George R. R. Martin is the king of fantasy!

This is one of the most addictive and most interesting books i've ever read. Eagerly waiting for the next book. I understand why people would be disappointed with the amount of time being taken for the next book to get published, but that is no reason to be a jerk. Find something else to read or just get a life. Mr. Martin has a life of his own and he is not a citizen of some dystopian dictatorship.

This is the first fantasy series that I've read since The Dark Tower (where the author, King, seriously lost the way as soon as he introduced "himself" as a character)

Anyhow, I thought that the Fire and Ice books were excellent. OK, i had serious fears during the last book (which i mistakenly thought WAS the LAST book) when it became apparent that my favourite characters such as Dany, Tyrion and Bran were completely missing and also Ayra and Jon were largely not featuring.

However on (delightedly) learning that there were another 3 books in the pipeline I relaxed and found that some of the new characters and settings were growing on me (eg. the whole Dorne saga is adding to the overall flavour).

As said in some previous comments, the liklielihood of ANY character befalling serious maiming/death remains high and this gives cause for concern in contemplating the futures of the 3 dragons whom one feels may be "sacrificed" at any point.

Only slight bugbear really is the propensity to kill off or seriously disable so many of the "good" characters, whilst giving insufficient build up to the demise of so many of the "bad" guys.....some seem to just slip away with no real revenge/comeuppance/vengeance element to their passing.

Still all in all a great series and looking forward very much to next book.

In the meantime, I have just (and i mean only just) started the "Wheel of Time" to help with the wait for Dances with Dragons. Hoping for good things.

I love these books. I first began them because I saw an article about them when A Feast For Crows came out. I have since spent the last five years in waiting for A Dance With Dragons to be published. Honestly, the series is fantastic, and I believe Martin has every intention of finishing it, but until he stops posting about football on his blog, and going to every tiny festival there is on this planet, i think he is being unfair to his readers who have waited for a long time for his next book to be published. This is definitely one of the top fantasy series out there, but until Martin demonstrates a little dedication to his fans as they have demonstrated time and time again their dedication to the series I cannot give him the respect I give other top fantasy authors. Whether or not you like the Wheel of Time, the fact that Robert Jordan wrote the notes he did to allow someone else to finish the series after he was diagnosed with a deadly disease demonstrates his dedication to his fans. I just wish Martin would show us some of that as well.

This is a very good series. The only reason that I don't call it the best is because I will find a better one eventually. THis a well pieced work of art that ranks ahead of the best. I love this book.
Also, I think someone already said this, and I mostly agree. The reason everyone keeps ripping on the fourth book is he dropped MOST of the interesting characters, except for Arya and Jamis. And anyway it wasn't thatt bad.

I read this series based on the huge amount of praise it has recieved, it was good, very good, but not the best. As I usually find with multiple PoV books there are a few characters that intrest me alot, and a few not to much. Thankfully even the worst character was interesting, the cliffhanger end (in some cases litterally cliff hanging!) to a chapter previously read is suddenly forgotten as the next character draws you in, you are then pleasantly reminded a few chapters later when you return to that character.

Anyways I would recommend leaving this one untill the series is finished, there is simply too much going on to have a gap year or two before another book comes out since I myself never re read books, if you do then this wont be a problem. personally I have five massive incomplete series in my head at the moment and have vowed never to start another incomplete series again.

Anyways yeah, great book, not worth the top spot, though everyone in the world it seems would disagree with me

A lot of people have said "first 3 were great, 4th was rubbish". The reason for this is that when Martin was writing the 4th book of the series, entitles "A Dance With Dragons", he discovered that the scope of what he was planning became just too enormous. As the book as planned was going to be about 2500 pages long, he decided to split it in two, with the first half called a Feast for Crows. Martin wanted each book to have a start, middle and proper ending, so, rather than just reaching a halfway point and stopping, he decided to divide it up by point of view (each chapter is written from the point of view of a single character). The point of views he chose geographically with action in a Feast For Crows centred in the south of Westeros and in Braavos. A Dance with Dragons (now the second part of the book as originally intended) will take place at and north of the wall, in the east with Dany and with Tyrion in Pentos. The two books will be largely contemporaneous in terms of the action, although ADWD will carry on past the timeline of AFFC. It's a shame that this has taken so long, as AFFC and ADWD should really be considered together. On it's own AFFC is a very disjointed book that doesn't seem to finish much and where the plot is very bitty and confused. My advice would be to wait until ADWD comes out and then reread AFFC first. I think that both books will seem better.

Sorry Jason, when I praised Noah it was for his honest opinion (whatever that may be I don't have issue with). I was originally voicing my own opinion that most of the reviews here seem to be praising the series a lot more than I though the series warranted. Indeed, after I made my comments, a few more people came out and voiced, what I thought, to be more honest opinions. People having their own opinions is great - even if I don't agree with them I just don't think that many of the opinions expressed here are purely the members thought - rather they may have been influenced by others. If you enjoy the series that's great. I didn't, neither did my friend or his brother. Someone else I know loved the series. Everyone is entitled to express an opinion and hopefully it will be their own opinion

You're obviously confused. You've read 5 & 1/2 of the 4 books released, you despise them, yet you praise Noah for saying the first 3 are "utterly amazing."

Quit torturing yourself and go to a site about something you like. Just accept the fact that people have different tastes in things and let it go. You'll be a lot happier.

Martin has crafted an incredible world, and very deftly handles the style pioneered by Jordan of multiple characters following multiple plotlines. This is no easy task.

The world is as dark as everyone says, but for me that's a strength that turned into a weakness. Quite frankly it became predictable. As every storyline develops, you can just think of the worst possible outcome, and that's what will happen with only one or two execptions. As he kills off all the decent characters, we're left with following more and more vile ones, and while he does an admirable job of making them human and real, I still can't in any way pull for a character that thew a child out of a tower window. The result is a story that's just so overwhelmingly nasty that it's difficult to stomach. But obviously a lot of people like that.

The world also barely qualifies as fantasy; it's really much more of a medieval political intrigue tale, although the fantasy elements pick up in the later books.

So for me, while this is definatly a good series and worth the read, it has serious flaws that keep it well out of my top five.

I thought the first two books were very good, but found the third one weaker and I gave up half-way through it.

Thank you Noah for having the balls to say the truth on this forum instead of following the rest of the labotomised sheep.

Ok, here is the truth of the series from as avid a fantasy fan as there is. The first three books in this series are utterly amazing. They are well edited, compact, and literally keep you up nights because you can't put them down. However, somewhere along the line all Martin's success got to his head. He no longer thought he had to edit or make a cohesive story. Accordingly, book four was utter crap. It's not that it wasn't as good as the first three books. No. It's that it completely sucked. We went from a small compact group of characters to a thousand characters we don't care about. From good writing to unedited writing. From an interesting story, to obnoxious drivel. If you plan to start the series, for your own peace of mind, read the first three and stop.

ok 4 1/2 books. Big deal. It's still a waste of time reading this series. Go read some Hobb/Abercrombie/Bujold instead. This series is only popular because it's popular. A freak of publishing.

this is the best fantasy book i have ever read! I on the third book and its amazing and unexpected.