Game of Thrones books vs show: what’s the difference and which is better?

Game of Thrones fans, often like other fandom fans, categorize themselves into two broad categories: Book readers and the non readers. Well, the former group is obviously more well versed with the world of Westeros. They have minute and specific details about the world of dragons.

The latter group chooses to gulp down the information that seems most visible. Having watched only the show, does leave them oblivious of a lot of information.

There are pros and cons of both sides. In this post, we are going to analyze which side should you pick before the eighth season premieres.

Getting the complete story

All the seasons of the Game of Thrones are 10 hours long. And it is obvious that the show runners won’t be able to fit all the details of the story in such a limited time. It also leads to rearranging of the events. The first and the second season were more or less similar to the actual story of the respective books.

But, the third season kind of derailed from the path of retelling the story from the books. Game of Thrones Season 3  adapted the story from the first half of A Storm of Swords.

And the second half of the book accounted for the fourth season. The story of Game of Thrones season 5 is taken from A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, the fourth and fifth novel.

Here, reading the books gives you an edge over those who just rely on the TV shows. The books give you detailed descriptions of the events and also insights about character motivations. Hence, the TV show has to sacrifice some major plot twists just to make time for the important events in the episodes.

The books are the perfect companions to the Game of Thrones show

You might have seen Harry Potter fans complaining about major missing details from the books in the movies. No matter how many movies you watch, the books lead to the important parts to the franchise’s main plot line.

And Game of Thrones is also one of them. The books might not show something entirely different from the show. But, they still act as references or guides as to what we seen on the show.

It’s George R.R. Martin’s story as it was meant to be told

In this debate between readers and non-readers, any ‘purist’ would concur that the books are the truest form of George R.R.Martin’s story. It does not matter to him if there is a time limit of 10 hours or 500 pages. He is free to craft the story the way he wants it to.

He can introduce or kill off a character. Similarly, he can include a plot twist at any point in his novels. Although this process has slowed him down, the story at least comes from the creator himself. The Game of Thrones show on HBO also takes Martin’s expertise on inputs and screenplay.

Nevertheless, it isn’t the original version of his work.  

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