Yet in other places they added unnecessary sex scenes while relevant dialog from the book was happening.

Cleos' summary

Well, allegedly the showrunners got an outline of everyone's plotline. If the Rickon on Cannibal Island plotline doesn't go anywhere important(which is likely imo) they can just have him stick with Bran.

Or they can stash him with some rando "friendly family" to forget about him.

Cannibal Island??? Wha?

Is it confirmed that he did in fact lose it? The line I remember is something like, "he took three of my fingers, and that other thing...." Did I remember correctly?

Yep, Cleftjaw is taking on a lot of other characters' roles in much the same way that Osha seems to be.

And I agree that the WF story has been rushed and the show has suffered for it. The child-murder in particular has been badly botched.

Just finished the 5th book. Need a new book or series....anyone have any ideas?

lol, I'm pretty sure Team Joffrey stole that tournament idea from somewhere else on the internet because I've seen it before, I think even with those exact pairings.

The leading theory is just they send Bran and Hodor north with Coldhands and Rickon and Osha go north east to Skagos but given the way they are happy changing entire portions of story who knows how the show will work at this point.

I think however that Osha is going north of the wall again because of the way she knew of the three eyed crow which makes me wonder if even Coldhands will be in the show, he doesnt have a big part to play in Bran going north but he does have a pretty big part to play with Sam and Gilly getting south of the wall.

My personal theory is that they all go north of the wall without Coldhands who I reckon is a mostly irrelevant character anyway like the Night King (he isnt Benjen imo), Bran and Hodor gets dropped off with the Children and Three Eyed Crow then Rickon is escorted south by Osha and is stashed at Castle Black, then they just need to tweak slightly how Davos going to Whiteharbor works with Davos telling them they have Rickon safe and the story meshes pretty well. Meanwhile Sam and Gilly make it back more or less how it happened only they dont fall behind the main group and get seperated. Sam kills the Other White Walker along the way but only witnessed by Edd (or whoever it was in the book) and everything seemingly meshes back up with the book with no problem. We get to skip the entire magic door under the wall which was dumb and wouldnt work on TV and streamline the story.

The island of Skagos. Though we havent actually seen him there, just Davos sent there to retrieve him in either book 4 or 5, but with the Frey Pies it is logical to assume he is sitting safely in Whiteharbor right now. Or GRRM did what he always does and stashed him safely in the swamps at the neck like every other single thing he doesnt want to deal with but may need later.

I've read these damn books twice now, and I have absolutely no recollection of Rickon going to Skagos.

completely agree with this. the WF story was awesome in the book and just ok in the show

I looked it up, its in A Dance With Dragons:

So it doesnt mention Skagos by name but from the previous Davos chapter:

The two Davos chapters put together solidly indicate that is where he went.

Will be pretty disappointed if Rickon has been doing for 4 books.

if you want unpredictable characters dying kind of action go for farseer:
http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Appr.../dp/055357339X

if you want epic world go for wheel of time:
http://www.amazon.com/The-World-Whee.../dp/0812511816

if you want some modern fantasy try stormlight:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Kings-.../dp/0765326353

other good reads are feist - magican (tons of books), rothfuss - kingkiller chronicle

From someone who LOVES A Song of Ice and Fire, couldn't get through the first Wheel of Time book (I'm open to giving it another shot, though), and flat out did not like Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (way too much magic), I really, REALLY recommend Patrick Rothfuss' books (he's writing the third of his first three-book series).

What do you think their goal was with this that's been "botched".

I don't think the show is making any pretense that we're supposed to believe it's Bran and Rincon. That story isn't about the Stark kids as much as it's about Theon, and I think it did a good job of doing that.

I think it's the near impossibility that bran and rickon were actually the ones killed. The book did a much better job with it, despite what some of you think.

I don't think they screwed that up though- maybe they didn't tell the story you expected them to tell, but I think the story that's on screen is exactly what they wanted to do.

