Well I have read the first three books and want to read the fourth. Has he continued the same tone that he established in the first three books with it being all dark and there not being any real "happy" endings?

 

Well, I've read the first, and I'm currently on chapter 25 of A Clash of Kings, so no spoilers please.

So far, I'm liking ACOK less than AGOT. After the ending of AGOT, one would expect the pace to speed up a bit, but if anything it slows down to even slower than the first book. Too much posturing, not enough action. As for the "no happy endings" rule, it's refreshing, but at the same time, annoying. I understand that he's trying to make it seem realisitc, but in actual fact the way the story goes against our main characters is so negative that it's encroaching on breaking the realism. As much as Harry Potter is unrealistically optimistic, A Song of Ice and Fire and unrealistically pessimistic.

Also, I've found that the story spends too much time on charaters I find dull (Bran, Tyrion, Catelyn) and not enough time on those I like (Arya, Jon, Daenerys - particularly Daenerys).

 

Firstly, It's Song of Ice and Fire, not Fire and Ice. Martin is in no way related to Frost.

4th book's title is : A Feast for Crows. Ominous, is it not?

Taure, he's pessamistic because the situation of the 'good guys' is so horribly skewed. It's happened in History. What makes it 'unrealistic', per say?

 

If one or two, or even most of the characters had their plans foiled and their schemes found out then I'd understand that.

But for such a diverse and seperate cast of characters to be presented, and not a single one of them to ever have a success is unrealistic.

Were we to be see things from the "bad guys" view, we'd be thinking how strange it is that they win every time.

 

Because they hold the Iron throne.

Because they hold the richest kingdoms.

Because they hold ...

Btw, You don't like The Imp? How could you!

 

For me to like a character, I either have to want to be them, or, in the case of a female character, wish I could do them.

The Imp fulfills neither requirement.

 

There are good and bad guys in this story?

I like these books, because there is no good and evil - just different characters out for themselves. Everytime I'm sad that the plan of this particular character was a failure, I'm happy for his antagonist.

 

This is why we said "good guys" and "bad guys" in inverted commas.

But I do think there are good guys and bad guys. Or at least, those who have more just causes. Eddard Stark, for instance, is a very honourable man, or at least he is as far as we know half way through ACOK. On the other hand, the Lannisters do not have a just cause.

 

So is this series worth a read, I had a teacher in High School who would swear by this series, and said it was one of the best fantasy books he read. Is he justified in saying this or is it just bleh?

 

It's well justified. I'm begining to enjoy this more than LoTR.

 

Absolutely love it as well. I was musing on how to cross this over with HP about a year ago. I think the thread's still in the Challenges section is you look for it.


And ASoIaF>>>>>>>>>>>LotR. Period.


EDIT:: Found it.

http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=1323

 

Thanks for the input guys though no one really said anything about the 4th book other than a reference to the title.

Well about the "good" and the "bad" guys, well, its interesting at first but it gets old on you as go on further and further cause you keep getting new characters who go one up on the old ones.Its like a fantasy soap opera in a way with everyone getting to go up and then come crashing down. Thats another thing that irks me. The sheer number of characters that are introduced. Also the lack of a central focus puts me off a bit. Though I am hopeful that it will change. Won't go more into it at risk of spoiling the contents of books people might not have read.

Anyways I think I'm gonna stop at the third book for the moment. Am right now exploring the Dresden files series which I think quite a few people are doing.

physwap

 

I've had the first book sitting around, but I never started it. Always distracted before I could read it. I think I'll give it a go, I've heard it was praised as the "best fantasy series" also.

 

I recently finished the first three and was very impressed, my favorite characters were Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen and the Imp.

I haven't got to the forth book because for some reason even though the book came out in 2005, when I went to my local Barnes and Nobel and used their store computer to look for it, it said they had the audio book but the paperback would not arrive till october 30th 2007.

 

The 4th book was disappointing in my opinion, without going into any great details it was slow, and really didn't pick up until the last hundred or so pages. The 4th and 5th book were supposed but to be one but they were split into two books, and Martin decided to do it a strange way in that he put half the characters in book 4 and will put half in book 5. For me this was a put off, and while I had not put down the first 3 books the 4th probably took me 2 or 3 weeks to read. My suggestion is to wait until it comes out on paperback since that isn't that far away.

As for the whole "good vs evil" thing I really feel that there isn't one in these books, it's more about the different aspects of human nature. You have the Lannisters who are cunning and greedy, the Starks who are noble and at times idiotically loyal, and many more houses that play parts in the books ranging from small to big. Just my take on it.

However I wonder how you could not like tyrion, aside from Jon he is probably my favorite character probably because he is the only comic relief you find in this book.

Hope this helped and if you want to talk about spoilers or anything that might ruin it pm me.

 

I've read the first three books several times. I haven't bothered with the fourth book yet because my favorite characters aren't even in it. I'll read the fourth and fifth at the same time like it was meant to be (they were originally supposed to be one book, but Martin split them). In fact, the fourth and fifth book are supposed to take place at approximately the same time.

It's fun to read about Tyrion, although Jon Snow seems like the main character of the series (along with Daenarys and the other Stark's anyway) and if I had any single favorite he'd be it... Speaking of Jon, everybody has guessed the vaguely hinted secret about him right? I don't want to give anything away. I mean, it seems like most people here have read the first book where most of the clues were given but I won't say it outright if nobody wants me to. Ahh screw it, that's what spoiler tags are for. See below if you haven't already guessed and want to know.

Spoiler

Jon Snow probably isn't Edward Starks bastard son. He is almost certainly the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.

 

Seeing as the only other thread about the series is about the movies I'll just post this here: I just got an email from amazon in which they announced the delivery date as the 3.11.2011. I know that nearly a year but comming from amazon it might be legit.

 

U.S. Amazon still has the old April 2008 release date listed. I'd actually heard rumors that he was expecting to finish by New Years (as of October or so) and only had about 5 more chapters to work out. According to the publisher, they plan to announce the release date at the beginning of the year (could be any time in 2011, depending on the amount of revision needed and how big of a print run they do).

 

The other thread is both books and TV series, there was no need to bump this.

And frankly, I'll only believe it when I see it on bookshelves at this point.

 

Amazon has auto-updated a release date for the book many many times to the annoyance of both the author and the fans. GRRM had to come out and personally say not to trust those dates. The release date will be announced first and foremost by him on his blog.