Original Desmond

Seems to be quite a few big tv shows based on books (True Blood, Game of Thrones etc). I've never read the books associated with these shows so it's just a tv show to me. For those who have read the books, how does it affect your enjoyment of the show when you know what could possibly be coming up ?

Rob V

I've not read those books either... but books like The Stand (I know that was more like a mini-series)come to mind and it doesn't affect my enjoyment at all. I always have a vision of how a character would look and it's interesting to see if my vision jives with the author's vision.

critterdvd

I started reading the "Southern Vampire Mystery" series back in 2004 (or 03), so I had read the books that "True Blood" is based on yearsbefore I even heard Alan Ball was creating the television series.

With that sad honestly I feel like having read the books actually adds to my enjoyment of the television series. Having read the books I have a sense of where the storys are heading and I have some knowledge about where characters will end up - but I still enjoy the ride, especially that with 13 episodes vs 250 pages there is a lot more side plots and character delevopement.

Also, throughout the series as the seasons progressed Ball started to stray further and further from the books so now the "Universe" is complete seperate from anything happening in the books and I'm enjoying the new twists.

MScottM

Haven't read any of the books yet but I wish the Dresden Files had lasted a little longer.

rfduncan

I have read the Sookie Stackhouse novels after I started watching True Blood and have to say that the books enchanced my enjoyment of the series. The show is never 100% faithful to the books (e.g. Lafayette gets murdered in the opening of the 2nd novel) but still uses them as a strong guideline for its direction. It is getting better as the seasons pass because the characters are growing and changing beyond how they were portrayed in the books BUT certain plotpoints still have to happen with each story. S4 is awesome considering the back flips the writers have done to include characters that shouldn't even be INVOLVED with the plot based on the novel!

Anyone know about how faithful Dexter is to the books?

movie diva

I have read the Sookie Stackhouse books and have seen True Blood, and to me its like an alternate universe, in the books Lafayette is dead, and Tara owns a clothing store, and there is more story to the Belleflures and Bill, but I know that they can't put everything in the series. I have just started reading Game of Thrones,and I have not seen any of the series, so I am waiting for the DVDs to see how HBO did with it.

superdeluxe

It doesn't really impact True Blood, The show has strayed wildly from the source material.

For GoT, I think we have more of a background understanding of the going ons of Westeros, I think those new to the world it took a little while for things to be caught up to speed.

While I knew the main spoiler points frm the first book, I was able to appreciate how those events transfered to the small screen.

clckworang

I haven't read any of the books, but I seem to recall from past Dexter threads that the first season stuck pretty close to the book but then started to go in its own direction after that.

wmansir

That's about right, except for 2 points: Plot wise the split actually happens in the first season finale, which has a different ending from the book. Also, to me, the character of Dexter was never really faithful to the book, they made him less cold hearted, for the better IMO.