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What was your favorite and least favorite book in the series?

nillingar

By nillingar,
in General (ASoIaF)

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jentario Council Member

jentario

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Favorite: ASOS

Least: AFFC

For obvious reasons. The books were polar opposites. In ASOS there was always something going on and (especially in the second half) there was no chapter I had to force myself to read. In AFFC, on the other hand, nothing happened. You read a couple of hundred pages of Brienne walking around and asking random people if they saw Sansa (and the obvious futility of her quest makes these scenes even more meandering), then you have the tens of Cersei chapters (don't get me wrong, I like the POV, but god the chapters were boring). The only well paced storylines in the book were Arya, Dorne and the Iron Islands and they got the fewest amount of chapters. Jaime is this book's exception, but his story only picked up mid way through the book. The first half of the book was just unnecessary, and it shouldn't be that way. That said, the second half was actually bearable since some stories were heading into more interesting places and the more boring chapters (Brienne and Cersei) consisted of more than just walking around and doing nothing.

Just for some perspective, I like ADWD. My only issue with the book is that the ending was cut out of it (which I'm sure is more annoying to people who waited 6 years).

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jentario Council Member

jentario

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Favorite: ASOS (almost tied with AFFC though)

Least: AGOT (I blame HBO)

Why blame HBO? Because you saw the show first and it spoiled the book's events? If so, I'll disagree and say that for me AGOT was fantastic even though I watched the show first.

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ambi76 Council Member

ambi76

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Jentarion I don't think it was the spoilers from the show that made it almost impossible for me to get into the first book. I'm a total spoiler-hound and spoiled the whole series for me before reading via wikis and still loved all the other books. Maybe having already visuals for the happenings interfered here (hence the tongue-in-cheek blaming of HBO), but also the writing is somewhat jarring for me in AGOT at first. It gets better in later chapters.

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zeppelincheetah Squire

zeppelincheetah

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Favorite: ASOS

Least: AFFC

I knew that would be the most common choice in this topic.

here's my ranking

ASOS (basically the praise for it has already been said. I have only read this once but I think very highly of it from what I remember - it's been almost a year since I read it)

ACOK (just now reading this for the second time, from what I remember it was very good all around)

ADWD (despite the Daenerys chapters, which were just dull as hell until the end, this book was great)

AGOT (just read it a second time, it's pretty boring at times and Ned's honor is annoying as hell the second read, though Dany's chapters are strong)

AFFC (like others have said there's too much filler. Brienne doesn't need so many chapters. GRRM could've included two total - the one where she encounters that pious man and the last one. So much filler!!! I just got to the point where I was really tired of Westeros.)

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ductastic Squire

ductastic

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Favorite: I seem to be in the minority with this but ADWD is my favorite book of the series. I don't think it's as slow-paced as some say it is. I loved Jon's arc, Bran's chapter with the COTF, Davos's vengenance speech and Wylla Manderly being utterly loyal to the Starks, of course also the Reek/Theon chapters. The writing in this book was just superb. ASOS is a close second.

Least Favorite: I cannot really decide between ACOK and AFFC. AFFC had it's great moments, it introduced us to the Martells but it also had some POV chapters (especially the Ironborn ones) I couldn't enjoy even on re-reads. For ACOK I don't really know why I consider it one of my least favorites. Probably because it comes after AGOT - the book that got me hooked - and comes before ASOS which I consider my second favorite book.

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Humbler_than_anyone Squire

Humbler_than_anyone

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I actually liked AFFC a lot but I can see why people who waited 5 or 6 years were disappointed having the plot not really brought forward and several favourite characters not in it.

My favourite is SoS (great Povs in general and a lot of Arya :wub: )

least favourite DwD (too many PoVs I didn't care so much, Slayer's Bay, and 2 Arya chapters -.-) That said: I still think it's a great book and I ignored my RL a whole week for it.

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Honest Bill Hedge Knight

Honest Bill

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I'm finding it really difficult to choose a favourite. BUt i'd probably have to go with ASOS. The second half was just incredibly compelling. Saying that i thought that ADWD was really good too.

Least favourite was definitely AFFC. I enjoyed it, but i think it could have been better. The Iron-born chapters are incredibly info-dumpy and just don't really go anywhere. Sam's chapters were quite boring. The ones i was most interested in didn't really get enough like the Dornish. Also, a few favourites were missing.

There were some good things about it though. I really enjoyed seeing Cersei screw everything up even though you could see it happening a mile off, and Sansa's chapters finally became more interesting by virtue of being close to Littlefinger.

I really liked the first two books, but they both went so overboard in terms of describing every little thing that they got a bit tiresome, even though the stories were very interesting.

For the next one, i'm hoping for more Arya, and more Dorne, and for Danerys to stop being so infuriating.

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hurga Sellsword

hurga

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Favourite: Feast for crows

I total love the slow pace of the story. Westeros never feels such alive as in what sometimes look like a collection of short stories

Least Favourite: Clash of kings

Not that I really dislike it, but all the other books have left stronger impressions on me.

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