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[el dogo]

A lot of glowing praise has been heaped on Martin's mega-epic, jaw-droppingly complex fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't know what to add to that praise, other than say it's extremely well-deserved. It starts with A Game of Thrones, and continues with A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. A fourth novel, A Feast for Crows, has been long delayed, but will supposedly be coming out later this year. I'm only two books into this series and I'm just stunned.

Martin has really looked hard at the fantasy genre, taken all the trademark elements that have always bugged me, and straightened them the hell out. He uses just enough medieval language and phrasing instead of slathering it all over the place. The novels are very long but never wordy or padded. He's created a society and culture that is very similar to medieval Europe, but not slavishly so, and just different enough to keep you completely interested. Magic is kept to a minimum, so when it does show up it packs a wallop. There's a gargantuan cast of characters, but all of them are drawn so vividly that you're never lost. The foreshadowing is appropriately creepy and never obvious or graceless. Characters are never simplistic, no one is straight up good or evil. And despite all of this, the pacing is terrific.

If a gun was held to my head, and I had to say something critical about A Clash of Kings, I'd say it suffers a bit from middle book syndrome. In some ways, the book is just getting things in place for the later books. But it might be the most enthralling bit of chess piece arrangement I've ever read.

[galactic_dev]

IMHO, this is the best fantasy book series ever written.

I think what helps it is that George R.R. Martin writes in many genres, and so is not too much of a fan of fantasy. These books have such great characters and such an interesting plot that it would work in any genre.

(El Dogo, you're going to LOVE Storm of Swords!)

[shaw]

Fevre Dream and Armageddon Rag are among my favorite novels ever, and Sandkings is one of my favorite short stories, and all are by George R.R. Martin. I think I'm going to check this series out.