Smeags said:
Completed the five books in 22 days. Excellent series (with the exception of A Feast for Crows, which read like some fan-fiction side story. I have no idea what George R.R. Martin was thinking when he was writing that book. Thankfully he was back on form with A Dance with Dragons.) and it looks like things are going to get into high gear with The Winds of Winter. Looking forward to it.
Some thoughts...
- I've read over 5,000 pages about the different factions playing their game of thrones. George, I love ya, but it's time to start moving towards the threat of the Others. When the first chapter of your entire series warns of the threat of these creatures, one would think they're quite important to the main story. So far they've only been seen twice (the Prologue in A Game of Thrones and Sam the Slayer's encounter in A Storm of Swords). But with the book being titled "The Winds of Winter", I have hope that they'll finally be a prominant part of the story.
- I'm a Stannis guy. Yeah, part of it has to do with that one Mafia game, but I honestly enjoy his character and his interactions with others. But I mostly like him because he's the ugly ducking of the series. No one likes him, including George (You give Aeron Greyjoy a POV chapter... but not Stannis? *clenches jaw*). The story is becoming more and more about Tyrion, Jon (who's about as dead as I am), and Daenerys. Stannis has always been on the fringes of the story's development, and that mysteriousness is endearing. Yeah, we all know he's going to bite the dust sooner or later... but until then, Stannis is my guy.
- He's a great author no doubt, but his style of writing makes it very difficult to be emotionally invested in these characters. I think he botched Eddard's death by making Arya the POV character during that sequence (it should have been his chapter imo). The Red Wedding was a great change of pace (and remains my favorite sequence in the series thus far), but other than that... people rise up, people fall, people die (unless you have a Red Priest with you), the world goes on. I got emotional only once... and that was when Lady was killed by Eddard way back in AGoT. George has the ability to shock the reader, that much is for certain, but I'd like to see some emotionality.
- The Stark sisters have become quite dull as of late. Hopefully their respective story arcs will return to main storyline soon. As of now, they're side stories at best.
- I just don't like Daenerys as a character. I don't know what it is about her... but she's the last person I want on the Iron Throne. Maybe it's my "root-for-the-underdog" perspective (since she's written as the obvious front-runner for the series thus far. Jon's not far behind and Tyrion is working himself up there. Everyone else is either cannon fodder or a Na'vi.*). Also, I just don't like the Targaryens. Despite being ruled by a mad-man, most everyone in the novels (including George himself) has been romanticising them as of late. I'd much rather see a Wolf or a Stag on the throne. But we know that's not gonna happen. At this point the throne is a good as hers.
- I still can't get over how average A Feast for Crows was.
- *Anyone else saw the resemblance? A group of people (Children of the Forest/Green-Seers) that connect with trees and transfer their consciousness when they die? Thought that was pretty funny.
Anyways. Looking forward to The Winds of Winter. Also, a shout out to Kantor for always bugging me to start the series. ^_~
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I'm interested in finding out more about the others as well. It almost seems like he is starting to throw out some robert jordan type of strategies as far as delaying the plot. Just get to it already 
I have always hated Sansa as a character, drives me nuts anytime I see female characters portrayed in such a weak manner. Arya, on the other hand, I have always enjoyed. I just have no idea how she is in any way relevant to the main story anymore...
I really like daenerys for the first few books. Her character went downhill when she started taking over the slave states. She is a terrible ruler... which I think is the point. She is supposed to make mistakes and be terrible as a ruler so that she can learn from it and actually develop into a competent person by the time she makes it to Westeros... I just don't understand why... I mean, she seemed to be pretty good leader when she initially took her outcasts into the wasteland... Her story strikes me as one of the worst delay tactics from Martin. It is obvious she is going to come back to the throne in Westeros, but Martin needs her to be doing something and it ended up ruining her character...
Feast of crows was just bad, IMO. For some reason Martin thought it would be better to expand half of the novel he had planned to write and add another book to the series... It just ended up with a bad result...
