They have some interesting looking stuff coming next year. Although I'm still a bit bummed they pulled the plug on American Gods. Don't expect much from Starz.

I'm not a Starz Original Programming fan. I just haven't been able to get into their shows. Marco Polo could be interesting but I have a feeling the visuals will be great but the acting and writing average.

As “Game of Thrones” pushes forward into its fifth season, fans can expect even more deviations between the HBO series and the “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels — including a very big change in the Jaime Lannister storyline.

In “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance with Dragons,” the fourth and fifth books in the series, and a loose template of sorts for the fifth season of “Thrones,” Jaime is tasked with managing his royal family’s soldiers out in the Riverlands of Westeros. But a new video from the “Thrones” set makes it clear that Jaime’s story is in for a big change.

Watch the video for yourself, but be warned: spoilers are ahead.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fQMfGf0bNyg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The video (via Vanity Fair) shows Jaime palling around with Prince Doran Martell of Dorne, a character he very much does not interact with in the books. Indeed, as far as we’ve read, Jaime never winds up in Dorne at all. What he’s doing there on the show — with not just Doran, but also Ellaria Sand, the grieving paramour of the late Red Viper — is anybody’s guess, but it’s another sign that “Thrones” is doing its own thing, and not waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish those books up.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1968451/game...newszergnetext

There's been behind-the-scenes shots of Jamie in dorne online for weeks if not months. Maybe nobody posted them here.

He never goes there but hey who cares. Oakheart was useless over there anyway.

Just because Jamie is there doesn't mean they have jumped the track. If you saw a picture of The Hound and Brienne fighting before the start of last season you probably would have said the same thing.

The hound and brienne pretty much ended up where they were suppose to be in the books. Not a lot of veering there.

I ended up buying the first installment of this here series. Thus far it's damn near an exact replica of the show, save some differences in the character's physical description and obviously books always expound a bit on non-essential information..

Does that change much throughout the series? Does the show diverge much from the book at any point? As much as I love the show, I'm not sure I want to spend the next few months of my life reading 4,000 pages of some shit I just watched.

It does diverge. I would say the main plot points remain the same and end up in the same place, but the journey to that place can be different in the books and usually makes a shitload more sense.

The show did most of its diverging in just the last few episodes, actually.

I don't know how far into the books you are, but one of the main things the show doesn't (or can't) do is get into the history and background of a lot of the issues and houses and such. It's not essential to understanding the story, but it really provides a lot of depth, and the story actually makes a lot more sense.

I'd definitely read it if I were you. I've already read them all, and I'm in the middle of reading them again.

I would agree with this and I just finished reading them for the second time a couple of months ago. I skipped the first book the second time but I may go back and read it again. I also did where you read book 3 and book 4 at the same time alternating between certain chapters. It actually seems to make a lot more sense when I did that. It could also be that I was reading it for the second time that made it make a lot more sense. :)

OK, thanks for the info. I'm actually about 120 pages into the first book. Ned just left for King's Landing, Jon Snow for The Wall, and Catelyn suspects the Lannisters of pushing Bran off the tower.

This universe has such rich history; I can see where the book is able to squeeze in more information about it where the show couldn't. Robert Baratheon for instance. That dude was just a fat shit tub of lard in the show. He was in the book as well but they also explained that he was once a great warrior. Like 6'6" with the strength of a giant. Ned could barely even lift his battle axe. And when they talked about the three dragons that laid waste during the war all those years ago. Apparently, the largest one could swallow a mammoth whole.

That kind of shit is cool to me. I'll just keep reading and see how it goes.

I should enjoy the journey but I just can't wait to get caught up.

Where are the books in relation to the show anyway? I'm assuming the books are ahead of the show?

I think they are just getting to book 3 in the show but I can get confused on that sometimes.

They're actually into book 4/5 on the show (and maybe some 6 although it's not in print yet).