George RR Martin

[turbolung]

In another controversial thread, many of you suggested reading for me. I appreciate this very much. I took the list you all gave me to some second hand book stores and stumbles across the entire series of A Song of Ice and Fire. And even better, for some reason, they were all new! I couldn't help it and bought them all at less than half price.

What should I expect? Any good? Bad? Writing style? Strong/weak story? Is it with elves and dwarves, or, his own peoples?

Thanks,

TL

[imaster]

I´m re-reading A Game of Thrones again right now and enjoying it thoroughly.

Lots and lots of characters, semi-fast paced story but way more relaxed than Erikson - bringing that up since that was the latest discussion.
The characters are well thought through and evolves through their actions and actions against them. A series focused on people more than worlds.

I am sure you´ll enjoy GRRM much more than Erikson in any case, even though the two are my favourites. Let´s just hope we´ll see an end to the series as well.

[Seegee]

There is a dwarf, but his dwarfism is caused by birthing complications, he's not the member of a magical race. Four books in and we haven't seen any elves as such yet, but you can never tell with those critters, they get everywhere. The books are light on magic, but heavy on political intrigue. Plenty of violence and he likes to shock his audience by doing the unexpected. Hope you like waiting for new volumes, too, because while Martin writes very well he's taken his time ever since the 3rd book.

[Daddy Darth]

Expect the best damned series out there.
Super strong writing with the most intriguing characters your bound to encounter.
I cant wait for the next one.
Enjoy.
DD

[Ray Ray]

Expect the best damned series out there.
Super strong writing with the most intriguing characters your bound to encounter.
I cant wait for the next one.
Enjoy.
DD

This sums it up, pretty much.

[jamieem]

Seegee has given you a very good reply here, the books have been discussed here at length already, in other threads.

My suggestion would be to read the first three books, and then wait until a Dance with Dragons is close to release to read Feast for Crows, as it's timeline and story will run closely to book 5.

Like me though, youmay find that hard to do...

[Ras Gonzo]

I'm jealous, you get to experience ASOIAF for the 1st time! What a experience. There are so many jaw dropping moments I could hardly believe what I was reading.

And IMHO each book gets better with each volume, the lone exception would be "A Feast for Crows", which is my least favorite but still very good. "A Storm of Swords" is my favorite book of all time.

[Spears&Buckler]

I've been holding off on reading this until we draw a little closer to the television series' release. I want to start reading the first book maybe 2 weeks or so before it airs, so I can have some fun with "Hey, I just read that" moments and such. I am also one of the lucky ones who hasn't read it yet, but I have heard so many good things about it that it's getting hard to wait.

[KatG]

You should expect an extended, multi-stage story of politics and war that parallels and takes off from the British War of the Roses, but is not limited to that. It is set in an island country, Westeros, that experiences a long seasonal cycle, that was completely changed by a devastating war to depose a mad king, followed by a period of peace, and now faces a new battle for succession that takes place on more than one continent. There's witchcraft, dragons, lotus-eaters, wolves, outcast tribes, oh, and the Scotland-like area has zombies. Who like cold. And the country is entering into winter.

There may be stuff in there you don't like, but I will say that for me, Martin is brilliant at character point-of-view, very good at battle scenes, and stitches many metaphorical, thematic threads through the thing with some very distinctive scenes that should totally rock in the HBO t.v. series adaptation. (Pot of gold, baby.)

The forum has numerous threads on Martin and the series, which RobB will probably give you links to, if you ask him nicely.

[tdnewton]

Expect the best damned series out there.
Super strong writing with the most intriguing characters your bound to encounter.
I cant wait for the next one.
Enjoy.
DD

100% concur.

No elves or dwarves in the "high" fantasy sense, but there are a few dragons and they're done quite well. The tension & politics between the characters really make this series what it is for me (the best), but Martin went even a step further and kept it all very approachable. When I'm reading ASOIAF, I don't feel like it's so high-brow that it's over my head.

[Evil Agent]

Expect gritty medieval realism, including some brutal violence and some graphic sexuality.

Expect plots, betrayals, revenge, murder, assassination, kings, knights, bastards, and dragons.

Expect fantastic dialogue, and gripping cliffhangers. Expect grey characters with both good and bad traits.

Expect a damn good read!

[Namel]

Except very slow story with way too many characters. Whenever you manage to start liking some character expect plot including him/her to stop and expect to read few hundred pages of dozen other characters. Expect plot to progress extremely slow. Plot elements hinted in book 1 had barely got started in book 3 or 4 where I stopped reading the series.

And expect author to die before series is finished.

[KatG]

Expect gritty medieval realism, including some brutal violence and some graphic sexuality.

Expect plots, betrayals, revenge, murder, assassination, kings, knights, bastards, and dragons.

Expect fantastic dialogue, and gripping cliffhangers. Expect grey characters with both good and bad traits.

Expect a damn good read!

Expect very slow story with way too many characters. Whenever you manage to start liking some character expect plot including him/her to stop and expect to read few hundred pages of dozen other characters. Expect plot to progress extremely slow. Plot elements hinted in book 1 had barely got started in book 3 or 4 where I stopped reading the series.

I love people.

[Werthead]

Expect awesome.

Except very slow story with way too many characters. Whenever you manage to start liking some character expect plot including him/her to stop and expect to read few hundred pages of dozen other characters. Expect plot to progress extremely slow. Plot elements hinted in book 1 had barely got started in book 3 or 4 where I stopped reading the series.

And expect author to die before series is finished.

Expect a lot of trolls to come out with factually questionable statements when discussing the books. Seriously, I'm surprised it took this long.

[Evil Agent]

I love people.

This is a simple case of me being right, and Namel being wrong.