TV · HBO

Game of Thrones: where to start reading

Adapts A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Say how far you watched, and pick the book up exactly there.

Fantasy

You watched through

After Season 1, in the books you are

at A Game of Thrones.

the whole book.

Adapts the first novel closely. The main change is aging up the younger characters. A few minor elements shift between books one and two.

Start reading at A Clash of Kings

Spoiler-safe, only what the show already showed you.

What the show changed here

ChangedThe younger characters are aged up about two years (Dany to about 16, Robb and Jon to about 17, Bran to 10) so the wedding-night scene passed censors.
CutJeyne Poole, Sansa's friend who follows her to King's Landing in the book, is dropped from the show.
InventedA scene is invented where Dany holds a heated dragon egg and Irri burns her hands, foreshadowing Dany's heat resistance.
ChangedNed executes Lady with a dagger to the throat. In the book he beheads her with his greatsword Ice.
ChangedThe Others are renamed White Walkers and made more ghoulish than the fey, ethereal beings the book describes.
InventedRos, a Winterfell prostitute with no book counterpart, is invented as a recurring point-of-view into court intrigue.

The full map

A Game of Thrones

A Clash of Kings

A Storm of Swords

A Feast for Crows + A Dance with Dragons

past the books

the showthe bookstap a season

The books, in order

1A Game of Thrones1996
2A Clash of Kings1999
3A Storm of Swords2000
4A Feast for Crows2005
5A Dance with Dragons2011

The show tracks the first three books closely (seasons 1 to 4), then loosely merges the parallel fourth and fifth books while diverging (season 5), and from season 6 onward runs ahead of the still-unpublished novels as original content.

Ratings

How is Game of Thrones so far?

Spoiler-safe ratings are coming. You will rate and read reviews only up to your place in the story, never a hint of what is ahead.

Coming soon