eh.. loved the first thee books. The fourth is underwhelming and fifth downright bad by comparison. GRRM has to be one of the most overrated authors of this century. besides (the first 3 books of) ASOIAF he hasn't really written anything worth reading.

The television series is so far off the rails it might as well just drop the "game of thrones" title and go with something original because I don't know what they're making, but it's not "a song of ice and fire". Which isn't to say it's BAD, it's not, at this point I appreciate the fact they're cutting the ridiculous amounts of filler that made up the entirety of the last two books, but at the same time I just don't see anything worthy of the hype that it gets. The story is disjointed and all over the place there is no way you could appreciate the show on anything but a superficial level without a pretty good grasp on the source material, which they tend to ignore in far too many instances. Cutting out important story arcs and characters to fulfill the financial burdens and contain it within 10 episodes / season. Which, while understandable, just does not work for ASOIAF. I realize that monetary draw backs are an inevitability with something so sprawling and diverse, but, given that fact it just begs the question, if you can't do a faithful adaptation, why bother?

That came off way more negative than I meant. I really do enjoy the show (moreso than the last two novels, anyway)... But I just find it lacking in so many areas. Perhaps if I was not coloured by the bias of having read the books these would be non-issues, but I am.

And if anyone is an entitled twat, it's GRRM himself. Seriously. That guy has the social graces of an autistic cat. yes, george, fuck the people who made your work world famous and built an IP portfolio that you could sell for dump trucks of money to HBO (and then bitch and moan that they will finish the series you started SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO before you do). Maybe if you weren't an obese tub of 65 year old lard people wouldn't be concerned that your excessively lazy work habits that might (and by "might" I mean probably) mean you'll die before you finish at the rate you're going.

Seriously. Fuck that fat lazy fuck. I'm a fan of (some of) his writing, but he is a terribly obnoxious person.

and before some half assed fanboy comes to tell me I'm wrong here are some fatcs to consider:

- George Martin has said that if he dies before finishing the books, he will NOT allow anyone else to finish the books for him (but at least the show will, no matter how much he bitches about it).
- George has GONE ON RECORD as saying he DOES NOT write AT ALL while travelling and will ONLY write at home when he has (and I quote) "a big chunk of time". Meaning he barely writes.
- His editors have only seen a few chapters of the next book (about 150 pages IIRC) in the three years since Dance was published (His editor, Anne Groell stated this in an interview).
- He started this series almost 2 decades ago. That's right. Two decades. Some people started reading this series in the fucking 90's. Tell me that's not indicative of poor work ethic.

this slob needs a reality check and a swift kick in his fat ass.