I have not read the books, but a friend of mine (who is a writer) actually says that the show is better than the books since it cuts out a lot of fat, like POV characters that will die right after being introduced. He also said that the show changed or combined some characters to give them more weight.

I do not think that deviation from the original makes a story worse. Sometimes it actually improves it. I am not really seeing the deterioration some book fans are saying about the series.

I do have a lot of complaints that book fans do not really speak about, like why the hell is Oberyn using shaolin staff techniques using a spear, but I can look past those because of the great dialog and story.