• Gee, thanks for the spoiler warning.

• You cut out the half of the photo with all the dead people in it. I love, love, love the books. The perfect chaser to all the children's fantasy that's been sucking all the media attention. Rob, take the time to read it. Even if he never finishes the series I still think it's a masterpiece as is.

• I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE Game Of Thrones. This is excellent news. Oh, and that pic looks just right. RAWK. :D

• Shit, now I really do have to go back and re-read the first 3 so I can read the 4th. Great books, but LONG.

• Well, Sean Bean is in it. Poor boy can't stay alive in a film.

• After Sandkings, I really don't know how this will go.

• I'm gonna nay say... I'm hardcore in love with the Song of Fire and Ice series... However, I don't see how this can succeed as a series when the books haven't even managed to succeed as a series yet... Martin has been so distracted by side projects that his current writing has been on indefinite hiatus. Considering that book 4 was "cut in half" due to length, one would have to assume that book 5 wouldn't be too far behind. Except if by chance he really did only write about 1/2 of the characters, and the book was segmented for different reasons. But the fact remains that a date of release was projected, delayed, delayed, delayed some more and then simply ceased to be talked about... this after 2 years of delays. I don't think G.R.R. Martin owes me anything, he's a fantastic writer, I've enjoyed all his books in the series immensely so far... but it remains an unfinished series that cannot be fully appreciated for it's greatness until it has derrived a conclusion. And then they wanna make a possible seven season HBO show (a season per book I assume), when there's only four seasons of source material... which gives Martin pretty stringent timeline if he's going to finish the saga before the show catches up on itself. The saving grace in all of this is that HBO is terrible with managing it's budgets. They had a winner in Deadwood which was prematurely cancelled to make way for Rome's budget. They had a winner in Rome until they decided it was cancelled before even finishing the second season, and it folded in on itself. How they're taking on something that, if done well, will probably require a bigger budget still than Rome required (which was HBO's highest to date)... So there you have it... I'll be impressed if the show isn't cancelled before G.R.R. needs to worry about ever writing another word.

• How could you even put Wheel of Time in the same class as Fire and Ice? They're both long with expansive plots with writers that apparently hate(d) their fans, but shit, at least Fire and Ice story has progressed, whereas WoT refused to progress in the last 8k pages or so before I gave up in disgust. And I am a completist, I'll read any garbage I start just because I have to finish it. Jordan just set the bar so high for cashing in on garbage, I couldn't handle it anymore.

• If I recall correctly, when the last book came out, it was supposedly half of the completed manuscript -- "too big" to be published in one volume, which is why it focused on only one group of chars. So this "other half" was ostensibly also finished, and thus there is no reason to keep me in neverending torment! No, GRRM is not my bitch, but as Stephen King realized when that Van almost killed him, there is a relationship and a responsibility between the author and the reader. If you start, if you pull me in ... you don't "owe" me exactly, but there is an obligation to finish the story.

• for those of you moaning about where book 5 is, dont forget the eternal words of neil gaiman: "george rr martin is not your bitch." http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html

• Best fantasy book I've read. Ever. NOW WHERE IS THE FIFTH TOME?!?!

• Come on now, lets not ruin it for them...

• and the dead starts a raising, the dragons start a-hatching and the siblings start fucking.... new definition of SPOILER

• FUCK AND YES!!!! This series is brutal to the max! Anyone that's never read it needs to. There are some serious 'WTF' moments in there that you would never in your wildest imagination seen coming. This should make one hell of a tv show. Dexter...who the fuck is Dexter?? He'll be considered kiddie business once the swords start swinging.

• I think he wrote himself into a big mess. He seemingly kills important characters off only to introduce 3 more in its place. I hope he gets things going before he pulls a Robert Jordan on us and everything gets fucked.

• yeah can he write the next book in the series? Ive been waiting forever.

• Agreed. Some of the kids in these books are more awesome than the adults. Of course, we seem to forget that characters like Jon and Daenerys are still technically children due to their maturity and actions. And yes, Arya is probably one of the coolest, most well developed characters in modern literature.

• Hopefully the author will get off his ass and finish the next books. He's too busy with the Wild Cards or what ever (mentioned in worst fantasy story on this sitehttp://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/11/worst_sci-fi_novel_and_the_winner_is.php) and get back to the good stuff. http://georgerrmartin.com/bibliography.html

• Here is a link to George's blog, all doing with the show on HBO. Go back to previous posts and you will see all the characters cast for the pilot. http://grrm.livejournal.com/tag/hbo

• I'm so excited I'm choking on my own gasps of joy.

• Indeed, Troyer is a mesmerizing actor; I particularli enjoyed the pathos he brought to the table in the third Austin Powers movie.

• I'm quite surprised by this. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who worked as a runner on the pilot and he had told me he'd heard people at HBO had really hated what had been produced. I'm happy it's happening though, I've never read the books but it sounds pretty cool.

• I, too, am pleased at this. Gonna be great to see a proper Tyrion on screen. Even if his most badass moments happen in the later books :)

• Well 10 episodes will cover fairly well "Game of Thrones" and give a nice ledger for further seasons. The first volume ("Game of Thrones") it's pretty much the introduction of the families and the history (and story) between them (basically it's the introductions of the pieces and players of the "game"). The next volumes are pretty much the definition of "Epic". Rob, you should already been reading the novels. THE WINTER IS (FINALLY) COMING.

• Nice to see Hbo take a chance given how they seem to do shows that are not the normal cable fair. though only ten episodes guess they want to see how well it does before maybe a full season pick up . hope it lasts longer then dead wood got to

• I think it would be cooler to get big-name actors in those roles. Just imagine how much more shocking it would be for those like myself who haven't read the books (or at least haven't yet) to watch it and say, "I can't believe they killed off [well-known actor]'s character!"

