HBO is currently shooting a pilot based on George R.R. Martin’s popular fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. If the pilot proves successful then HBO will clear the way for a full-blown series, which would make millions of fans across the globe quite content.

James Poniewozik of Time Magazine has just started reading the series and he’s rigid with expectation:

From Time:

For starters, the sprawling plot—about the rivalry among noble (and ignoble) houses for a mythical kingdom—offers a gripping, intrigue-filled basic story that’s like Fantasy Rome (complete with abundant blood, sex and kinkiness). That’s probably what attracted the network in the first place. [Update: Also—perhaps thanks to the fact that Martin has worked as a TV writer—the story is broken down, and the plots interwoven, very much like those of a cable drama. For first-time readers of this blog, I mean that as a compliment.]

But great HBO series are about more than plot and skin; they’re about great themes, which Martin’s story has aplenty. In the tradition of HBO’s antiheroes and antiheroines—and unlike the protagonists of The Lord of the Rings—Martin’s characters, even the best among them, are flawed, ambivalent and deeply fallible. He constantly forces you to question whether the “honorable” resolution to a conflict is the best in the long run. The saga is littered with fallen heroes and shattered myths, as well as apparent villains and rogues who make surprising turns.