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Last winter I noted that HBO had optioned the rights to George RR Martin‘s Song of Ice and Fire series of novels. I incorrectly assumed this meant they were going into production but it turns out that at the time they simply optioned the rights, and they’ve recently announced that they’re funding the production of a pilot episode. Pretty great news really – it still doesn’t guarantee we’ll be seeing the series on HBO, but it’s a significant step forward and increases the chances. Here’s hoping it’s good – as the article I link to notes, if anyone can pull this off it’s HBO.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, The Song of Fire and Ice is an as yet incomplete series of gritty high fantasy novels set in a sort of alternate medieval Great Britain. It covers some generally familiar ground, but it’s really well written, has some fantastic plot twists, and plays quite a bit with conventions in the genre. They’re definitely worth checking out if fantasy is your cup of tea.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 
I finished the first 3, but haven’t started on the 4th yet. Heard it was a little looooong in the tooth.
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Hey Matt,
Yeah, truth be told I did not like the most recent of the series – the first three were really great and set up this HUGE cliffhanger, and then…the 4th book does not cover any of those characters, and focuses mostly on Brienne. Very frustrating – what the heck happened to Tyrion? Does Daenerys come marching back to assault Westeros and take back her throne? I’ve had to wait years to find out, and the only solace has been the adventures of Brienne which I could give a fig about.
Here’s hoping the 5th book is great and gets the series back on track. Even if it doesn’t though, the first three are fantastic, and an HBO series recreating all that would be great fun if done well.
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I concur. The 4rth book got way off track from the original story, annoyingly so. Only hints of the previous story line and associated characters.
Here’s hoping HBO does well with the pilot and elects to continue with a series.
We can all continue our vigil for the 5th book. Though it would seem from Martin’s site, that he has been working on it and in fact is nearing completion, albeit with quite a few delays.
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Have you read “Gardens of the Moon” by Steven Erikson? Only has 3.5 stars on Amazon, but I highly recommend it. It’s a very good read.
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Yup – that series gets BETTER book by book, not worse. If you liked gardens of the moon, pick up the subsequent books, they’re great.
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