Game of Thrones Read Along: Valar Dohaeris

Everyone knows we’re big fans of HBO’s epic series Game of Thrones. One of the biggest distinctions in the show’s fandom is between those who have read George R. R. Martin’s series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire that the television series are based on … and those who have not. Many fans have read the books — some to the point of obsession — while others are staying as far away from them as they can.

There’s another group — one that I think probably has one of the best approaches — that are trying to read along with the series. Many of the actors have talked about how they only read as far as the season that they are in. Last year, CliqueClack ran a series of posts for the fans that were trying to read the books along with each individual episode. In the first season, that was a fairly easy task, as the show followed the first book, A Game of Thrones, surprisingly close. Last season, tracking A Clash of Kings was considerably more difficult. This season, as the show takes ostensibly takes on the first half or so of A Storm of Swords, it will get down right hard.

So, each week – as long as HBO sends us advance screeners (at least the first four episodes so far) – we will attempt to let you know exactly how far one would have to read to stay ahead of the series. My goal is to make these posts as spoiler free as possible, just sharing information on which chapter you’d have to read. Also, I’ll be leaning on Tower of the Hand, a great reference for fans of ASOIF and Game of Thrones – their spoiler filters are ingenious – as a touchstone for which chapter I’m referring to.

For the first episode, “Valar Dohaeris” one would need to have read through Chapter 24: Daenerys II. Except, not really … it might technically be Chapter 58: Daenerys V – and this is where I might be venturing into spoiler territory, so be warned about clicking into the next page for the reason why (though my explanation will include as few spoilers as I can possibly manage):