209 replies to this topic

[Qhorin Halfhand and Yoren]

We all love the books but even though they are great even this series can't be perfect.

Edited by Qhorin Halfhand and Yoren, 06 February 2012 - 07:06 PM.

[The King in the South]

If you compare GRRM to other famous/accomplished writers, you'd see that his structuring/overall wording is actually pretty weak. (Some of his sentences are just terrible if you think about it.) This is of course made up for with his humor, detail, plot, etc, however.

[PatrickStormborn]

"The sight of their arousal was arousing" and "fat pink mast" come to mind.

[Lykos]

That Book 6 & 7 are unpublished yet.

[Klye Condon]

Great topic OP.Can,t believe no-one every thought of it before.The first 3 books are as close to perfection.Everything ele in the ASOIAF world is still better than any other fantasy ever written. But I would have to say the (relatively) huge amount of detail given to the Ironborn politics given that they are the weakest major house by far.The meerenese politics are going the same way.Just sack the city and kill the slavers already.

SPOILERS



Small inconsistencies can be annoying as well.The Karstarks keep their impending betrayal from everyone but the inner circle because if every manjack of them knew the word would leak out.But every bolton and frey man-at-arm did know about the red wedding and they could go drinking with the men they were going to betray hours later and it never leaked!.If only one man out of thousands warned the tullys or starks out of loyalty/greed the red wedding could have been a total failure.It actually seems implausible in martins world that noone would betray the plotters.

Edited by Klye Condon, 06 February 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[Completely Headless Ned]

Didn't some of Rooses men die too?

Anyway, I think most of the sex scenes are pretty lol worthy.

[JKeats]

As of ADWD, too many side plots.

Irritating chapter names in volumes 4 and 5.  Come on GRRM, just go back to the old convention.

Too much niello, too many neeps.

Actually, all this is from the two most recent books.  The first three were just about flawless.

[Net-Viper X]

I agree with JKeats about the chapter names in the last two books, the old style was better. When you have a Persons Pov chapter and call it something else, it just seems like misleading the reader as to who he/she is reading about. A Pov knows who he or she is, the person reading the Pov should know as well, from the beginning.

The only other real problem I have is that at the rate the books are coming out, I may have to be reincarnated at least twice to be around long enough to finish the series, and I don't believe in reincarnation.

[master]

A lot of the cultures are pretty shallow. Especially outside westeros.

the characters are more colourful than realistic. The mountain that rides is pretty similar to the troll in the first harry potter. arya is a bit of a sociopath, etc.

[David C. Hunter]

The lack of Randyll Tarly...

[Chise]

Some parts do get pretty rambly for a while... Other parts just need better sentence structures, and less awkward sex descriptions

[estella]

There are small inconsistencies throughout the books that bother me. Renly's eye color comes to mind. Also, there are sooo many slow and boring parts within the awesomeness, especially in the later books *cough* Dany *cough*
And I agree about the chapter names..."Princess in the Tower," "Captain of the Guard," totally annoying.
GRRM comes across as trying too hard to write in the style of Tolkien. The writing is very faux-medieval at times.

Edited by fiertelannister, 06 February 2012 - 09:18 PM.

[estella]

Oops, double post

Edited by fiertelannister, 06 February 2012 - 09:18 PM.

[Completely Headless Ned]

I agree with the Chapter pov names.

[Seekrit Targaryen]

Martin's prose has become much more ponderous as the series has gone on, clouded with ren faire english, words that he found in a thesaurus ('leal' comes to mind), and certain phrases repeated ad nauseum. This became especially evident to me reading the three Dunk and Egg stories in the space of one day. In The Hedge Knight, Martin's prose was clear, concise, and engaging. By The Mystery Knight, the phrase "Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall" became almost painful to read.

[Apple Martini]

He could use a little editorial oversight to make sure that certain words and phrases don't go overused. Like, he won't use a word or phrase at all for hundreds of pages, then use it like 5-10 times in 100 pages. It can be jarring. He's also gotten bad about pacing. Chapters that would have covered days or weeks at a time in earlier books now cover, like, an afternoon.

[Chise]

Seekrit Targaryen, on 06 February 2012 - 09:42 PM, said:

the phrase "Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall" became almost painful to read.

We never thought "bear and maiden fair" would fall from "most overused" to "Least overused", eh?

[Faceless Cat]

The sex scenes. Too many detailed descriptions of private parts for my taste.

[Petyr Middlefinger Baelish]

Faceless Cat, on 07 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

The sex scenes. Too many detailed descriptions of private parts for my taste.

I find the sex scenes tame, but I've read American Psycho.

I will admit that reading "cannot tell who has the cock and who the cunt" twice in ADWD was groan inducing.

Edited by Petyr Middlefinger Baelish, 07 February 2012 - 10:16 AM.

[David Selig]

Jon Snow. The guy is a terrible cliche and his plot is full of obvious contrivances to make him the Chosen One.