A couple of thoughts on the HBO adaptation. (1) I enjoyed the first season thoroughly; the second season not so much. Could that be because I had read the first four (4) books in-between (and now working on ADWD). I've the suspicion I'd enjoy the second season more if I had not been "spoiled" by the books and the character/plot deviations. (2) I think they should have devoted more than 10 episodes to ACOK, even if it means spreading it over two (2) seasons. As it stands, I'm worried how they are going to maintain "continuity" with the subsequent books given the character/plot deviations driven in large part by the need to compress the plot lines to fit within 10 episodes. I do not know where George Martin is going with this series but it seems to me he could S-T-R-E-E-E-T-T-T-C-C-C-H-H this story out a long time over many books; he's currently only working with a fraction of the World he's created. Who's to say when/if he might bring in story lines from other parts of this world ? At the very least, IF the dragons are going to play a significant military role in these books, they will need years and years to grow, "mature" and become a significant military assets for Daenery's et al. How Daenery's manages to learn how to "tame" these growing dragons seems problematical but then again, I am not that far into ADWD.
