I can't wait!

Winter is coming, fools.

Now I just have to figure out how I can get HBO out here in the sticks.

I know nothing of the books.
Perhaps I should start too.
But the comments about the huge amount of characters gives me the fear. Despite being a prodigious reader I have trouble separating characters with similar names, If there are 500+ I'm going to have confusion somewhere along the line...

Also, it's now being trailed on Sky. As being shown one day after being aired in America (VERY unusual here). Is it a fully British cast? Remember I'm going on trailers here, but all the accents I've heard so far are not even just British, but English. And not just English but Northern! That wo9uld be a reason to watch it all on its own... In the same way I loved True Blood for its setting and accents.

Yes, but should we watch this or the Borgias????

It's been a while since I read the description in the books, but aren't "White Walkers" supposed to be... white? Or at least light colored? Or maybe that thing was just another animated corpse. Or it could be the lighting.

In any case, I can't wait!

Or were the corpses the Walkers, and the actual creatures just called the Others? It's been a while.

edit:
The corpses are wights, and the Others are the same as the White Walkers.

this damn monitor I have at work is too dark to see anything in any detail.

Must. Get. Cable. (somehow)

The continent that the series takes place in - Westeros - is very much based on English history and lore, much like Middle Earth, and the basis for a lot of the plot is rooted deeply in the Wars of the Roses. The main characters through much of the first book (who remain important throughout the series) are the Stark family, who hail from the northern part of the continent... so it would make sense at least for THEM to have Northern accents, and they have been most heavily featured in the trailers. However, the cast is not all british - Peter Dinklage, who plays one of the many many main characters, actually went to - and graduated from - Bennington College, where I go.

that guy can suck it

Ta muchly, Ibram.
I might start with the series and move from there to the books. The basic plot structure might help me make sense of the names.

As long as none of them look like eachother of course.
As in having similar hair or being the same gender.... Hmmm. Maybe start with the books...?

ETA - point of interest - Bran is traditionally pronounced with a long a, as in farm, as opposed to a short a as in tan.
Of course I don't know the author's ethnicity, he might just have been using a made up name.