I’m in Love and Jealous at the same time….

While I was all psyched to watch “The Borgia's” this spring on Showtime, I didn’t know a thing about “Game of Thrones” which started at the same time on HBO.  And I am sssoooo in love with it.  So much so I am listening to the audio recording of the book while watching the series on TV.

The job they did of translating the book to screen is magnificent.  In fact, the dialogue is almost word by word from the book.  It holds the integrity of the book up so well.  The detail in the movie sets is tremendous. It’s lush and lavish and yet portrays the cold and starkness of the North. It’s one of those things you have to record so you can watch once for the story and then go back and re-watch for the details.  The only thing changed, I have found, from the book to the screen are the ages of the younger characters.  In the book, some of the main characters are children, and are 14, 15 years old (or a little younger).  In the TV production they are late teens, early 20’s.  Much easy for the mind to take what happens to some of them.

But being a writer myself, I am so jealous and envious and in awe of the job George Martin did on this book (and the 4 others that follow).  The descriptions and the details which go into this world he has created in mind-blowing.  There is such a wealth of detail you find yourself standing there and seeing exactly what Winterfeld and River Run and the Red Keep look like.  Not to mention the Wall.  I would love to see how he keeps all this detail straight.

 

Which do I prefer?  Both.  You can watch the series and not lose a thing by reading the book at the same time. In fact, if I get ahead in the book I find myself getting more impatient for the next episode of the series.  And which House am I for?  Why House Stark, of course.