What is your honest opinion of this series?

Boring and overrated. Babies first fantasy.

Good characters as far as genre fiction go, the world is kinda fucked in that Westeros is considered to be the size of South America and can be traversed in a month by horse back?
The writing is decent at setting up implications of future events such as plots and guess word to other theories, etc
Would be way better if the descriptions of food were toned down, GRRM wasn't such a lazy fuck and if AFFC and ADWD were better paced. I'm of the mind that they're setting up more plotpoints after the plotline killer that was the 3rd book but shit even Clash had more going on in it than Dance did

GRRM doesn't go into any depth about any tax policies so it's garbage

Its not even good literature but its pretty good modern popular Fantasy fiction for the first 2 books. GRRM does a good job early on hooking the reader....at book 3 he is writing more for Hollywood than for an audience of serious reading fans.

The plot holes bother me; weather is completely nonsensical, characters literally teleport around the world, the fucking wildfire and the dagger, the Dothraki, etc.

Holy shit you could go on and on.

The pinnacle of fantasy stories. Can't get any more complex and real characters out of this genre.

Not even memeing right now.

Martin creates an amazing world filled with strong, intelligent characters who weave awesome plot lines.

Seriously ASOIAF threads should b banned. Everyday we have like 14 of those

He actually does have some discussion about it. After Tyrion gets replaced as Master of Coin and Cersei is trying to replace him, they refuse to mint more gold or subsidize the crown's debts and discuss increasing tariffs on vassals.
I hate myself so feel free to do the same.

How about you fuck off to /pseud hipster book/ general and leave us to discuss these books?

How about you discuss them in the appropriate containment board?

Look up the definition of literature, then look at the title of this board, then go back to jerking off to Gravity's Rainbow

Hah, I wrote a throwaway paragraph on taxes.
Take that Tolkien!
I am the master now.

Not great, honestly. I vaguely remember enjoying the first two books. But, after that, R. R. Martin's obsession with detail sort of lost me. It probably works better as a show.

First three books are fine. Rest of them are "the more she drank, the more she shat" tier.

It's refreshing to have a sf/f writer who's not afraid to develop a character and then kill him. But he's been coasting on just that for too long

GRRM wants to go down as the greatest fantasy author of all time and because he tried so hard to do so he will be forgotten. Poetry

Intro to politics, war and buttsex for normies. Also bewbs.

This
>attention to detail
It's probably fap material for all the pussy that he hasn't seen. DFW was kind of the same way, except good writing binges was his porn.

>tfw phds in and a lifetime of studying literature and philology rendered completely moot
BTFO

This alone though is pretty admirable about George RR Martin. As much as I love to hate on his writing, he seems like a very good guy in person. If you are into nerdy fat guys, he's also aged pretty well.

I read the first three books it was my first time reading in years i figured id be a hardass if i read a 1000 page book so i did three times

It was an excruciating experience every chapter is so long where you here the worst shit i don't know how much food and clothing ive read about its too much the only reason your reading is for the plot which comes to you at the end of each chapter in the climax and consequent cliffhanger

its been a minute since and hence i've forgotten all of it and im better off for it

Also Cersei was able to afford the Alchemical Guild's wildfire only because they started taxing anyone who wanted access to King's Landing. Baleish's idea was to take advantage of those who were trying to escape the war-riddled countryside.

Do people who critique this book even read it?

>he seems like a very good guy in person
Well, when he isn't libelling people on his blog, guilt tripping people for events they had no control over, encouraging his gaggle to attack conservatives, or goes full limo liberal encouraging regressive politics with the explicit intent to stop poor people having a voice.

>shitposting
>critique

Wew lad, way to rebute that solid argument!
How will the haters ever recover?

pretty much this. He's trying to squeeze way too much into it, and it jumps around to the point of being incoherent. I think I'd have preferred each character's story told as a whole.

Plus the cliffhangers. He must have delved into a serious writers block by the time of fourth book. He just looses it.

It's honestly no worse than the majority of fantasy fiction, and is a lot better than a good amount of it. It's just a prime target because it got so popular due to the show.

>Babies first fantasy.

What fantasy is superior? genuinely curios

not that guy but try the gormenghast trilogy

Malazan. Doubt you could understand it though.

Actually I'm reading this at the moment. I've only read a couple of chapters but is the prose and dialogue as dull the entire way through? I'm struggling to see how it's considered better so far.

I got seven episodes in and dropped the TV series. Tiring, bland characters with no reason to care about them. Really not sure why this has such a fanatical following for the books or TV series.

I threw it down in disgust at the second book when I was thirteen and still devoured without discernment pulp trash.

I think most people are missing the point of success this series enjoys. It's not the story you're reading thats made it so big, its the discussion you have with fellow readers on theories. There's very few other book series that have provided this level of conversation piece in literature and pop culture. And being well written with developed characters is a huge plus.

Na, it's really because GRRM takes so long to write his books.

Superior in what sense?
Pretty much any fantasy series that isn't stuck in limbo is superior because it actually ended or looks like it is going to sometime soon.
GRRM will die before finishing his bloated piece of shiterature.

Is that the only criticism you can make? That's pretty fucking pathetic

The characters a are all cringe inducing

It is really good. Admittedly bloated, but few other books have so many memorable, well-developed characters.

>people shouldn't be allowed to like things, books should only be read to impress other people

>make two criticisms
>hurr durr can you only think of one criticism
Are you actually that dumb or are you baiting?
I'm not going to list every complaint I have with a series in every post I make about it.
I'm not autistic.

It's cos he's an idiot. I've read three books in, and the second and third are considered among the best. They might be the best in the series, but they're still not that good.

People like Malazan because it supposedly has a huge expansive story, but why does that matter when that story is not told well and has a lot of boring sections. I'm honestly tired of it and probably gonna drop it now.

asoiaf is pretty shit after book 3, but Malazan is no better. In fact the GRRM might be one of the better writers in fantasy, but that means little because I've discovered that most fantasy is absolute trash. The only god tier fantasy writer I know of is bakker

/thread

He's an alright writer, and managed to write a pretty good series with pretty good characters and an alright setting.

He lost all discipline after book 3 though. Books 4 and 5 should be one book of the same size as 3. And if you look at the preview chapters from the upcoming book, it's again mostly narrative bloat.

He desperately needs a dictatorial editor to deny him cheese puffs unless he's writing a useful chapter.

Its a series about forcing idealists to wake up to harsh reality and abandon their narcissism. I'm all for it.