A POLL of Ice and Fire

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FTB, George.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
A Storm of Swords 6
A Game of Thrones 3
A Clash of Kings 3
A Dream of Spring 3
The Winds of Winter 2
A Feast for Crows 0
A Dance with Dragons 0


Leeeyoncé (Leee), Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:52 (thirteen years ago)

Thrones vs Swords FITE

honorable mention to Kings

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:53 (thirteen years ago)

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

Leeeyoncé (Leee), Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:58 (thirteen years ago)

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.

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:02 (thirteen years ago)

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

Andrew Farrell, Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:03 (thirteen years ago)

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

Leeeyoncé (Leee), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:06 (thirteen years ago)

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).

adam, Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:14 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:32 (thirteen years ago)

Eddings, Erikson, Jordan, Goodkind, all terrible.

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:33 (thirteen years ago)

Tad Williams, almost but no.

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:34 (thirteen years ago)

(i suppose Erickson counts as post-grrm tho)

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:34 (thirteen years ago)

Erickson was fine for 5 books

also you skipped Glen Cook

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:41 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:42 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:43 (thirteen years ago)

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)

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:44 (thirteen years ago)

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

ciderpress, Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

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.

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:50 (thirteen years ago)

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...

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:52 (thirteen years ago)

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

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:54 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:56 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:57 (thirteen years ago)

I bet that would go over well

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:58 (thirteen years ago)

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?

adam, Thursday, 21 March 2013 16:58 (thirteen years ago)

Liveships is good

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

Darth Icky (DJP), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:01 (thirteen years ago)

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

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:02 (thirteen years ago)

xpost

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:02 (thirteen years ago)

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.

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:05 (thirteen years ago)

meant to write series fantasy

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:05 (thirteen years ago)

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.

i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:07 (thirteen years ago)

What do ppl itt think of The Steel Remains?

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:19 (thirteen years ago)

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.

Moodles, Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:32 (thirteen years ago)

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.

Jeff "Skink" Baxter (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:39 (thirteen years ago)

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

Aimless, Thursday, 21 March 2013 17:54 (thirteen years ago)

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

Step not on a loose unforgiving stone on a pyramid to paradise (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 March 2013 18:03 (thirteen years ago)

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

i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Thursday, 21 March 2013 18:17 (thirteen years ago)

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?

adam, Thursday, 21 March 2013 18:34 (thirteen years ago)

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

Leeeyoncé (Leee), Friday, 22 March 2013 01:04 (thirteen years ago)

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

Leeeyoncé (Leee), Friday, 22 March 2013 01:10 (thirteen years ago)

Obviously SoS.

I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:20 (thirteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

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 . . .'

mookieproof, Friday, 2 August 2024 00:31 (one year ago)

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

mookieproof, Friday, 2 August 2024 00:34 (one year ago)

I should reread these actually

laughter is the best weapon (DJP), Friday, 2 August 2024 13:37 (one year ago)

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

Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 2 August 2024 13:41 (one year ago)

voting for the winds of winter cause i still believe baby

the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Friday, 2 August 2024 14:03 (one year ago)

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

the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Friday, 2 August 2024 14:04 (one year ago)

Crazy that this scene hasn't aged at all

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

omar little, Friday, 2 August 2024 14:07 (one year ago)

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)

mookieproof, Saturday, 3 August 2024 05:29 (one year ago)

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

Élisabeth Vigée Lebron (Leee), Saturday, 3 August 2024 06:22 (one year ago)

one year passes...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 00:01 (four months ago)

winds of winter

harper valley paul thomas anderson (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 30 December 2025 00:16 (four months ago)

he released it, but only for me

harper valley paul thomas anderson (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 30 December 2025 00:17 (four months ago)

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

― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:03 AM (twelve years ago)

Truly.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 30 December 2025 00:55 (four months ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 00:01 (four months ago)

Big showing for A Dream of Spring!

whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Wednesday, 31 December 2025 02:51 (four months ago)

Did any of you learn any High Valyrian?

Eric Blore Is President (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 31 December 2025 03:00 (four months ago)

A Dream of Spring is the perfect title for a book that will never be written

jmm, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 03:03 (four months ago)

Maybe he'll freeze his brain for an AI research project to generate the final two books

octobeard, Wednesday, 31 December 2025 06:23 (four months ago)


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