• Wheel of Time was just too much. Sorry. It went on too long, each book introduced too many factions and characters. It almost seemed fitting that the series could not be completed by RJ...

• I heard about this about a year and a half ago... when someone I worked with saw me reading the book during some downtime and said, "I've heard their good... a friend of mine is adapting them for HBO, and he just gave me the first book." When he said the magical letters of "HBO", I nearly cried in happiness. Fuck yeah, it's great to see it finally coming to fruition... the casting is superb, especially that of Dinklage. I believe he was put on this earth to play Tyrion. Rob. Read them.

• Actually, that's pretty valid, especially when it comes to a series in which each book is around 1000 pages long. It'd be one thing if he gave up after the first couple chapters or so, but to have actually finished the entire first book shows that he was at least interested in giving it a fair shot. Also, I haven't read the book(s) in question, so this is in no way intended as an endorsement of Lando's (or anyone else's) opinion.

• herein lies a problem. We applaud HBO for making the types of series others can't or won't but they have their share of good shows gone too soon as well as bad shows gone when they needed to... Two things need to happen here: 1: Game of Thrones needs to rock. 2: People need to watch it so HBO will continue after 10 episodes.

• I would recommend continuing. In my opinion, the first one takes the most time to get into, because there is so much backstory, set-up, etc. I felt that the three sequels were all better than the first, and the story is so captivating that I can't believe you didn't have a compulsion to keep reading after the first one. As for having too many children in it, again, keep reading. Arya is one of the most kick-ass kids ever written, right up there with Ender Wiggin.

• I found the first book a little hard to get into the first time a friend handed it to me, but when I went back and tried again I completely fell in love with it. Martin is an expert at handling true in-depth chracterization-- none of the main characters are wholly good or evil (well, maybe Cersei...what a bitch) and I believe that will transport brilliantly to the screen. I look forward to seeing some truly superb acting.

• She already did that in 300

• FANTASTIC news -- especially re the casting of Peter Dinklage. Personally, I think comparing Jordan's Wheel of Time series to Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is a slightly skewed comparison -- which is to say, sure, they're both great sweeping fantasy epics, but WoT is PG, and SoI&F is a hard R. Bit like comparing Star Wars to Blade Runner, if you will. At least Jordan made plans to get his finished, even with his illness and tragic death (come on, a life's work of 12 books, and you die at book 10? Tragic.) Martin can go on about "it takes as long as it takes" as much as he likes, but what it takes, sir, is sitting down and writing. HBO will likely do their usual quality job, rather than dreading the adaptation I greatly look forward to it.

• I don't think you can put Martin's books into a season each, especially with a 10-episode one. Ten episodes will get you to the first death of a major character.

• I guess I might be one of the sole heretics who is of opinion that the books (the ones that I have read) were okay and good but not great. It took him roughly 13 years to complete 4 books..and the series is still incomplete. I hope that at least HBO completes the tv series.

• HBO <i>had</i> a fantasy series. It was called <b>Carnivale</b>, it was utterly spectacular, and it was killed off prematurely after only two seasons.

• I hope it's good for the fan, i can't finish the book I find it too depressing.

• I hope at least that Ms. Hedley follows Xena's example in Spartacus.

• Meh, they should hire Verne Troyer for that! XD

• I hope they get a lot of good no-name actors. Mr. Martin has a way of having his main characters come to, how do you put it, messy ends? Read the books, and every 3 chapters your like "holy shit I can't believe ________ died!"

• lol at forming an opinion of an entire series of books off of the first one.

• Yeah, it's a good series, but it'd be a hell of a lot better if Martin would stop dicking his fans around and finish the next book in the series.

• 1: children: they grow up and lose their innocence. 2: have you SEEN any HBO series?

• Who is going to play the fucking wolfs? I only read the 1st novel but thought it was pretty lame. Too many children in it. This series will end up looking more like "Mac and Me" and less like E.T.

• Great news and a great set of novels, if HBO live up to the excellent work they have done with making the likes of the wire, sopranos, tru blood and the rest then this is going to be something really special!

• This is a better series than Jordan's, hands down, and the thought of each book carried out over a season is fucking awesome. Martin better get crackin or this show will catch up. Bean and Headley are great choices, but Dinklage as Tyrion is truly inspired. This is going to kick ass.

• Fucking awesome casting, IMO

• I'm just finishing up a feast for crows... I can't wait for this series!

• FUCK AND YES! I have been waiting for this to be green lit since they filmed the pilot back in Oct. or Nov... Funny thing is I checked into this yesterday b/c they have been saying March... didn't expect it to be this soon into the month though!

• WINTER IS COMING! Rob, I highly recommend you start reading the series. Some crazy ish happens.

• Yeah, that should be "with," not "of." Oops. At least I got the HTML tags correct.

• Best fantasy book series ever. And soon to be best fantasy tv show ever.

• yes! I love the novels! I can't wait for the show!

• This is exciting. Now Martin can stop worrying and finish <i>A Dance of Dragons</i> maybe?

• Nice, Sarah Connor, but I've never heard of Game of Thrones; to Wikipedia!

• I love the books. I am very excited about this. As long as it doesn't follow the 'Spartacus' model that is.

• I can't honestly say I've read the books, but I want this show to be good just as a fan of fantasy. I think I can count on one hand the number of genuinely GOOD fantasy tv shows or movies.

• One of the greatest high fantasy series of our time. If this goes well, Robert Jordan's <i>Wheel of Time</i> series could be next! Queue nipple pinching.

• I'm also digging the casting of Dinklage as Tyrion. That man's a Hell of an actor.

• That's truly excellent news. Song of Ice and Fire is hardcore.

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