MegaTechPC

Jon Snow for sure! Though I can't explain why here in the CoK section!

Very much agree. The best part about this series is that there ARE so many characters, motivations, subtle hints, minor plots, etc that they really do get much better every time you re-read them! The first time through I plowed through all the books breathlessly, paying attention only to the main plot lines, but I've since re-read all 5 books (along with all the short stories, novellas, WOIAF, etc) 4 times all the way through and I still find something new in all of them on every re-read!! Its a testament to the complexity and attention to detail in ASOIAF.

No worries man, I didn't immediately pick up on Renly's homosexuality on the first read of GoT and ACoK as all of the hints are pretty subtle up to that point. In later books it is made much more explicit but in the first two books there's just some japes by LF (which I attributed to LF being LF), alone-time for Renly and Loras (which could just be because they are close friends), Loras freaking out and killing the RG members after Renly dies, etc. Nothing really explicit that a casual first-time reader should be expected to pick up on if you ask me...

I had heard much and more about the series on TV and this past January, going through a divorce with nothing much to do, I decided to start watching them on demand. Went through the entire series (even bought a new 60" TV for them) and just absolutely loved them! I had to get the books once I finished the series because (as with Harry Potter) I was sure there would be a ton more detail and 7 Kingdoms goodness in the books. I'm now down to ADWD and loving the books even that much more than the show! There's so much going on in this series it blows me away that any one man could've contemplated all of it and put it down on paper! GRRM really is a genius! Interestingly, I've been a huge Harry Potter fan for a decade and have read that series through countless times. In fact for years I ALWAYS had a copy of Harry Potter at work to the point where my co-workers were always making fun of the fact that I had read them so many times. One of the EMT's I work with actually tried for years to get me to read ANYTHING else and begged me to check out ASOIAF 7-8 years ago but I never really thought it would be for me. Eventually I did move onto another series (Paolini's Inheritance Cycle) which I really enjoyed and kind of set me up for ASOIAF. But vasically, I could've read the entire series before the show ever existed had I just listened to my buddy but I'm glad I did it this way so at least I didn't have to wait for ADWD to come out...