Truth is this season will most likely be the only solid season. I unlike some, do not believe this series of novels is very good. Game of Thrones, the 1st book is excellent, the other 3 are total crap. Nothing happens, really, nothing happens, most of the novels involve people traversing rivers and that is the exciting part. 3000 pages latter I was so infuriated in wasting a week on this series I swore I would not care one bit about the final 1000 pages.
People compare Martin to Tolkien and that is an insult to Tolkien. What Martin does in 4000 pages, Tolkien does in a 1000 and with more style, writing ability and story development. Martin just wastes paper and nothing is ever solved except for and thorough understanding that Martin has some deep emotional problems with his sister.
Martin finally gets around to answer questions posed in the 1st 100 pages of Game of Thrones, but after he has completely bored you to sleep with pages of descriptions about terrible food, banners and uncomfortable sex conversation and then these answers are just a throw in. Joffrey? really he was the master planner, Martin? Ok, if you say so. Martin has a tendency to talk and talk about lore, food, wine, etc. and then magically answer important questions in a page leaving the reader wondering.
If you haven't started the books, don't, save yourself some time. I am sure that the Hollywood Screenwriters will have to completely overhaul Storm of Swords and Feast of Crows so that average viewers wont fall asleep halfway through each.
If you want a good read, this series is NOT the answer. Its crap drama for drama's sake. Really there is nothing substantial after the first book that would ever make me recommend it to others unless I wanted to torture them. Read Brooks or Tolkien, they do this type of novel way better.
People who praise these novels are probably the same people who thought "Entourage" is a good show.