Finally read through all the current books in A Song of Ice and Fire and I am very glad it is over for now.
While it is for the most part very well written with some of the most engaging characters I have read for a while I can’t help but feel the whole ordeal has been overly long and a bit... pointless thus far.
I will read the final books when they are released just to see what happens but I can’t help but feel the whole series could have done with a damn good editing.
/Salsa
While it is for the most part very well written with some of the most engaging characters I have read for a while I can’t help but feel the whole ordeal has been overly long and a bit... pointless thus far.
I will read the final books when they are released just to see what happens but I can’t help but feel the whole series could have done with a damn good editing.
/Salsa
1) Nothing happens.
The prologue sees the "Others" return to the north bringing with them a sense of impending doom while the Black Watch huddling behind their wall the last protectors of Westeros. The other main storyline in the first book goes on to chart the rise of Daenery’s Targaryen intent on crossing the narrow sea to reclaim her kingdom.
7 books later and the Black watch have gone to investigate the Others, had their arses handed to them, poked one with a bit of glass and run away with their tails between their legs to huddle behind their wall again. Daenery’s is still across the narrow sea having faffed around for what seems like 100 years instigating genocide in between steamy liaisons with half the people she meets whilst rearing 3 dragons in dire need of ASBO's. Not to mention that she has been trumped by the arrival of Aegon returned, Jon Connington (Who?), who appears out of nowhere with a claim to the throne and is actually in Westeros, thus rendering the whole Daenery’s sub plot rather pointless. I suspect that Martin will kill off this character pretty quickly but that’s beside the point.
We are right back where we started 7 books ago!
2) Random killing off of characters
Martin kills of characters so often in this book that the plot tool loses all meaning and in some cases seems totally ridiculous.
Take Rob Stark for example. A classic storyline of son coming into his own and avenging his father. His character is maturing nicely; he has a purpose, a huge army, a bunch or decent battles under his belt and a sworn enemy in Joffery. Then Martin seems to run out of steam. The story stagnates with Jon sitting around wondering what to do next while banging the **** out of his underage bride. Martins answer to this storyline? KILL ALL THE PEOPLES! Oh but don’t forget to bring back his zombie mother using some magic that is so out of place it may as well have been Aliens.
Not content with one random death Martin pulls the trick again in the same book! Joffery's is the classic "Nero" story whereby he comes into his own after taking the throne and turns on his crazy, incestuous mother. Yet just while he is shaping up to become a proper villain the plot again runs out of steam (presumably because his nemesis Robb Stark has died) and its the good old "off with his head" scenario. Although his end was fittingly gruesome it all seemed a little premature. To make matters worse Martin brings back the same damn character in Ramsay Bolton a few books later.
Another interesting and well written character is the Hound. A mysterious and dangerous individual who is struggling with his troubled past yet seemingly on, an admittedly winding, path to redemption. Martin however decides to kill off this character, in a pretty half assed way, because he needs his helmet to further another boring plot line.
3) Too much padding and poor pacing.
Martin frequently goes into fantastic depth and complexity and while I applaud the skill which goes into such writing, he evokes fantastic atmosphere with his descriptive writing, a lot of it is simply unnecessary. One of the worst offenders for this is his description of sex. There is a strong sexual overtone which runs throughout that is overly gratuitous at times. Do we really need to know every time Tyrion gets a boner or how wet Daenery’s gets while dreaming of Dario? This is high fantasy not soft-core porn.
Then chapter after chapter passes and nothing much happens. I admit at times I began to despair that Martin had gotten lost in his narrative and simply forgotten about certain characters. Jon for instance becomes a major player when he takes over the black watch but we hear nothing about him for an entire book because there is so much else going on. Tyrion kills his father and sets off to meet Daenery’s which is a potentially very interesting plot development but two massive books later and he still hasn't managed a trip which Jon Connington (Yes him again!) accomplished in 2 chapters. Poor Hodor has been carrying Bran on his back for 5 books and if you are wondering what happened to Rickon then don’t hold your breath!
The prologue sees the "Others" return to the north bringing with them a sense of impending doom while the Black Watch huddling behind their wall the last protectors of Westeros. The other main storyline in the first book goes on to chart the rise of Daenery’s Targaryen intent on crossing the narrow sea to reclaim her kingdom.
7 books later and the Black watch have gone to investigate the Others, had their arses handed to them, poked one with a bit of glass and run away with their tails between their legs to huddle behind their wall again. Daenery’s is still across the narrow sea having faffed around for what seems like 100 years instigating genocide in between steamy liaisons with half the people she meets whilst rearing 3 dragons in dire need of ASBO's. Not to mention that she has been trumped by the arrival of Aegon returned, Jon Connington (Who?), who appears out of nowhere with a claim to the throne and is actually in Westeros, thus rendering the whole Daenery’s sub plot rather pointless. I suspect that Martin will kill off this character pretty quickly but that’s beside the point.
We are right back where we started 7 books ago!
2) Random killing off of characters
Martin kills of characters so often in this book that the plot tool loses all meaning and in some cases seems totally ridiculous.
Take Rob Stark for example. A classic storyline of son coming into his own and avenging his father. His character is maturing nicely; he has a purpose, a huge army, a bunch or decent battles under his belt and a sworn enemy in Joffery. Then Martin seems to run out of steam. The story stagnates with Jon sitting around wondering what to do next while banging the **** out of his underage bride. Martins answer to this storyline? KILL ALL THE PEOPLES! Oh but don’t forget to bring back his zombie mother using some magic that is so out of place it may as well have been Aliens.
Not content with one random death Martin pulls the trick again in the same book! Joffery's is the classic "Nero" story whereby he comes into his own after taking the throne and turns on his crazy, incestuous mother. Yet just while he is shaping up to become a proper villain the plot again runs out of steam (presumably because his nemesis Robb Stark has died) and its the good old "off with his head" scenario. Although his end was fittingly gruesome it all seemed a little premature. To make matters worse Martin brings back the same damn character in Ramsay Bolton a few books later.
Another interesting and well written character is the Hound. A mysterious and dangerous individual who is struggling with his troubled past yet seemingly on, an admittedly winding, path to redemption. Martin however decides to kill off this character, in a pretty half assed way, because he needs his helmet to further another boring plot line.
3) Too much padding and poor pacing.
Martin frequently goes into fantastic depth and complexity and while I applaud the skill which goes into such writing, he evokes fantastic atmosphere with his descriptive writing, a lot of it is simply unnecessary. One of the worst offenders for this is his description of sex. There is a strong sexual overtone which runs throughout that is overly gratuitous at times. Do we really need to know every time Tyrion gets a boner or how wet Daenery’s gets while dreaming of Dario? This is high fantasy not soft-core porn.
Then chapter after chapter passes and nothing much happens. I admit at times I began to despair that Martin had gotten lost in his narrative and simply forgotten about certain characters. Jon for instance becomes a major player when he takes over the black watch but we hear nothing about him for an entire book because there is so much else going on. Tyrion kills his father and sets off to meet Daenery’s which is a potentially very interesting plot development but two massive books later and he still hasn't managed a trip which Jon Connington (Yes him again!) accomplished in 2 chapters. Poor Hodor has been carrying Bran on his back for 5 books and if you are wondering what happened to Rickon then don’t hold your breath!
