I agree. Love or hate his writing, I can’t think of too many people who complain that his writing is uneven from book to book.
Read the first and part of the second (the French publisher split each book into multiple, pocket sized ones) but quit upon learning that a) the serie wasn’t finished yet and b) Martin was taking his sweet time about it. I’ve been hurt that way before !
I’ll start over with pleasure once GRRM puts the pen down, though the series will probably get there and back much sooner 
Yes, it’s sad that a small minority here can’t or won’t read the books (which are much better than the show anyway) and due to that we have to have special rules for just this one TV show.
And that’s not counting the illegal downloads, which rest assure, is many. At least if my circles are anything to go by.
Better is subjective, may I remind you, and such is an irrelevant point. Why is it sad that some people would rather spend their time doing other things?
I finished book 5 last week. Suburban Plankton is nearly through with book 4. We are just starting to watch the TV show. First Netflix disc should arrive this week.
It’s not a small minority.
Few TV shows are based on existing book series, and of those that are, fewer still try to stick so closely to the source material (I’ve been led to believe that Dexter, for example, has veered pretty far from the books by now)
Get over it, for your own sake. You’re making an ass of yourself right now.
And I think it’s unique in that it’s based on a series of books that are still being written over the span of many years. That’s a definite complication.
DrDeth, you’ve made your unhappiness about our GoT policy for this season of the TV show exquisitely clear. Drop it. We’re not going to change policy in mid-season. We may or may not have a similar policy for next season, but your agitating, in numerous threads and in communications to staff, is not going to be a determining factor in that decision.
Kobal2, a gentle reminder that the “no insults” rule is pretty strictly enforced in Cafe Society. Consider your phrasing carefully when offering advice like this.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
I’m reading the books only after seeing the show. Thus, so far I’ve only read the first one.
I think that with the last book, the series has just gone off the rails. The other books were already way too self indulgent, but precisely when he should have been tightening up the story, he lets it get even more open; hundred of pages of the same crap over and over. Martin’s not a good enough writer to justify the patience he is demanding of his readers; this isn’t Tolstoy, it’s supposed to be an amusing little divergence before we get back to our adult lives. Martin has decided he wants to just hang out in Westeros forever.
Five books, three short stories, the graphic novel, and the sneak preview.
I really can’t wait to see how he’s going to pull this out in only two books.
Three and a half books, plus the short story The Hedge Knight from the Legends anthology.
For some reason, completely unrelated to this series, I just can’t manage to just sit and read a book to completion anymore, and it hit around the time I was reading book 4. I’ve made several gos at it, but just don’t manage.
I had a really hard time making it through book four. About halfway through, it just started to drag.
I read them all before the HBO series started, but ended up slushing through the last couple of books. I’m good at picking out the momentous and worthwhile bits…and there ARE many…and GREAT at skipping through uninteresting, uninformative or just bloody useless bits. And for that, I thank Stephen King. 
I dunno about jumping the shark, but certainly the later books weren’t quite as good as the first couple. Not uncommon, of course. Few authors can keep up quality over the life of a series*, and like you said, it needed editing. This is a major problem with really successful authors, they often get their books printed without any serious editing.
*Robert Jordan, for eg.
twickster; right, sorry.
I’ve read all the books, although it was a near thing. The plot inertia was getting so bad that I was having Wheel of Time flashbacks. I wish that GRRM would get back to writing like he did in the first 2 books. The series is supposed to end in 7 books, but at his glacial pace, I don’t see how that is even remotely possible.
I got to the Red Wedding in Storm of Swords and said Fuckit.
I’ll probably drop the TV series by that point also, if I haven’t before. I’m very behind, (watching the first season very slowly with my husband who hasn’t read any of the books at all.) He’s not really into bleak and depressing gritty fantasy either, so I really don’t know how long we’ll hold out.
I have a good friend who keeps insisting that I will enjoy series like SoIaF and Chronicles of TC, but every time I try, I realize a few books in that that I really really don’t. Actually, that’s a lie. I realize before I’m halfway through the first book that I really really don’t. However, he always insists that it gets better, and that I will totally like it, so I try just so I don’t feel like a bad friend… I’m going to have to stop trying to be so nice and just insist that I’m a total wimp and that unless he wants to cough up the cash to fill a scrip for antidepressants, he needs to stop suggesting gritty dark fantasy in the first place.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Life’s too short to read books you don’t have to, if you hate them. I give any book 50 pages. If the author hasn’t hooked me by then, I’ve learned from hard experience, she never will.
Name + Post = 
Heh, yup, put me in this category as well! 