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I'd like to start reading from Book 3 onward, is there anything I should know?


Zach_CHF

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I've heard that two major things that the TV show cut out are the Reeds and Reek (?)

Not sure what either of these things are, but outside of researching them is there anything else that I need to look over in order to jump directly into a Storm of Swords from the TV series?

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Yes - don't jump into book 3 without reading the first two books. There is lots more interesting stuff in the first two books than was in the first two seasons of the show.

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Indeed, you really can't pick up the series at book 3. TV show misses too much out completely, and it changes a shed load of what it actually includes. They are two very different versions of the the same story.

Having said that, if you're determined not to read GoT and CoK then at least read all the OPs of the re-read threads for GoT and CoK on this forum then you'll get pretty well caught up on major things that the TV series misses / changes. Or at least the plot points that the re-reader thinks are significant enough to mention.

You might be confused by a few things but after a while you'll catch on. There isn't much more interesting stuff in the first two books than was in the first two seasons of the show.

O_o does not compute...

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Hard thing going from series to books is the fact that there are so many names. In the series, you may know someone by their appearance, even though you don't know their name. The best advice I can give you if you really want to start from book three, is to look up all the characters you've seen so far; their names, houses and so forth. This will make the story much easier to understand.

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I would advise you not to skip anything in these books. It would be harder to understand what is going on later. Plus, so many characters are introduced that are important to the story that if you don't recognize them you will confused as to how they fit in. ASOIAF is such a good series you really do not want to miss a bit of it. :)

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Start from book two if you really must. Arya, for instance, meets a lot more people than just Tywin and it'll just confuse you as the story moves on from there. But if you can be patient, start from the beginning the payoff will be so much better. Book 3 is generally accepted to be the best of the lot and you really want to savour it without missing bits of it and constantly visiting the wiki.

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Do you really want to read? Then read from book 1. You will be missing so many sub-plots, interesting characters and a lot of small enjoyable things. Especially season 2 was pretty different from books that you might get confused...and would you enjoy the books then?

Bearing in mind that you have a year till season 3 starts, there is plenty of time to start reading from the beginning.

I once made a mistake of watching LotR part 1 and then started to read from book 2. I was confused, and it took a bit of enjoyment from those books.

So, if you have time and if you want to enjoy these books for what they are, start reading from book 1.

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If you want to know the story of Book 3, best just look it up on the various wikis. There's chapter descriptions in them.

I wouldn't start with book 3, you will miss out a few things. If however you don't want to read the first books as you want to get to the new stuff quickly, I do get that and I'd advise you to read only book 2.

There are a lot of deviations in the second book compared to the first book. You mention the Reeds (who meet with Bran and who we will see in season 3) and Reek (a character also at Winterfell), but there's a lot more: Arya's story is much more complex in that it can go on for much longer on page than screen, but in the end, it's pretty similar, Dany's Storyline in Qarth has also been totally different, you see that f.e. the House of the Undying in the show has no Undying... The last one is Jon's storyline which has been changed to a mild degree.

Oh, and Yara is named Asha in the books.

If you really want to accelerate, I'd read at least Dany's and Brans chapters in the book and read up on Arya on a wiki. Also there's a few more characters like Edmure Tully and the Blackfish who haven't been introduced in the show yet.

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Yep, start from the beggining. Season 1 was very faithful to the book, but a lot of the nuances in the series were cut or compressed, especially some of the backstory that is very important. At the very least start from COK (Though I still wouldn't advise that.). Season 1 is faithful enough that you could hypothetically jump in a still make sense of it. Season 2 has been very unfaithful with a lot of major plot points being changed, so you'l be very confused.

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Read the first two books first, you won't regret it. There are many details that the show skipped over and a few significant changes. Especially in the late parts of the third book you will be pretty much lost becuase the events there are tied with a very important backstory that the show is yet to introduce.

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At a minimum I would first read the Bran, Theon and Daenerys chapters of 'A Clash of Kings' starting with pg. 663 of the paperback, picking up where the Ironmen take Winterfell. As someone said above, I would also familiarize myself with all of the faces from the show and make sure you know their names.

You COULD just research the Reeds and Reek, but you'd have to be careful to avoid spoilers from the later books.

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I'm in the minority here, but if you are short on time or something, and feel averse to reading books 1 or 2 for whatever reason, I don't think starting with book 3 is a terrible idea.

GRRM actually gives a lot of expository, flashback-y statements toward the beginning of each novel, as each character is reintroduced... for example he'll write that Dany is remembering "her cruel brother Viserys, who perished in Vaes Dothrak under a crown of molten gold"

And you've already seen the shows, so I think it's doable. You might be confused by some of the minor characters who weren't in the show like the Kettleblacks and the Stokeworths (in addition to the aforementioned Reeds), or that certain characters who died in the show (Marillion, Irri, Rakharo, The Tickler) are still alive in the books.

I've jumped into fantasy series in the middle, read them in order until the end, and then if I reall liked the series, went back and started with book 1 and enjoyed the experience immsensely.

Book 3 is the best book, so why not start there! Plus if you ever go back and read book 1 and 2 (like I have) you will pick up on all sorts of hints and foreshadowing that would have been meaningless before.

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or that certain characters who died in the show (Marillion, Irri, Rakharo, The Tickler) are still alive in the books.

Correction: I guess the singer Marillion doesn't die in the show, exactly, he just has his tounge torn out. As of the beginning of book 3, he still has tongue to spare.

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I've heard that two major things that the TV show cut out are the Reeds and Reek (?)

Delayed, not cut! They’re all three of them being cast for the third series.

Not sure what either of these things are, but outside of researching them is there anything else that I need to look over in order to jump directly into a Storm of Swords from the TV series?

You really can’t jump right into Storm without reading Game and Clash first. It won’t work. There are lots of reasons for that, not just one or two.

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