I Finished Reading The 5 Books of "A Song of Ice and Fire" -- No Spoilers

[Yavin4]

I read all 5 in two months. I won't give my final opinion of the series until the last two books are released. I will say that the first three books are the strongest of the series. Book 4, "A Feast for Crows" is the weakest, and Book 5, "A Dance with Dragons" is better than Book 4, it's not nearly as strong as the first three.

My biggest gripe with Book 4 is the pov chapters. In the first three, GRRM limited the pov chapters to key characters. In Book 4, he gave random characters pov chapters which demean their value. My fear is that GRRM is losing control of his narrative.

[Xyzse]

1. You're right

I tend to read things pretty quickly.

The first 3 books, each of them took maybe 2 days a piece to read. Basically, I finished the box set close to a week. A Feast of Crows took me about 3 days.

I bought the box set, so it was a quick read. I got my hands on Dance with Dragons, a while back. I started reading it, but I put it down a few times, and up to now, I haven't bothered picking it back up.

I've read quite a few books in between, but I just can't seem to feel inclined to picking it back up and reading it through.
I guess, when he started using different names on some of the POVs, it didn't quite interest me as much.

Also, the fact that I know it is probably going to take another 3-5 years for him to finish another book, and then another 5-7 years after that... I feel like, I don't know why I am reading this, when he would probably not finish it in his life time.

[jp11]

2. I've resigned myself to the idea that I may never know what the ultimate fate of these characters

will be. I've had similar experiences even if they didn't pan out just because in my youth I couldn't wait for the next book x years out and moved on.

Not long ago I read a book that was supposed to close up the threads of a story I was strongly attached to and it was a total load of crap. I dismissed that ending for the characters as an alternate universe and allow the characters to exist in my mind in a state of uncertainty detached from that lousy story they were thrust into.

When/if the following books are released I'll read them but there is no way I'm re-reading any of those books. I agree mostly with your assessment though I think I saw the first 2 books as being better and 3/4 weaker, 4 was the worst IMO, and I know my judgement was clouded with 5 (thinking it pretty good maybe as good as 1/2) since 4 was so bad.

My take was more that we wasn't putting forth the effort to properly edit his work or that no one was giving him any real criticism to help him write as well as he did in the first. Granted it was much easier to start out before all these threads let loose but I just saw his writing decline from books 1-4 before picking up again in 5.