It’s a question that comes up whenever a movie or show is adapted from a book or comic: Should you read the source material? It’s a complicated issue with many different facets to it. Reading it before a show or movie airs at all allows you to form your own picture in your mind of what the characters look and act like. That can work out well when it comes to the adaption if your vision lines up, or it can be jarring when what you’ve pictured isn’t brought to life on the screen at all. Additionally, reading something ahead of time will allow you to be surprised by a great novel, but it may prevent you from being surprised by a great movie or TV show, as you go in already knowing the twists and turns.
The answer isn’t always clear. I’ve discussed this previously here in relation to The Walking Dead comic, which I ultimately deemed too confusing of an experience, given just how much the show deviates from the comic, and it makes you think you know what’s coming, but you usually just end up being confused or upset things aren’t lining up the way you thought. In my mind, it’s better to stick with one or the other, in that case. But for A Song of Ice And Fire/Game of Thrones, it’s different. I want to approach it with a specific perspective in mind, one where you’re already currently watching the show in some form, either a season or two in, or all the way caught up. At that point, should you read the books? You’ll get to see what happens at least one to two seasons into the future, after all.
This is what I did, and ultimately, I think I would recommend it to others.
The reason it can be good for non-avid-fantasy readers to start George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire after they’ve already started watching the show is that it’s a lot easier to follow along what’s happening in the books, and more importantly, who these characters are.
Going into A Song of Ice and Fire cold (no pun intended) can easily be a confusing experience as the series has about 15 main characters and dozens of subcharacters to keep track of. Starting the books with at least SOME clear picture in your mind of who many of the characters are, and vaguely what they’re doing.
It also helps that at least in the early seasons, Game of Thrones stays very, very close to the plot of A Song of Ice and Fire. Now as we move into later seasons, that’s going to start to change more quickly as the shows bleeds into the books, subplots are cut and changed, and a whole lot of shifts are made. But for the most part? It’s a very, very faithful adaptation.
But the show only has time for so much, which is why it’s so great to read the books in order to really flesh out a universe you already like. There are rarely stories told of events that happen before the show, but the books are full of them, and you get a more clear picture of the bloody history of Westeros, and also an insight into how all these characters got the way they are. Some of that translates into the show, but not all. The books have infinite room for history lessons and more character development, and they’re worth reading for that alone.
As for spoilers, that depends on your personality. If you just want to know anything and everything, read all the books and the go online and read wikis about theories of what’s to come. But if you enjoy being surprised by the show each and every week, and would hate to lose that feeling, the books may kill that for you.
Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly thrilling and horrifying reading about the Red Wedding in the books, but I think it would have been a more memorable moment to see it unfold onscreen with everyone else, a collective TV event like no other. Yes, reading the books makes you all but immune from spoilers, but the cost may be too high to bear.
Anyway, that’s my thought on the matter, and the books really are fantastic. I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire for any GoT fan, provided you can live with the knowledge of what’s to come.
[Photos via HBO]
