Should I read A Clash of Kings before the HBO series? [Spoilers]

I bought the first 4 books in the Fire and Ice series for my husband on his Kindle. I read it while he’s at work and have finished A Game of Thrones.

I very much enjoyed the TV series. The unexpected twists and turns, the oh-so unconventional TV plot. . . half the fun of watching were the many ‘oh no they di-int!’ moments. While reading the book after watching the TV show did not diminish my enjoyment of the book at all. Also, this board was GoT spoiler-prevention crazy. It made reading and commenting on the threads a lot less terrifying since I knew I couldn’t post a spoiler even if I wanted to.

But. . . I want to read on. I don’t know if I can stop myself. I gotta know what happens. Do any of the many dangling threads get resolved in any way whatsoever in the next book? What do Bran’s visions mean? That wolf has to pop up again some where. Poor Sansa, she sure had to grow up fast (I may be the only one who feels sympathy for the starstruck girl). Will there be a zombie Apocalypse? Surely winter will finally fucking come sooner or later, right? Right!?

What should I do?

I’m trying to decide too. I re-read GoT in the month before the series began and still enjoyed watching. It was so cool, seeing the characters and the locations come to life.

I think I’ll wait. It’ll be nice to be surprised. I really don’t remember much from the other books anyway.

Yes. You want to be able to read the spoiler-allowed threads I volunteered to start, don’t you? Otherwise you’ll be exiled to the unsullied threads that are someone else’s responsibity, where you can watch people yell at each other for things that aren’t spoilers but are 5th cousins of them.

It wasn’t too bad. What people had a problem with was distinguishing conjecture from spoiler. Well, some people did. Plus I don’t think many of the Mods had read the books, so they didn’t know what was what.

Plus, I didn’t want to be spoilered, so the hyper-vigilance was to my benefit.

The non-spoiler threads were great. I can’t believe how good people were about not spoiling anything, yet still contributing to the discussion with insight. And I’m still astonished that I read everything I could in those threads without having the slightest idea of what was going to happen at the end of episode 9. Nicely played by everyone.

I’m having the same dilemma about whether to read the books - but I think I’ll wait. I can handle a break in between TV seasons much more than I can handle a novel being unfinished. I don’t think I’ll read the books until after they’re completed. I keep thinking about reading “Game Of Thrones” but don’t trust myself to have the willpower to stop at the end of it.

I’d say read it if you want to; one of the best things about the books is that they’re so jam-packed with stuff that they are imminently re-readable, so you’re bound to be surprised by some of the stuff that comes out in the show. I’ve read the books several times, and had no less enjoyment watching it on TV. In fact, I think I got more out of it, because it was just SO COOL to be actually seeing it unfold.

Read them, they are as good as Lord Of The Rings for me. I cannot wait for book 6.

Funny thing, I thought the HBO series was meh.

Even Roz the Exposition Whore?

I’m in the same position, Biggirl. I watched the show (and loved it) and then read the first book. Typically I would plow right through the rest of the books in the series, but I worry that reading the books first might diminish my appreciation of the show. I’ve decided to watch the show first.

If it were me (and I’ve already read all the books so it isn’t me) I would read the books before the show, because I’d know I’d forget most of the important details long before the show premiered. But most people don’t lose what they read as quickly as I do. I was still surprised by all but the most majorly obvious plot points in GOT when I saw the series. I had a vague sketch in my head of how it would go, but it was faint enough and I was wrong often enough that it didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the show.

I read the first book while the show was on and probably finished it about halfway through. While it takes away from the surprises like Ned’s beheading it also adds a lot, such as the trip to the Vale, that are just sort of brushed off in the series. I think it enhances more than it detracts to know the side stories.

Plus you get to annoy the hell out of whoever you watch it with to be able to say “In the book, they do that differently, and you learn that the woman on the left is…” exposition.:slight_smile: