious about who would prevail and how it would end - hoping for some happy ending ala LOTR (as unlikely as it seemed). As I said, I didn’t realize that the series was not completed - and at the rate the author writes, it probably never will be. So I’m left with all the sickening violence and gore with nothing to redeem it. Had I realized all this, I never would have started them.

gingertop

Sun, May 19 2019, 11:58 pm

I'm leaning towards not reading the series. I don't want to read the summaries because that just takes the joy out of the story. But I don't want to start a series that may not end/ may not end in a satisfactory manner. If and when the last book is published, I might reconsider.

The downside of waiting is that you get to hear all the spoilers. Oh well. I only read the HP series after all the books were published and I already knew that Snape wasn't as he appeared. I wonder how it would have changed my original reading experience if I didn't know that?

Aylat

Mon, May 20 2019, 1:32 am

I'm a total fantasy nerd, love Lord of the Rings etc, and some of these posts are tempting me to read GoT. But I'm going to stick with my decision not to, I just don't want that level of graphic violence and relations in my head.

DrMom

Mon, May 20 2019, 1:41 am

Aylat wrote:

Ditto. I've never seen the TV series because I have heard it is so graphic. If the books are even worse, no thanks.

There's plenty of excellent literature out there that isn't explicit.