I think you should read them. As I said earlier, after the first book, the story increasingly abandons pretending to have any sort of central plot and degenerates into a bunch of vignettes taking place in the same world and with overlapping casts of tangentially related characters. While this is a little annoying if you’re invested in having a central story, it also means the fact that it may never finish doesn’t really bother me.
And its a cool series, better then any fantasy I’ve ever read. It portrays a medieval fantasy world as it would probably be if such a place was inhabited by real humans, life is nasty-brutish and short. The upper class treats the people they rule as almost inconsequential, there’s constant fighting and betrayal, main characters die or are maimed almost as easily as non-main characters. And events don’t begin and end in nice self-contained story lines, which again, makes the lack of driving plot more of a feature then a bug.
So while it may never end, personally that doesn’t really kill my enjoyment of the books. When we first meet the characters in the first book, they’re attempting to recover from the unresolved issues and dangers left over from the previous war. If Martin stops writing now, he’ll more or less leave his next generation of characters in the same place as we found their mothers and fathers at the beginning of the series, which seems like as close to an ending as The Song of Ice and Fire is likely to get even if the author does write a “final” book.
I feel the same way - I’ve already decided how the series ends. I really enjoyed these books and spent a lot of time acting out scenarios in my head, so really anything Martin can come up with at this point (and count me in as another that doesn’t think there will be anything published after DOD, if that even) is just going to be a disappointment to me.
The limited use of fantasy elements is one of my favorite aspects of this series.
On book three I skipped ahead to read all of Jaime and Brienne’s chapters, and then went back and read the rest of the book. I sort of wish he wouldn’t name the chapters after the characters and make it so easy for me to do this.
I guess I won’t be too upset if he never finishes the series, because I have so enjoyed the storytelling. I hope he gives Dances a nice, firm ending without a lot of cliffhangers, even if it leaves the plot dangling.
IIRC Martin planned to make the series a straight historical series without any fantasy elements and that might have made for a better series. Most of what I really like about the books: the political and military intrigue is historical. And a lot of the fantasy stuff hasn’t worked so far. For example Mellisandre is a really thin character: straight out of sword-and-sorcery cliche. In addition she seems overpowered rendering a lot of the plot seemingly irrelevant. Just about the only fantasy element that I enjoy are the dragons; and that too mostly for their potential.
I tend to agree that the series is worth it even if it doesn’t get completed especially if DOD brings some closure. I have a feeling that Martin knows he won’t finish the series so he may push more of the plot into the book. And Martin’s habit of killing off major characters means that major parts of the story like the Lannister-Stark struggle have already played out bringing a certain amount of closure.
Not only am I certain that Martin has isn’t going to finish I also have come to the conclusion that he has achieved the dreaded “Too big to edit” stage. This is where popular authors become so popular that their editor is just a rubber stamp. Consequently their books become bloated monstrosities with each successive one worse than the last. J. K. Rowling might be the most famous example of this but you can see it in a lot of very popular long running series. When the books start growing by a third without actually adding anything to the story then you know you’re in trouble.
I heartily recommend the books to any fantasy fan who hasn’t read them yet. They’re really, really good, and I’ve enjoyed each in turn (although some more than others). Quite unlike LOTR, but no less interesting and in many ways more realistic and grounded in actual history. I fervently hope Martin finishes the series, but have to admit I doubt it, more and more with each passing month. Doesn’t look like he has his heart in it and, as earlier noted, he seems to be enjoying himself more doing other stuff.
I almost wish Martin had some benign but insistent taskmaster in his life who would make sure he eats his Wheaties, gets his exercise, sleeps sufficiently, and keeps writing, dammit!
Thanks everyone. I’m definitely going to read these books. However, it seems someone doesn’t want me to - I went to the bookstore yesterday and forgot my damn wallet. I’ll try again today…
Martins biggest problem is that Steven Erikson came along and bashed out a book a year for nearly a decade, each of which bitch-slapped the best ASOIAF had to offer.
Is Erikson that good then? Seen his name mentioned a few times on here, keep meaning to check him out.
I’m surprised to see so many posters thinking that George will just sack it off out of disinterest- it would represent a fairly severe professional failure don’t you think? Maybe he’s a grand enough SF / fantasy writer not to give much of a damn, but to bail out on one of, if not the most critically and popularly acclaimed fantasy series of recent times would be strikingly lame. It’s a bit different from calling it a day on a relatively minor series that has not made much of a dent in the field.
It would be especially poor as it would put his skills as a writer in question - he’s stopping because he’s lost his grip, it’s stategically falling apart, he can’t pull it together, can’t handle such a wide canvas etc etc. Seems like a quality writer like GRRM wouldn’t want to put himself in that position.
Eh, I think it’s pretty par for the course for creative endeavors. Part of what makes an epic like SOIAF so amazing is the level of passion and attention to detail - in short, how much of himself Martin has poured into it. Without really being passionate anymore, I doubt anything he did out of professionalism would be up to the standard anyways.
Be careful what you wish for. It was feared Stephen King would never finish the DT series. He forced himself to do so, and many people did not like the result. (I was okay with it, but found the earlier books in the series to be superior to the later ones.)
But I too hope GRRM will get his act together and conclude the thing.
Failing that, I hope I like what Brandon Sanderson does to WoT.
I like Erickson’s books as I’m reading them, but when I’m done, they fade from my mind. The characters don’t stay with me and lord knows, it’s nigh impossible to keep track of the story line without taking notes. But he’s created a wonderful universe where I enjoy spending time.
And it’s not like he’s heading into the home stretch. The series is supposed to have two more books after A Dance with Dragons. Which raises the issue that if Martin is this uninspired by the series now, how will he be feeling about it in ten years?
I think it’s the opposite. Martin appears to feel that the best use of his creativity is working on new projects rather than going back pounding out sequels to a book he wrote thirteen years ago just because it would sell a lot of copies.
I also wonder how much Martin’s heart was ever in the project in the first place. Martin apparently regards Armageddon Rag as his best work but that book failed to find an audience. A Game of Thrones was something of a rebound work - a more commercial work Martin wrote to rebuild his career.
I think of George R. R. Martin as epic fantasy novels for people who can’t stand epic fantasy novels. And Erickson, in comparison, is George R. R. Martin for people who love epic fantasy novels. Personally I couldn’t finish the first one but I can’t stand epic fantasy.