A couple of month ago I posted that I'd started reading my first ever book in the fantasy genre. I'm happy to say it turned out better than my experiment with the mystery genre (many, many thanks to my friends Francisco and Kenneth for the strong, 100% accurate recommendations!). I LOVED the book. It still took me a while to get through it because I would savor the reading and wouldn't start until late, late at night when Monkey was long asleep, but I enjoyed every page.
Shortly after I started it I found out my friend Nessa was reading the series as well (there are 5 in the series so far), and on the same rafting trip where I learned that, I heard a stranger at the rafting site we were at make a reference to the book with the phrase "Winter is coming..." I was reading the book one night in Starbucks and no fewer than three people interrupted my reading to talk about the book. I guess a whole lot of people found it as captivating as I did.
Annnnnnndddddd...I couldn't wait to finish the first book because part of the reason it's received so much attention lately was that HBO decided to take it on and make a series of it. Everything HBO touches turns to gold, as we all know...
Today's New Activity: Experiencing A Game of Thrones, the Celluloid Version
What crazy great lengths they went to! A Game of Thrones takes place in an undisclosed time period in a made-up land, but I think it's reasonable to assume that many people, given the castles and clothing and armory described, pictured something along the lines of England circa 1600-1700. And that seems to be how the show's creators envisioned it as well.
They spared no expense on the costumes or scenery, and though I've only seen one episode so far, it's remained remarkably loyal to the book. Though two of the characters had different coloring than I'd imagine, Kenneth (who'd downloaded the episodes and showed me the first tonight) did some internet research to prove to me that the show had them right and I'd been imagining them wrong. Bad reader!
It helped that the principal characters were almost EXACTLY like I pictured them and easy on the eyes at that. It really was some of the best casting I've ever seen.
And since it's HBO, all the violence and sexuality in the book is there plain as day. While the violence is a bit much to take, the sexuality was refreshing :)
I'm now 100 pages into the second book and super excited to keep following the stories of all 15 or so amazingly well-developed main characters.
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