ASOIAF series reads like a tv show

[The Young Maester]

Does anyone else feel that the books read like a tv show.

For me its the massive cliffhangers that George loves to leave in each book.

From what I can remember no other series that ive read ever leaves cliffhangers in such a manner. Instead they finish up part of the plot or the main plot and move on for the next book.

[Jon Fossoway]

GRRM has had experience writing scripts for shows in the past. I haven't heard any opinions of his part about tv, but for all I read of his works (which is nearly all asoiaf' and his weird sci-fi stories) I feel he likes it. Popular shows and sci-fi flicks. 

As for the cliffhangers I wouldn't know. GRRM is a prolific writer and apparently tends to produce a lot of pages when 'gardening' his subplot, so I don't think he ends a book with a cliff hanger: he and/or the team cut in some particular places of the output so the material can fit into the original 7 book idea. Which I believe it will fail.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Especially AGoT reads like a good version of a Dan Brown novel.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

Some aspects of it do. I've said before that I find how GRRM frames and delivers the beats of a chapter reminds me of how David Simon did so for his individual scenes in The Wire. I think they have a similar moral outlook, and a similarly removed approach to their moralizing, yet how they frame their chapters/scenes goes a long way to telling a story of morally gray people hitting against a system that is more vicious than they can tolerate.

Surely GRRM's experience writing for television played some role in that sense of dramatic framing and pacing, but who knows. I recently watched some of his episodes for Beauty and the Beast, and it's written as if for 10 year olds. I guess since the TV scriptwriter has to ultimately deliver the vision of the show runner, maybe that's part of why GRRM left TV and went back to novels--he could deliver the story in his head as he wanted it delivered. 

[Rondo]

It doesn't flow like a tv show.  It flows like a comics.

[Nevets]

On 3/28/2022 at 8:33 PM, The Young Maester said:

Does anyone else feel that the books read like a tv show.

For me its the massive cliffhangers that George loves to leave in each book.

From what I can remember no other series that ive read ever leaves cliffhangers in such a manner. Instead they finish up part of the plot or the main plot and move on for the next book.

While this is true for the recent books,  I don't think it's the case for the early books.  The only real cliffhangers I can remember in the first three are Arya and Yoren's knife in AGOT and Catelyn and Jaime in ACOK.  While other characters may have been in some jeopardy at the end of each book, it was clear that, for them, one story had ended and another was beginning.  ASOS, of course, pretty much wrapped up its stories since Martin was planning on resuming the story several years later.

I will say that Feast and Dance are loaded with cliffhangers, possibly one reason readers are so frustrated with them, and the extended wait for a resolution.