Buy the books?

[PhoBWanKenobi]

Someone on metafilter pointed out that the box set of the first four books is $20 today on amazon:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345529057/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/

Are they worth a read? I generally have a very contentious relationship with high fantasy and tend to only enjoy stuff for kids or fairly fluffy (Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer books, Mercedes Lackey, and Philip Pullman are the only epic fantasies I've ever really LOVED), and I have a towering TBR pile so I only want to dive in if I'm going to frigging love it.

[dashiellhamlet]

It's definitely not for kids unless you are the kid in question. You know what I mean? Your parents would probably not want 12 year-old you to read this series.

That said, it's some of the best the genre has to offer. I've only read the Pullman books, but I thought they were great so make of that what you will. The series is a song at twenty bucks so my recommendation is: go for it!

[elizardbits]

READ THEM IMMEDIATELY FOR THEY ARE AWESOME.

I torrented them because I am a bad person who does bad things.

[dashiellhamlet]

Also, I'll point out that the first season of the show is up for pre-order on Amazon for a piddling $45. Anyone reading this has made monumentally worse decisions then getting in on that kind of deal.

www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Complete-First-
Season/dp/B002IFT1ZA/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1308787547&sr=1-1

[russilwvong]

"--I only want to dive in if I'm going to frigging love it."

From your description of other books you've enjoyed, I'd say no.

Also: the series is years away from being complete!

[cortex]

I've really enjoyed reading the books, though they are a bit dense (not, like, Frank Herbert but still a lot of meat and lots of independent character and geography whiplash with long, slow arcs across the series). I don't really read fantasy at all ever so I don't have a personal baseline, but I will say that they have not annoyed me the way that the few bits of more traditional high fantasy I've encountered have, which is why I've kept reading them.

Also they will eat your soul and make you hate Martin. In a pretty satisfying way, but still. This is not a just or happy universe our character live in, all else aside.

You know how I ended up reading these? I was in a Powell's Books one day, several years ago, killing a few minutes waiting for a bus. And the horror and fantasy sections were near each other at the time and I was glancing at horror when some guy came up and noticed that I was within ten feet of Martin's books but wasn't currently grasping them, I guess, and so he was like "George R. R. Martin. Have you read it? Have you read it, it's, it's the best."

And I was like no, I, uh--

"It's the best. These books. Tolkein at his best, better than Tolkein, beyond Tolkein. You should read them."

And I'm all okay guy. Maybe I will do that some time.

Guy disappears, I go back to browsing. A few minutes later, getting ready to leave and catch that bus and the guy comes back and he's holding out a copy of the first book and I'm like jesus christ what is gonna--

"Here."

?

"Here, I bought it for you."

[PhoBWanKenobi]

Oh noes! I don't know what to do!

[PhoBWanKenobi]

Except now I have to, because cortex, that story was kind of amazing.

[dashiellhamlet]

You'll be fine. Let us know the first time you throw the book across the room. We all do it at some point, it is a rite of passage.

[Ms Harriet Vane]

I'm a big fan of the books, but given the accuracy of the tv show and the fact that the story hasn't been finished yet, I'm not sure anyone really needs to read them. Since you've got a huge TBR pile already, that's another reason against.

On the other hand, A Song Of Ice and Fire really did kick off a new phase in fantasy writing, where the bodily fluids aren't glossed over and it's really very difficult to predict how it'll all end. It's not high fantasy at all, and it's not wishy-washy magical realism either.

When my friend pressed the first book on me, I said no because I hadn't read any fantasy in a good ten years or so and was fed up with quests for magic rocks and so on. She was sneaky and didn't tell me it was part one of a series, knowing that I'd reject it on those grounds too. By the time I realised, I was already hooked.

[nubs]

If you're enjoying the TV series, I would say go for it - the price is amazing - and they are enjoyable reads.

I too have a huge TBR pile, but it will all be put on hold when the next one comes on July 12.

And cortex, that story is awesome.