8 Things Game Of Thrones Did Better Than A Song Of Ice And Fire
5. White Walkers
In the early pages of A Song of Ice and Fire and the opening scene of Game of Thrones, the Others/White Walkers and their army of wights establish themselves as the true big bads. Since most Westerosi don't even believe in them, so a major subplot of the show dealt with rallying an army to take down the race of killing machines. Show Jon never forgets how real the threat is, nor do we.
However, the books don't give the Others as much attention. They rarely appear outside the books' prologues and epilogues, and only a handful of characters care about them at this point in the story.
Compare the books' treatment of the Massacre at Hardhome to the show's. In the show, Jon Snow leads a small crew of the Night's Watch to Hardhome to investigate. The White Walkers attack, slaughtering innocents by the thousands and horrifyingly raising them from the dead as wights at the end.
In the books, he reads about the massacre in a letter.
Which one of those would make you more afraid of the army of the dead?