Thanks I apreciate it. I really thought season one of GoT was as close to the book as I would have believed possible. And given all the fantastic acting and great music, I thought it could be better.

But I think the show lost something. I agree that season seven was good, but I'm not sure why it was good. Something had slipped in the quality of the writing and it seemed to be like it was being papered over with increased spectacle, payoff of things that had been set up before, and goodwill from previous seasons. So I remember that my reaction in seeing season seven was something like "they helpd it together one more season, but this thing is going to burst at the seams."

Unfortunately, I think that the main issue for you is going to be that books four and five are even a bit more of a slog than the first three. They're good, they're just good in a different way. The go deeper with Jon and Danny and with some of the subplots, but it comes at the pace of the action slowing down a bit.

Many diehard fans consider those last two books the best in the series. I see where they are coming from, but I can't yet bring myself to go there