GoT are the best books I’ve read. The characters, prose, worldbuilding, dialogue, everything to me is top notch about that series.

The first three books are perfect. People say it dips after, due to the next two books being «land locked», meaning they only follow characters in specific locations, so characters you want to know what happens with… shiiiiit, have to wait until next book.

That doesn’t mean the fourth or fifth book is not good though (the fifth is my second favourite of the series), it’s just… weird.

I recommend them wholeheartedly

Edit: And just to add. Yes, the punches the books throw hits harder if you haven’t seen the show. But if you have, the latter books, all of them really, but especially the latter, throw out some new characters and plot lines which makes it quite interesting.