Adaptation is never an easy thing to pull off, and many are criticised for diverging too far from their source text, but films or shows based on books should be very careful, because being too loyal often leads them astray. It's great for the fans of the book because they will no doubt love seeing one of their favourite books being played out to such extravagant lengths, but fidelity doesn't make a good show. There's no doubt that Game Of Thrones plays up to its source text. Full of irrelevant action and needless blustering, the show uses the books as a crutch, a way to keep those fans on board and masking the multitude of deficiencies. It indulges in events and characters that don't serve much purpose to the actual story, and whilst that might be fun for the fans, for the uninitiated, it can get very boring, very quickly. A television show is a completely different storytelling device to literature: the pacing is different, the dialogue is different and the action is different. It's easier to get under the skin of a character in a book than in a film so it's easier to justify such a sprawling timeline of stories, but in a show, you need more time to develop characters. However, for a fan, they no doubt just want to see as much of the book realised as possible, regardless of whether it makes it a good show in its own right.
