Corvinus85 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 First I heard about ASOIAF from websites where it was often listed among the best. I admit I didn't like it at first. (But I can say the same for the Wheel of Time and the Mistborn trilogy). About a year later, I started noticing some of the amazing artwork based on the books, in particular on youtube, so I decided to give the books another chance. I've been a huge fan since.Also... and I deserve a huge kick in the head for this, having not liked it the first time I picked it up, I was certain that I would never read them, but I still had a mild curiosity about the story, so I went over to wikipedia and read the whole synopsis for all 4 books. (Yeah, I know). So I have an extra reason to eagerly await ADWD - it will be the first book where I don't know which major character gets killed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tall Tyrion Lannister! Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I clicked on a thread on another forum about the tv show, decided to check it out as i was looking for something to read. glad i did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitering Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Way back in university, shortly after Clash came out, I was chatting about the Wheel of Time series with a classmate who recommended Martin. The rest is history. I sometimes wish I hadn't heard about the series until it was over heh.Does anyone have any other authors I can look up that are anything close to the quality of Martin? In the fantasy genre that is, I don't like Wildcards as an example.Well, I don't want to derail the thread, so toss me a pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Sage Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I came across the books at the library and was hooked ever since. :smoking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doran Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 ^Sounds like an amazing trip.It was! From time to time I happen to read a paper that was originally presented at that very conference, wondering why I missed the talk back then, although I had been there. And then it hits me, I remember the smell of coffee and cake, the classical music in the background and my utter amazement reading the final ASOS chapter of Tyrion - and then Jon - and then Sansa - and then the epilogue... When I closed the book I knew this was the best genre book I had ever (and probably would ever) read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Winter Rose Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I was in high school and there was an article in the NYT that called Martin the " American Tolkien", this was around the release of book 4. Since I was a big LOTR's fan at the time I thought " I have to read this". I took it out from the library, but never got to finish Game of Thrones since I had to return it back to the library after two renewals. I eventually got all four books for X-Mas in 2006 and read them all. It is so funny because right when I finished Feast I thought to myself HBO or Showtime should make this and then 2 days later it was announced HBO bought the rights, good timing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smegma Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I do not care for most fantasy books, but at the behest of my exhusband I read all of the Wheel of Time series (at the time) and I was just finishing it and needed a new book when I was walking through a train station in Chicago. There was a small bookseller kiosk and I'd talked to the guy (who was really cute) a few times before and he'd made recommendations that I liked. I showed him that I had just finished book 7/8 whatever it was in WoT and he said he had something WAY better (cause I had complained about the shitty aspects of the series). It was of course, AGOT. This was in 97, I believe, and I was hooked right away. It might have been in 98 cause I didn't wait TOO long for ACOK, but I do remember waiting and thinking it was taking forever. In retrospect that really wasn't so bad lol.I became a huge fan, of course, and I spread the word to lots of friends and colleagues. I actually dated a guy I met on the train who was really cute and reading AGOT - I started talking to him and we hit it off really well. We are still friends 10 years later!I found the forums back in the EZboard days (actually I think I found some of the ASOIAF sites before there was even a proper forum and there were just write-ups listed). I had come to a bunch of conclusions on my own and told everyone I knew about my "theories". Most of them thought I was reading too far into the books and others believed I was on to something, so I googled to find out if anyone else had picked up on R + L= J and Renly/Loras and a few other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Songlian Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I went into a local library wanting to buy the Wheel of Time series, and chance made it that I picked up ASOIAF along with it. When I came home, ASOIAF sounded more intriguing judging by the first pages, so I began to read that instead of WoT, and stuck with it. Haven't read WoT to this day, but I plan to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitebeard Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 ^ Don't bother with WOT. Well actually, the first four books are OK. The rest are terrible, until the last ones that Sanderson wrote. I haven't read TOM yet, but The Gathering Storm was quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snow White Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 First I heard about the series was Neil Gaiman's admonition to fans that "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch." Then John Anealio wrote a song based on that quote. Then I heard about HBO adapting the first book.After a while it just seems inevitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaffaKreeIndeed Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 After reading the elder scrolls book i was chatting with some peeps on xbox forums about it. Then someone said that if i liked that i might like ASOIF.Which a must say i didn't like it i loved it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of the North Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I had always thought the US paperback of AGoT looked interesting but never actually picked it up until my best friend started reading it and said it was good. We had always suggested books to each other since we were kids and I always respected his recommendations. Since then I have infected many people with the ASoIaF "disease" (including my mother) :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregor Barksdale Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I was looking for fantasy books with dragons or zombies. ASOIAF contains both, it's great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doom of Valyria Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I heard about here and there, online and other places, and my brother-in-law said it was really good. So I eventually checked it out....sorry for the boring story, but that's how it went :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Godric Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 It was recommended to me by someone on another forum (I think he called it a political chess game with a badass manipulating queen or something like that). And he recommended it to me about 3 years before I actually read the books. I was browsing through the bookstore and found A Game of Thrones and remembered my friend's recommendation and grabbed it. I instantly fell in love with the books. Even before I read them I was intrigued by the maps and appendix (I remember my first thought was that this is the type of fantasy novel I was looking for just after looking at the appendix) and I was engrossed in the appendix for a few hours before I even started reading the text. And by the time I finished it I had already ordered the next three from Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arbor Gold Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Does anyone have any other authors I can look up that are anything close to the quality of Martin? In the fantasy genre that is, I don't like Wildcards as an example.Check out the Literature section of this board, particularly the various rec threads (new and improved!) as well as the current What Are You Reading thread - tons of good stuff in there. To save you some work, check out the second post in this thread for some of the commonly recommended authors/series.I was working in a bookstore, had read the first four WoT books, was bored with them, and wanted something similar. I asked a co-worker who knew the genre to pull some options for me, and from the stack of eight books, I selected AGoT purely based on the cover. I thought I was lucky because ASoS was just released as I was reading ACoK, so I didn't have to wait at all. *sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 ^ Don't bother with WOT. Well actually, the first four books are OK. The rest are terrible, until the last ones that Sanderson wrote. I haven't read TOM yet, but The Gathering Storm was quite good.hey now, let other people decide for themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warg Arry Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 Dating this guy for a few months. And it was Valentines day. (our first) He handed me a Valentines day card with a monkey on it. And AGoT. this coming July we will be married for 11 years.He has never given me another Valentines day present. He said you can't out do perfection and any VDay gift after that, would never be good enough.He's got a point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitebeard Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 hey now, let other people decide for themselvesIt's a general consensus amongst WOT fans that the middle books are downright horrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted March 26, 2011 Share Posted March 26, 2011 It's a general consensus amongst WOT fans that the middle books are downright horrible. :fencing: I really don't want to start a WOT discussion on this site, so naturally I will... just kidding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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