5,000 pages read in roughly a month and I am DONE in my ways than one with "The Song of Ice and Fire" series. I've kind of had it with these books to be perfectly honest. I really enjoyed the first three in the series and then it took a very sharp nose dive. I believe I have previously expressed my frustration with the fact that for many, many, many pages nothing of note happens - the author is more long winded than my college Shakespeare professor who actually succeed in putting another professor to sleep one day during a particularly grueling lecture on Henry V. Well, George R. R. Martin manages to up his game in books 4 and 5. If you thought the first 3 books were frustrating, you aint seen nothing yet! I really wanted to throw book 5, "A Dance with Dragons" against the wall in hopes that a few thousand pages would just miraculously fall out. I read several reviews from fans to see if I was over reacting and much to my delight, I am not. But I kinda already knew that. The most common critiques of the books are that he is too long winded (duh!), that he fake kills too many people (agree) and that he has written so many characters that the story feels too fractured and we are losing much wanted chapters of the characters we love, mainly Arya, Jon and Daernys (YES!) These are the exact things that drove me nuts. The author has cast too many webs and now we are left with only broken,wispy threads to keep us interested. His formula that was intriguing in the first 3 books becomes redundant as the story progresses. Wait, I have to strike my last sentence because the story DOESN'T progress and ultimately the biggest flaw with this series. He spends far too much time keeping main characters on the road. In "Clash of Kings," it was Arya but it was ok because it was the first time Martin uses this device but then we see Brienne and then Tyrion respectively "on the road" in books 4 and 5. While the metaphorical journey is indeed important to any story, we don't need to get beaten over the head with it to understand. Its an insult to the reader frankly. And the fake killings!? Give me a break. I am not sure any character with the exception of maybe Robb Stark is actually dead and even with him, I kept thinking that he would reappear somehow with a wolf face terrorizing King's Landing. Listen Mr. Martin, I may not be a writer of you caliber but I do consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the genre so here is my golden nugget of advice: Stop ending every chapter with a cliff hanger!!! It's at best, a ploy to keep you reading and at its worst, an outright annoying way of writing. You are crying direwolf too many damn times.
Despite all of this, there are some things I did like and despite my husband insisting I read these books out of spite, I wouldn't have kept going if there wasn't some redeeming qualities. Even though it is a fantasy world, the characters are amazingly real and complex. Many of them go through drastic changes throughout the novels and yet the character development felt genuine because of everything each of them had witnessed or experienced. Jamie Lannister is a prime example: you can't really get your sword wielding hand cut off and still be a cocky, self assured bastard. His transformation is surprising yet very real. I also really enjoyed the twists and turns the story takes. I wouldn't never have imagined where Tyrion would end up in book 5. I won't say what happens with him because I don't want to be a spoiler but suffice is to say, its not what you would expect. And there are so many characters and so much history that you never actually get a handle on anything and in some weird way, I like that. My husband and I have already had some pretty detailed discussions about some theories we have on who certain people really are or what their background could be. Again, I won't divulge any of it here,but it is really fun to speculate and talk about. The question now is: will we be alive when books 6 and 7 finally come out? Martin has been known to take forever to publish - I mean the first book came out 20 years ago...will it be another 20 before the next one is out? And will I care? I guess we will have to wait and see.
Despite all of this, there are some things I did like and despite my husband insisting I read these books out of spite, I wouldn't have kept going if there wasn't some redeeming qualities. Even though it is a fantasy world, the characters are amazingly real and complex. Many of them go through drastic changes throughout the novels and yet the character development felt genuine because of everything each of them had witnessed or experienced. Jamie Lannister is a prime example: you can't really get your sword wielding hand cut off and still be a cocky, self assured bastard. His transformation is surprising yet very real. I also really enjoyed the twists and turns the story takes. I wouldn't never have imagined where Tyrion would end up in book 5. I won't say what happens with him because I don't want to be a spoiler but suffice is to say, its not what you would expect. And there are so many characters and so much history that you never actually get a handle on anything and in some weird way, I like that. My husband and I have already had some pretty detailed discussions about some theories we have on who certain people really are or what their background could be. Again, I won't divulge any of it here,but it is really fun to speculate and talk about. The question now is: will we be alive when books 6 and 7 finally come out? Martin has been known to take forever to publish - I mean the first book came out 20 years ago...will it be another 20 before the next one is out? And will I care? I guess we will have to wait and see.
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