It is stellar. I think a lot of people are just going in with such high expectations that it's impossible to live up to them. If you can avoid that and can get into this type of a story then I think you'll love them.

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Tanzania¹²

Audiobook? I don't think there's a book in existence that could keep my attention being read to me. I need to see the words.

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Tanzania¹²

Great books. Was never once bored. Never noticed any "bad writing". Amazing story.

Don't analyze. Enjoy.

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yeah ya gotta love the wife and good intentions ripping stuff from the library and she went to the trouble of burning all 20 or so discs

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http://personal-spectrum.com/

It sounds on par with a graphic novel; i.e. you can let yourself drift a bit when reading it? If that's the case, cool. Great for days like today; read while half paying attention to sports on TV.

I dunno. Maybe. For me it was a series I didn't want to put down and could lose myself in it. And I didn't want it to end. I tried to read other books in between so I could drag the series out as long as possible, but I just couldn't do it. I smashed through faster than any other 5 books I've read.

Also, anybody who thinks he's long winded or uses too many words is probably not much of a fantasy fan because as those go he's not even close to the worst offender I've run across.

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Tanzania¹²

Aight, I'm gonna download it. It'll start it on the nightstand rotation, if it drifts, it moves to coffee table land.

That's a sore point with me. Science fiction and fantasy are known for running longer than average because of the world building involved with the genres. There simply needs to be a bit extra to explain the fantastical worlds portrayed in those genres to allow the story to develop in the remaining allotment of words. Novels (very generally) run 70,000 to 90,000 words. Science fiction and fantasy typically run 80,000 to 120,000 words, and in some cases quite a bit longer. And while folks like Stephen King and GRRM himself tend to run toward the long-winded side of things, there's a limit on it. There's a boundary where long-winded becomes too damn long. And that's where the reader loses interest, no matter the accolades of the writer.

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World Champion Seattle Seahawks football. It's an addiction, and there is no cure.

So how does GoT compaire to the WoT. Please only those who have read both, reply.

Side story, I went through the first 4 books of the WoT in 4 days while living in Hong Kong, no joke. Loved the story and all, hence my long time screen name.

I have only ever watchd the TV show of GoT. That being said, if its as good, or better then I will for sure pick up the books.

Also I got bored with the WoT while reading Winters Heart, but I hear it gets better from there on.

I've read both. I read books 1-9 of WoT and needed something else to read while I waited for book 10 to come out. I read online that if you like WoT, you'll love ASOIAF...well, truer words were never spoken, as far as I am concerned.
A lot of Wheel of Time was boring and some of the writing was eye-rollingly bad, but there were some great concepts in there.
Ice and Fire is quite different. Much less fantastical, in that there are no wandering wizards shooting fireballs and the like. Magic exists, to an extent, but it is not overt. The vast majority of the populace lives their whole life without seeing or even believing in any sort of magic, beyond religion.
Anyway, I could go on for days about the Martin books, but I won't. I will simply say that if you like the show, I can't imagine you not liking the books far far more.

Ice & Fire is >>>>>>> than WoT. I honestly think Robert Jordan was a better writer than GRRM. His words were more poetic. He tended to be pretty long winded, but his words were just fun to read. But as far as content, storytelling, character building, Ice & Fire is by far the better tale. Everything else LargentFan said is pretty spot on.

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Tanzania¹²

Pe, it's a good read, don't take my complaint as dislike. The lack of moral compass in almost all the characters is interesting, it's just that the author's style is a cross between Quentin Tarantino and Charles Dickens.

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SEAHAWKS.NET. We All We Got, We All We Need

I have a cross of Tarintino and Dickens in my pants.

Can't say I've ever noticed that limit in anything from King except Lisey's Story and The Tommyknockers, but King freely admitted he was coked out of his gourd and drunk to boot while writing The Tommyknockers, so it's like, whatever. Martin, however, waited WAY too long before progressing with the first Game of Thrones book, IMO. I'm not trying to avoid blaming King, or anything; doesn't matter if a writer's all jacked up on something or not, if he puts out a steaming pile of something, it's a steaming pile regardless. I may have to give Game of Thrones a try again, but it remains the only book I've ever started that I didn't finish.

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Sam Bradford is a game changer.

*He can change a win into a loss.
*He can change a loss into a win by getting injured.
*RedAlice is right.

The one book you didn't finish is one of the best books I've ever read. Give it another chance.

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Tanzania¹²

Well shit. You keep popping holes in my ambitions to read GRRM. I've seen Robert Jordan criticized plenty for cardboard characters (especially his female charaters), and taking way, way to long at saying what he could have said far more succinctly. And I've heard the last book (written after his death) improved the series tremendously.

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World Champion Seattle Seahawks football. It's an addiction, and there is no cure.

???



There's reasons I stopped reading WoT after book 5 and there's reasons I'd use a cryogenic sleeper until the next Ice & Fire book if it wasn't for the Seahawks.

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Tanzania¹²

The reason is because you said Jordan was much better than GRRM, and I've heard Jordan's stuff criticized for exactly what I don't like in literature. Ergo, GRRM may be worse than what I already don't like.

I sound like a lit snob here, which isn't my intention at all. Just would rather find a story I can't put down, and haven't found that in a while.

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World Champion Seattle Seahawks football. It's an addiction, and there is no cure.

A song of ice and fire is my favorite series. I'm reading it right now for the second time, in the third book. I've not noticed those errors, but maybe its because english is not my first language (and I prefer reading it in english than in the spanish version).

I''ve never read a book in that POV style, and I found it very entertaining. Each main character has his/her personality well defined, and I've found myself caring for my favorite ones, like Tyrion, Davos, Dany and some others.

The first and second books are the "weakest" in the opinion of the majority of the fans, compared to the rest. The third one (A storm of swords) is the best one.

And is precisely the twists in the story that keep me hooked, there's a lot of "what the hell" moments that I love. And in this second time I find telling myself "Oohhhh that's why that happened ..."


My favorite fiction saga used to be Dune... sorry Frank, now your saga is a close second.

I didn't say much better, just better. I think he was better with words, in the poetic sense. But he was very long winded and GRRM is not. GRRM built better characters & told a far more believable, gripping story.

I think this series has been talked up so much that, like a lot of people, you're looking for reasons to not like it, and if you go into it with that mindset then you're probably going to find reasons not to like it. If you can put all the expectations aside I'd be willing to bet you'll enjoy it quite a bit.

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Tanzania¹²