I thought the boxed set wasn't released 'til next month, or is that just the Blu-ray?
Anyway, I've not seen any of the tv series, but I've recently discovered the books. I'm finding them kinda absorbing. I like the fact that, for all it's set in a fantasy world with dragons and magic, one hardly ever sees these things and the focus of the plot is on the people and the power games. I also like the variety of perspectives - it means that someone who is *clearly* the Bad Guy can tell his version of events, and lead you to realise that
everyone is a little bit black, but no-one is truly evil.
On the down-side, yes, it's a bit rapey. On the one hand, rape is and always has been prevalent in war, and whilst some of the rape scenes are a bit gratuitous, I didn't feel they came close to the levels of Wilbur Smith or Bernard Cornwall. On the other hand, notice how the Named Characters and "good" girls (and boys) don't get raped?
Sansa and Lollys both get separated from their protectors in the riot at King's Landing. Sansa, being a Main Character is found scared but unharmed. Lollys, being a tiresome bit-part, loses her virginity to "half-a-hundred men". And that's another thing: the detail the narration goes into. One character even goes so far as to say "go easy on her: she was raped by fifty men." Who counted? It's one thing for an omniscient narrator to say this, but for a character to know the details of something that no-one could possibly have known?
On the whole, I am finding them a diverting read. Some bits are a bit slow and tedious (like the whole of book 2), but generally the variety of narrators helps keep the pace up.