One more thing... the author took ten years to complete the 5th book and the convoluted story is nowhere near done. Given how far along the HBO series is and how quickly they are moving through the books, the series will be over before the author completes the story in book form. I see this creating a massive problem, unless the author forgets writing the books because they take him so long, and concentrates his efforts to completing the story via the HBO series and then he goes back and spends another 20 years penning the novels... Unless he dies and leaves the book series unfinished and incomplete.
I half expect that. Like Robert Jordan before him, Martin doesn't appear to be in the best of health. Brandon Sanderson made a heroic effort to salvage Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and pulled it off to a degree, but it had already spiraled into way too many open plot lines and most of them had to be ended in a way that was unsatisfactory to the long-time reader. Authors who attempt such massive tales should really write them in a serial form, with each book a complete story that can stand on its own.
But I'm still amazed Game of Thrones got made for TV at all, and even more so that it has remained fairly true to the books thus far.
I sympathise, but in my view, this only adds to the excitement. One of the downsides of so many series is that deep down, you as a viewer KNOW that the lead characters are not in any real danger, otherwise how are they going to do the rest of the season? In Game of Thrones no-one has script immunity.