A POLL of Ice and Fire

Thrones vs Swords FITE

honorable mention to Kings

Sounds like you're writing off the last two books.

I feel like he's written himself into a corner. There's practically no way to come to a satisfying, non-rushed resolution, particularly not at the rate that he's writing and where some of his plot threads currently lie.

I could be surprised, like I was with the first two of Sanderson's WOT books (I enjoyed the final book but it felt SUPER RUSHED, particularly with so many near-misses that suddenly piled into major characters biting it left and right) and I will likely be entertained, but I doubt he's ever going to get back to the level of the first three books.

*applause* at the optimism of the poll end-date.

I get what you're saying, and mainly agree that he's got too many balls in the air with only two books supposedly left, and the fundamental narrative changes he's taken. Still, GRRM isn't rushing, and neither should your vote! XP

the lol grimdarkness of these books gets more and more ridiculous as they go on just as the pacing and plotting gets less and less entertaining. GoT is worthwhile for how interesting it was at the time but i weep for what this series has done to doorstop fantasy (and what the success of the show will do).

like doorstop fantasy was in good shape before grrm? C'mon.

Eddings, Erikson, Jordan, Goodkind, all terrible.

Tad Williams, almost but no.

(i suppose Erickson counts as post-grrm tho)

Erickson was fine for 5 books

also you skipped Glen Cook

Glen Cook was good! That's why I didn't name him.

I found the first Erickson book intolerable. I tried twice with it.

okay but listing everyone who you don't like and saying "See? Terrible" is implicitly saying that that is all there was.

Also Erickson and Jordan weren't terrible (I make no defense for Eddings or Goodkind)

i tend to like the first book in fantasy series and this one is no exception - first books tend to have more of the thrill of discovery whereas after that it's just moving pieces around

xpost lol you are right about my rhetoric.

But IMO the only dece doorstop fantasy at the time were Cook (and does Cook count as doorstop? His books were all reasonably sized, only becoming ~tomes~ when collected) Sean Russell and mmmaybe Tad Williams. I know Jordan has real support here and is clearly a tremendous plotter but I just couldn't deal with his prose. Robin Hobb as I've said elsewhere has nothing to fear by comparison with grrm at all (I like her more than grrm), but her first was 1995. The rest was Brooks/Eddings/Mckiernan level dogmeat.

wrinkles added by grrm having been inspired to start asoiaf by his reading of Tad Williams... I mean clearly the idea of the highly readable doorstop was in the air...

I had a lot of time for Robin Hobb until the incredibly gross series she published about the forest mage who gained power through binge-eating

Yeah I'm putting that trilogy off for awhile and just following the whole Fitz-liveship-fool-rainwilds thread.

She's reading in Boston pretty soon, you should go and register your objection to fatmajik

I bet that would go over well

obviously post-terry-brooks there have been doorstops of highly varying quality and i'll admit i am partial to the robert jordan style of lighthearted big-magic fantasy. the grrm school of Fantasy's Not Just For Kids Anymore rapey torturey stuff is like... not the right kind of escapism for me. and now it's all like that except for branderson sanderson and well he kinda sucks.

i liked the royal assassin robin hobb stuff, which of her series are good past that?

Liveships is good

stay FAR AWAY from Forest Mage, it's off-putting and dumb

The Liveship Traders trilogy is amazing and is distantly connected to the assassin books. Read that next.

xpost

Fantasy's Not Just For Kids Anymore

See THIS part I hate and DNW. I just want series to be nominally original and have good prose and not force noisome stereotypes down my throat. I wish it did NOT have to come with the whole baggage of edginess.

Like, if grrm has a Dark Knight effect on the whole genre that's highly unfortunate.

meant to write series fantasy

good thread. i don't have much to contribute, but i am kind of interested in reading about contemporary fantasy. i think i will give these glenn cook books a shot if i see one around cheap. i really enjoyed the first three GRRM books, waited for ages for the fourth & enjoyed it as well, but now i have had a dance with dragons sitting in a pile and i keep putting it off. partially cuz i hate the experience of reading a large hardbound book. voting storm of swords.

What do ppl itt think of The Steel Remains?

Guess I'll have to withold my vote until those last two books are released. I'm fairly confident we'll see Winds of Winter some time in the next couple years. I'm less confident that Dream of Spring will ever materialize, I give it about a 50-50 chance. My worst fear is that he'll announce even more books after that instead of just wrapping things up.

If I were to choose between the 5 published books, I'd go with A Clash of Kings. The battle of Blackwater is definitely a high point in the series for me.

I think the first three books are all very solid. The 4th and 5th have plenty of good material, but should have been condensed into one much shorter book.

I'm amazed that some of the key plotlines have made such little progress so far. At this point, it's hard for me to judge the series as a whole. I like it very much, but if GRRM fails to deliver a stunning ending that successfully pulls together all the plot lines in an amazing manner, I'll pretty much hate him and these books forever.

I'm more psyched for Winds of Winter than I was for the last couple. I've been dying to see where he goes with that factor of the equation.

If Leeeee were an interior decorator, this poll would be the 'conversation piece' placed on the coffee table in the ilx living room.

Is there any particular reason that this poll is set to run for 12 years?

^^ because that is about the rate it will take the author to finish the last two books

What do ppl itt think of The Steel Remains?

haven't gotten to it yet--i liked his takeshi kovacs novels despite how over the top everything was. assumed steel remains was the same way. i also got a little joe abercrombie vibe off of it and i'm not super into that. worthwhile?

You know, Aimless, I have been considering a career change.

Also not too bothered by the derail, figure this thread will right itself in time for the close of the poll.

Obviously SoS.

lol it's now been:

13 years since the last book
19 years since the previous one
28 years since the first one

i wonder how many times he's been told 'you know, brandon sanderson could finish this off for you . . .'

god bless anyone who voted for the last two titles when this poll ends next year

I should reread these actually

Surely a record holder for the number of plot strands that never got resolved.

voting for the winds of winter cause i still believe baby

storm of swords is the real answer tho. almost too good, in retrospect, considering it will take at least 4 books and at least as many decades to resolve what happened in there

Crazy that this scene hasn't aged at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwa6xgIZCv8

read the first book when it came out

nothing since, didn't watch the series, all the names mean nothing to me

but i'll be ready (if i'm still alive)

Perhaps this is one scenario where using AI would be OK. (LOL at this thread I don't even remember making.)