The HBO TV series Game of Thrones, adapted from George RR Martin's novels A Song of Ice and Fire, is halfway through its fifth season. According to some book readers- who have nicknamed the fans of the TV series who haven't read the books 'the unsullied'-, the showrunners are pushing the limits of the adaptation by straying away from the novels, especially concerning one plotline centered on one of the main characters. After the sixth episode was broadcast last night on HBO in America, George RR Martin has been asked to comment. You can read his blog post on the matter below.

Interestingly enough, the books vs. TV series drama may have reached its peak as the screenwriters are running out of material since the next book in the series, The Winds of Winter, has not been published yet; by next season every TV viewer will be 'an unsullied.'

George RR Martin's blog (the post is spoiler-free)

Excerpt:

"I have a lot of fans asking me for comment.

Let me reiterate what I have said before.

How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.

There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)... but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.

Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements.

David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can.

And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can.

And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose... but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.

In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons."