Are these really that bad or is just a meme?

They're so bad it's retarded, YA novels for people who barely have enough brain cells to no shit themselves.

Have you read the Zimiamvian trilogy? I read the opening couple pages of Mistresses of Mistresses like ten times before I could continue, I liked them that much.

I'm also just started reading Titus Groan – it' a lot funnier than I thought it would be.

Book 1 and 2 are great.

Book 3 and 4 are absolute boring garbage.

Book 5 is good.

Books 1-3 are good while still having a large scale
Books 4-5 have been pretty meh, largely because it's a lot of buildup for the next big fuck-you moment of the 2nd half
The biggest problem is GRRM losing focus of the first main cast and procrastinating a lot
Seriously, 2 years between the first 3 books is alright but 4 years between Swords and Feast and 5 years between Feast and Dance is fucking ridiculous

Not yet though I just recently found a copy.

I can definitely understand reading pages of Eddison's intense prose over and over again.

It's shit. The first three books are good. But that's 3000 god damn pages to work through to end up the insulting trash that is book four. Usually when a series has one bad book you can just jolt through it to get to the next good one. But this shit is another 1000 fucking pages. I hear the fifth one is just as bad, so another 1000 pages to get to maybe a decent book? Let alone the series might never finish

Basically, the series is work and you can spend your time reading something better.

I read book 1 and I felt not only that it was very interesting, but also well written, this coming from someone whose 3rd language is english

What are some fantasy books that have faeries and aren't garbage?

Haven't read any yet, but John C. Wright's fantasy stuff is apparently top notch and features fairies and elves and what not. This website might help you find what you're looking for though:

castaliahouse.com

they were good but the tv show is honestly probably more worth your time. you'll get the same out of either medium.

Fans of this shit don't really want a conclusion. How satisfying could it be. One of them gets the throne and the grass is always greener, whoopee fucking hoo.

They don't want a conclusion, they want endless escapism from their shitty lives.

Skip and read the original.

They're completely different, you insult Tolkien with this comparison.

It's like comparing The Godfather to CSI:Miami.

I loved them when I first read them, because it was refreshing to have some fantasy that seemed genuinely devoid of plot armor for the characters and that seemed to be driven primarily by character motivations rather than some epic, magic bullshit.

My enthusiasm has since been tempered somewhat by two mediocre books and an increasing gravitation towards those very things I mentioned above.

This exactly. What separated ASOIAF from the rest is basically gone now, and season 6 was the worst example of that of all. If that shit is actually what TWOW will be like too then this series is finished.

I really like the chapters of Jaime fucking around in the riverlands. The rest is mediocre

Thanks for quality post.

"ASOIAF does not have plot armor" is driven basically entirely around the end of ASOS. The Red Wedding and The Mountain vs. The Viper are the only really shocking moments narratively. Everything else is pretty standard.

Decoy protagonist – Ned

Rhaegar was the real protagonist.

I'd cut some slack on that one. The decoy protagonist doesn't usually last to the end of the book.

12yo you was a fucking faggot.

Eddison is fucking GOAT though

It was so hugely obvious though. Like talking from a plot-reader's perspective it was so fucking obvious.
>Hi guys, this is Ned
>Ned is a good guy

>John R. R. Tolkien
>George R. R. Martin
what did he mean by this?

Is George a master ruseman who hates himself, the world and his art, so he spitefully writes these ruse books to laugh and be disgusted at how people like them? So he put these two Rs in his name to subtly hint at how his work is a satanic blasphemous disfigurement of LoTR?

We got a contrarian here

Wow... So he strung out a gimmick for even longer than normal?

The only fantasy series worth reading or worthy of being posted outside of the containment thread.

He sucks, just read Tolkien

The fact that he's a good guy makes it obvious he's going to die? The good guy is usually the protagonist.

But it's not really the decoy protagonist gimmick anymore if the decoy lasts until the very end. This trope involves a switch of protagonists. For the protagonist to be a decoy then he has to get replaced. Ned didn't get replaced in the first book, or really ever, there was never another clear protagonist.

yeah it's good but I never see it mentioned here. So called genius's here probably can't handle GOTM

This is probably the worst fantasy series I ever tried to read. Ok, R.A. Salvatore's stuff is probably worse but Malazan comes pretty damn close. I regret ever wasting money on that shit.

Karsa Orlong.

Also, not an arguement

They're actually good. Remember, always take fantasy as the setting, not as the whole grand scheme of his novels. If you can read between the lines you'll see how Martin takes on Heinlein's philioshy.

Here, for clarification (contains all spoiler through season six from the series): youtube.com/watch?v=ek2O6bVAIQQ

it's bad.

>to a ridiculous degree for no discernible reason.
There's a little thing going around these days I hear, its called "money", it's pretty popular!

>The fact that he's a good guy makes it obvious he's going to die?
Yes.
>The good guy is usually the protagonist
And only a retard would expect that to apply to AGoT, which by this point had suitably demonstrated its edginess.

He's right though. It's the most soulless piece of crap there is. Fucking Dresden is better, because you can tell it's had SOME thought behind it, even if that thought is retarded beyond cognition.

How is it soulless? Its like over 10000 pages total author obviously put lots of effort into it, I felt for the character and some are very well written.

Also there is loads of foreshadowing in the books and the author makes you work it out for yourself, he doesn't spell out certain things for the audience.

E.G Toblakai's identity. the truth behind the teblor gods etc etc

This isn't literature but pop culture.

...

I mean, you're not wrong, but there is a lot of literature that can be considered part of pop culture.

Are you literally here from Reddit.

Because Malazan is the kind of paint-by-the-numbers soulless bullshit Reddit loves to lap up. "Oh the worldbuilding's so amazing!" Wow that's really fucking impressive.

>I hear the fifth one is just as bad
It's better than The Hungry Birds, but still not great.

The Vorrh (and its sequel, The Erstwhile) is fantastic. No faeries, but freaky angels that are pretty similar. The only problem is that it's a trilogy and so far only two books have been released.

50/50 all the complexity is in the background and you have to be autistic to puzzle it out. first 3 books defiantly have a theme of people pissing or shitting themselves. Things crumble because RR can't keep it all lined up in his head. most things mean nothing, for example the wall was starving but the bank rolled in to give them money, danny never made it to westeros but in book 6 some young prince lands there and is now a new major player

>Playing DnD
kek

If they were any good do you think that just anyone would be picking them up and reading them? Consider the average GoT fans and ask yourself whether you think their taste is that refined to be worth anything.

Zelazny is much better than Martin ever was and came first. Don't waste your time and just read The Chronicles Of Amber, instead, my man!

Baby's first political intrigue.
They're pretty painful to read, honestly. And this might just have been me, but there are parts where I feel like Martin was masturbating while writing. Magical realm kinda stuff, y'know?

They're okay, but every book could be about a quarter the size and still have as much content. I can see that he's doing something genuinely interesting with the character of Littlefinger but he hasn't persuaded me it's worth my time (i.e. to read any but the first book).

Just finished reading the first book. I say it has its moments. But occasionally Martin drops a line where it reminds you why fantasy is still gender fiction.

Pros:
* Multiple perspectives: It keeps the narrative agile and fast-paced. In most of the perspectices you get a sense of the character (Sansa admiring the knights, Eddard contemplating what his honor won him, Robb being scared shitless becoming Lord).
* Fantasy drowned in historical fiction: It's nice to see fantasy where "a wizard did it" is actually laughed at in-plot. At the same time, the fact that magical powers are creeping in makes it more interesting even. The sense of realism in the way wars are waged (some nitpicks aside) are a welcome read.
* Final Catelyn chapter (KING IN THE NORTH) gave me goosebumps.

Cons:
* Writing style: I'd wager that 75% of the text is in dialogue form. This is not bad in itself, but the dialogues aren't that different between different characters, so it becomes dull eventually. And when he tries to write for long, like Bran's dream sequences, I just skipped over because it wasn't great anyway. It basically reads like a script.
* Multiple perspectives: Chapters are too short to make this really count. So what starts as an interesting writing gimmick ends up more like an actual TV script than a book. Long events become uninteresting as you read them through five perspectives, and Martin expects you to jump at each one in full surprise (Sansa's chapter beginning: "They came for her on the third day..." Yeah, I know shit's going downhill. Move on, fatso).

Overall I'll keep reading the series but now I fear that the reasons I didn't like the latter TV seasons might be present in the books.

"Plot armor is coming"

PS: Sorry for any typo, writing on phono.

PS2: Reading Clash's Prologue, "She was red, and terrible, and red."
>jontron'sOhNo.mp3

read the first two books. they're not terrible, just really boring, imo. there are like two hundred pov characters and maybe only three of them are interesting.

They're not terrible, just not good enough to keep me interested in reading several thousand pages of it