Bad books? I DON'T THINK SO!!!
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Thoroughly, totally, utterly brillient. The entire set are.
This is all.
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Sublime
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What a truly brilliant read. Martin's world is perhaps not as large as those you'll find in other series, but it's depth and detail makes this more epic than any other. I believe this is the book 'true fantasy fans' want to read. Don't expect hollywood here, suggestion and understatement rules. Mature, cruel and unforgiving, like life itself you are rarely granted justice for the characters you love, but when you do, you remember why you love this man's work, and why you read fantasy at all. Intriguing until the last page and beyond. Superb.
If you can level one criticism at A Song of Ice and Fire, it's the sheer number of characters, each with their own carefully constructed history and family tree that you simply cannot map in your head until you go back and read it again.
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"Epics" are for holidays
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I've picked this up three times now and put it down each time, having been unable to devote the necessary time I feel it needs to get into. Having been off work for a while I gave it the fourth and final chance...and just made it to the end. Someone else makes the point that as a "midpoint" book in a series there are new threads starting and old ones ending but this volume just doesn't seem to go anywhere and having just read and thoroughly enjoyed Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie (The New Wave anyone?) I feel that the days of the bloated "character" driven epic may be numbered as (relatively) short, action packed series may be the way ahead.
I am of the increasing opinion that the propensity of fantasy books to be trilogies at least, and often running into huge long series (Malazan books for instance) lets authors off the hook to a great extent as they can ramble on knowing that there is a loyal following out there who HAVE invested the time and effort to get right into these books. I've made the point elsewhere that War and Peace is somehow seen as an imposing piece of work yet it is about a tenth the size of the Wheel of Time series for example! Go figure.
Having said all that I WILL carry on with the rest of this series as even as I write I am curious as to what happens next, so that's an accolade for Mr Martin...but I'll wait for the holidays before taking up that challenge.
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The Perfect Sequel - More of the Same!
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This book is the brilliant continuation of A Game of Thrones. It was only a matter of hours after finishing the first book in Martin's epic series that I had to go out and purchase the second. If you haven't read any before, the series is a huge achievement and is definitely something to get involved in.
It follows the happenings in a kingdom not unlike Great Britain, set in a time not unlike the Tudor period. It is, for the most part, simply a historical novel set in a different world, but there are elements that make it a fantasy novel (you'll come to them later). It follows the children of Eddard Stark, the Warden of the North, and a number of other characters as the kingdom falls into chaos and the various major families struggle for supremacy.
Martin's writing is vivid, exciting and engaging. Unlike some other fantasy novels, he focusses not on combat but on intrigue, with the plots cleverly woven together through the mechanism which makes Martin's books amongst the best I've read - that the story is told from a large number of characters' different points of view, changing at the end of each chapter. This not only allows a real link to develop between the reader and each character, but also keeps the plot moving at a startling rate and making it a real page-turner - at the end of each chapter you just want to know what happens next in *that* story, not learn what was happening elsewhere.
In conclusion, George Martin is brilliant, and this book is a must read for anyone who has read the previous novel, and vital to read before you read the rest.
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slow motion
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The first book was enjoyable, with Martin taking time to present the pyschology of the different characters. However, I was quite disappointed by the second one. It started well, but then the tone of the book changed, the plots got even more twisted than the first one. I like the universe of Martin and the story line, but in reading this second book, I thought I was watching an american B TV series where the events and situations changed so radically and in such a way, that it does not make anymore sense.
It took me quite some time in the third book to get back on track and to enjoy the dynamism that was initiated in the first book.
Twisted and complicated plots ok, but when it is too exagerated, no thanks.
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