I think it's very intentional that we don't believe it's the kids. We're not supposed to be shocked that B&R are dead, we're supposed to be shocked that Theon would kill two innocent kids to make a point.

I think that's also why we didn't see a big fight at Winterfell, why Rodrick's death was different. Everything about the Winterfell storyline is all Theon.

I've spent too much time reading fantasy.

Lord of the Rings (The classic. Probably more slower moving than many modern ones.)
The Wheel of Time (I love this series and it's soon to be finished but it does drag in the middle portion of the 13 book series. Final volume out soon.)
The Stormlight Archive (Great start but only the first one of ten written so far)
The Kingkiller Chronicles (Two books out so far. Fantastic writing but not on the epic scale of many of the others so far.)
The Farseer (Decent rather than great, IMO. Many people like it a lot though)
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (A lot darker than other series. The second trilogy runs out of steam.)
Memory, Sorrow, Thorn (Loved these when I read them. Can't remember much but they may be a bit slow.)
Magician (A classic. Light fantasy. Many follow ups but the first few are the best.)
Mistborn (Decent. High on action and magic.)
Crown of Stars (Starts off well but begins to fade later in the series.)
Dark Tower (The first 3/4 books in this are great. Much better than most of King's work.)
Saga of Recluse. (Light Fantasy. Decent start, but the books got stale later on.)
Wayfarer Redemption (Light. Good start but I tired of them quickly.)
Dune (Not my cup of tea, I only read the first)
Black Magician/Age of the Five (Good reads. Nothing special.)
The Deed of Paksenarrion (Got stronger near the end of the trilogy.)
Sword of Swadows. (Well written but slow)
Book of Words. (Good)
Shannara (Bring the popcorn.)
Pern novels (Great if you love dragons. Alright otherwise.)

Who else is there? Goodkind--I hated them. Gemmell--decent heroic fiction. Most of his books are similar to each other. Eddings--Very light. I liked them when I was younger. Prachett--Comedy masterpieces but a different genre from what we are talking about. Dragonlance--Some of the originals by Hickman/Weis are surprisingly decent. Paolini--awful

I haven't read Erikson's Malazan books, just bought the first recently. Supposed to be a steep learning curve but hopefully I'll get into it.

I'm a big fan of Dragonlance from enjoying it as a kid, but I tried to re-read recently and I think "surprisingly decent" is pushing it.

I just remember there was tonnes of them and I always assumed they were crap, someone said that the Hickman and Weis originals were actually good and I remember finding them to be alright. It's been a while now.

What I enjoy has changed a lot over the years though. I loved Magician, read it as a late teen, but wouldn't risk re-reading. Fantasy as a genre has grown along with my tastes, so there's a good chance I'd find a lot to be critical with it now.

htf did Dune get in there

I just bought Name of the Wind based on recommendation & well-written Kindle preview.

The first three Dragonlance books were the least crappy- that's true- but beyond nostalgia (I own the Dragonlance board game!) I wouldn't really suggest them as a good follow up to GoT.

The Icewind Dale books aren't super horrible if you want schlocky fantasy fiction in that vein though.

You could like Witcher, I think 2 books have been translated to English so far.

I always liked Death Gate-series by Weis & Hickmann. These are something I enjoyed while I was younger, not sure how good I'd find them now:

Homeland (R.A. Salvatore) (I think the rest of the books in the series are quite bad, but I always really liked the first one)
Well of Darkness (Weis & Hickmann) (again, I only recommend you read the first book)
Dragonlance was ok, I especially recommend The Doom Brigade which tells about monstrous draconians trying to settle down and have life after war.
The Amulet of Samarkand was also quite good.

Also if you haven't read them yet, check out Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Just found this site http://bestfantasybooks.com. Seems to have some good lists. I especially enjoyed the worse fantasy books list where he has Goodkind/Brooks/Paolini and many other bestselling authors.

The guy recommends Fevre Dream by GRRM as the best vampire book so maybe that might be another option for a next book.