A Game Of Thrones

Livro muito bem feito. Arte muito bonita pra quem é fã da série.

Incredibile. Non pensavo che mi sarei stupita della qualità di un “graphic novel” e invece sì: mi piace tutto, dalla qualità della carta, ai dettagli dei personaggi, alle nuances delle tonalità scelte… è davvero tutto di qualità, un must se amate il trono di spade.
Ecco… per i puristi sappiate che questo libro (e i successivi) è figlio della serie TV della HBO, non dei libri: alcuni dettagli ve lo confermeranno (come per esempio i capelli di Jon Snow). E’ però bello il connubio tra i libri (scritti benissimo da Martin), la propria fantasia nell’immaginare le scene, e la resa grafica presa in prestito dalla serie televisiva (fantastica, ma a mio parere una cosa parallela ai libri).
Io penso che questi libri possano piacere di più a chi è partito con i libri più che con la serie TV, per cercare di fare “un passo indietro” rispetto alle “figure in movimento del piccolo schermo” che tolgono tutto all’immaginazione.
Con la scusa di regalare al marito questo libro, mi sono procurata i primi 4 volumi e aspetto i successivi… 😉

First off, anyone purchasing this graphic novel should know that this is not an adaptation of the television show Game of Thrones. It is instead an adaptation of the novel A Game of Thrones (which the show is based on). This may seem like a minor detail, but it is an original adaptation, and thus characters will look as they are described in the book, not like how they do on the show.

Obviously this is not meant to detract anyone from purchasing this collection. It is an awesome adaptation in its own right, and if you haven’t read the books (you should, by the way, as they are excellent) this graphic novel will do a great job of introducing you to the writing of George R.R. Martin, who wrote the books and will also be writing one episode per season of the show.

The fact that this isn’t a direct adaptation of the show actually makes it that much more valuable, because you’ll get to see a lot of the little scenes from the books that didn’t make the final cut in the show, and also be introduced to plenty of side characters who were either removed completely for the show (for obvious reasons…you can’t have a show with hundreds of characters) or marginalized.

The artwork looks very good and the writing is uniformly excellent (which is to be expected). I highly recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the book series (A Song of Ice and Fire) or the show on HBO (Game of Thrones).

This volume covers roughly the first quarter of the original Game of Thrones novel (which would correspond to the first 2 or 3 episodes of season 1 of the HBO series). The illustrations are beautiful and the book does a good job of telling George Martin’s original story. And, although I have both seen the series and read the original novel (and love both), this book manages to be engaging and unique in its own right. This is a new adaptation of the novel and it stays closer to the source material than the HBO series. Character designs are closer to their descriptions in the book and dialog is lifted directly from the novel more often.

The nicest difference between this adaptation and the TV series is that some details that were skipped altogether in the series or extremely simplified do make it into the graphic novel. For example, Bran’s visions of the three eyed raven are much longer and more detailed, giving us much more information about the nature of Bran’s powers. You also get a little bit more background on Daenerys.

Having said all that, it’s still pretty close to being a version the TV series in comic book form. Season 1 of the series was itself relatively faithful to the book. So, the graphic novel is not all that different. I’m hoping the creators of the graphic novels make it all the way to adapting Martin’s fourth novel, where the TV series began to depart significantly from the books it’s based on. It would be nice to see Martin’s original ideas in graphic form.

Finally, like the TV series, this is definitely NOT for children. The levels of sexuality and violence depicted here are comparable to the HBO series. If you wouldn’t want your kids watching the TV show, you wouldn’t want them reading this.

I’ve been having difficulty over the last few years of maintaining an attention span with modern novels. It’s a me problem, not the books. I wanted to reignite my interest in books again and have heard a lot of good things about graphic novels (for those who don’t know it’s just a collection of comic issues). Let me just say this book was amazing. I burnt through it in two days. It covers some things not explored in the show, while staying true to GRRM’s vision. Hands down must read for both novel-nuts and comic nerds alike.