I swear. I've read up on what happens to some of my favourite characters thus far and it's like "
why would you do that, man?".
I'm almost finished reading A Clash Of Kings at the moment, this season will be ridiculously good. As far as I can tell though, GRRM hasn't jumped into the 'Ice' part of the series just yet - but I suppose that's what the next book is for.
People watching the show are going to be wondering where the heck the White Walkers are and what ever happened to Benjen Stark for a long while. But then again, the show is different and GRRM has apparently outlined the ending to the producers so maybe they'll bring these things in earlier.
Also, this: