This brilliant series starts with A Game of Thrones. What can I say about this series other then read it! It's well-regarded as the best fantasy series.Song of Ice and Fire Comments
Martin writes with flair, deftly weaving multiple storylines in a gritty, even brutal, world that consists entirely of grey characters instead of the classic black and white. It's a vast chess game spanning continents, and the pieces are lords, bastards, knights, wizards, ladies, and children. What really stands out in this series is Martin's penchant for axing the major characters. That's right. No character is safe from the author's noose. Despite the demise of major characters, the plot lines continue stronger than ever. Tired of protagonists walking through fire without a scratch, falling hundreds of feet without a bruise, and defeating superhuman creatures with the same amount of effort that one puts into scratching an arm? Then this series is your fix. The sheer unpredictability of the series renders a delectable experience. Dare you to predict the winners and losers? If you haven't read the series yet, read it! Chances are, you're going to be calling in sick the next day. It's that good.
Feel free to rate Song of Ice and Fire on the Community Book Review section of the site.
As an avid fantasy reader I found Martin's works to be quite predictable. When an author prides themselves on being gritty, it's pretty clear what's going to happen. A female is as good as already raped. a poor struggling family might as well start digging their graves now and save someone else the trouble.
Martin does indeed know how to write and write well, but the series doesn't do anything for me.
Its a great book, but beating out LotR? Come on. Tolkien defined the epic fantasy genre. Furthermore, Martin's storytelling is really fun, but his mastery of language is somewhat lacking. He uses strange anachronistic idioms, like the "scale of the dragon that burned you" that just seems forced. All in all, I like this list, I just think that its very clear that LotR and GoT should be switched.
It's amazing how many grammatical errors there are in these reviews.
There are some things that just turn me off of any book or author immediately. Heavy betrayal and evil killing and winning over and over again is probably the very first thing that will do it for me. I bought the first three books about 6 years ago and started reading the first one in hope that I would like it. I dropped it and never came back to it. It is gathering dust mainly because I never got around to disposing of them. To me this is one of the worst series that I have ever attempted to read. Yes the writing is pretty good and that might tell a bit about why I find it so vile.
Maybe it is because I am just too soft hearted to read about the conquests and brutal victories of evil people.
Firstly, let me just say: Great list and I will be making my future reading choices based around it to a large extent.
I have always been a fan of "fantasy" books - ever since I first read The Hobbit when I was a kid and have followed the genre fairly closely down the years.
Until a few years ago, I was drawn to the GRRM novels. I put them on my "to read" list and there they stayed until last year when I heard that HBO were to make a series based on the books. I desperately wanted to watch the series (it looked great in the trailers) but I didn't want it to spoil my enjoyment of the books so I decided to jump in and start on the books.
I wasn't disappointed. Game of Thrones was a fantastic read and I immediately went out and bought the second book (Clash of Kings) which I also enjoyed.
However, the third book (Storm of Swords) was probably my favourite. It was so fast-moving and action-packed that I think I finished it in record time (for me, at any rate).
But... then came Feast for Crows and I have to say that I found it a real chore to read.
In any book - even the greatest books - there are chapters which are tedious and you're glad to get them out of the way. With Feast for Crows, it was an entire 800 (or whatever) page book which I felt the same way about.
I have yet to read Dance with Dragons (although it is there on my bookshelf) but the reviews I have read suggest that it is more of the same and I regret to say that I cannot bring myself around to reading it just yet and this is kind of my point.
Reading should be fun, exciting and enjoyable. Especially when you're reading "fantasy" books. The whole point of the fantasy genre (to me) is to whisk me away from "real life" for a little while and put me in a world where amazing things happen.
When I finished Lord of the Rings, I almost wept because I knew that I had just turned the final page on an experience I would not likely have again.
With Feast for Crows, I turned the final page with a "thank goodness for that!".
And that just seems wrong to me.
I know many people enjoy the politics, the plotting, the scheming and the almost anal detail that GRRM puts into his books but, for me, there is so much of it that, to me, it doesn't fully deserve the #1 ranking so many people give it.
It's good. It's very, very good. But it's not always enjoyable. At times it is downright tedious and, to be frank, boring.
Each to their own, I suppose but, for me, it will never be #1 unless GRRM really pulls out something extra-ordinary in the remaining installments.
i completely agree i have a hard time even recomending the series. the last two books were just that bad
I also completely agree with you Andy… you’ve done a good job there of summing up my feelings about the series.
Seems there are generally two camps on here…
1) People who simply say “GRRM is rubbish” (10%). This is clearly idiotic as some of his writing is exceptional – these people are best ignored, or put to good use licking roads clean. Personally I feel that GRRM at his best only has one rival in fantasy for purely prose quality.
2) People who feel as you and I do (90%) – the disappointing slide from excellence in the first 3 books to tedious mediocrity. He truly did lose the plot. Irreversibly so.
Given this general consensus…. this site should take him off the top spot!
P.S. After this disappointment I went over to the Malazan series (No. 2 in list)… 10 complete books of consistently high quality fantasy… I was a happy man again.
P.P.S. Who do I feel is a rival for GRRM’s writing quality? …Stephen Donaldson. But he’s not an easy read (though for me worth it in the end…).
what's the purpose of readng this series again? To learn how a fascinating character died and how a villain contnued living? And yes, that's close to real world history. In fact, that's the norm of real world drama. Villains win and live longer because they are shrewd and honorable men die easily because coz theybare idiots. So where's the fantasy in grrm's stories? Can't find one. It's nothing but tales of failed heroes not worthy tobe remembered. WHO WANTS TO REMEMBER LOSERS ANYWAY?
I've finished the first two in the series and I have found them very enjoyable. I've read Tolkien as well and I find Martin to be much more enjoyable. That is just my opinion. I like the realism in the series and that no one is really safe. I have heard the 4th book doesn't measure up to the first three but a few friends have told me the 5th is an improvement.
The 5th book is an improvement on the 4th.....!? Well, agreed, but be warned: the SoIaF series is like this...
You go to an unknown cafe and are given 2 unexpectedly amazing courses, followed by a good dessert. However, before you can pay the bill & leave - you're asked to sample 2 more dishes: a steaming turd; followed by a another turd with custard on top.
Sure... the last plate is an improvement on the previous one. :-(
With all due respect to A song of fire and ice The lord of the rings is ten times better. That being said i LOVE these books
If you had asked me where this series ranked after the first three books I would agree that it deserved a spot on of the top 5 series of all time and arguably even #1. However, after Books 4 and 5 there is no way that I would even entertain that notion. Book 4 may one of the worst books I have ever read. When i reread the series before book 5 came out (because it took 6 years, which is a whole different issue) I had totally forgotten how bad book 4 was and it took me almost as long to read book 4 as it did the first 3 combined because it is the most uninteresting, meandering book about characters that I could care less about or about who I wanted to DIE. Book 5 was at least a little better but not by much, I was at least interested in the characters but their stories were still meandering with lots of pointless storytelling that did nothing but annoy me.
There is much to like about the Song of Ice and Fire series, but ultimately, when it is finished, I do not think I can give it a pass. I will admit I have not read the 5th installment, but I have read the other 4, and I know what happens in the 5th. Martin's style of writing is fine, his premise is terrific, and I don't have a problem with the grittiness of the books. The problem is this: in good literature, every scene should matter and further the plot/character development. But so much of what you read in this series is rendered completely IRRELEVANT later on when a plot twist occurs or a character is killed off.
Things that I want the story to loop back to, it never does; and this happens consistently throughout the series. One simple example: it would be nice if a couple members of the Stark family actually were reunited at some point in the series. But after they are all scattered in book 1, it has not happened even by the end of book 5.
I also predict that Martin will not resolve all the various sub plots that have sprung up throughout the series. I may be wrong; but this feels like a TV show more than a wholistic story; by that I mean it's the premise that has you hooked, with no specific ending in mind.
I may be wrong about that last point, but ultimately, who cares? The characters I grew to root for in the first book are barely in the series as it progresses; instead we meet new characters, who have their own issues, and may or may not be involved in the prior storylines that originally interested us. Yes, there are likely some themes that will be explored and resolved. But again, the Stark family was book 1. They became less important in books 2 and 3, and are barely existent in books 4 and 5.
I do enjoy the world that Martin has created, the limited use of magic and dragons, the political atmosphere, etc., but ultimately, after reading 3000+ pages, I feel like I've been had.
I agree that this series, based on the first three, maybe the fourth book, puts it toward the top of the list. However, after the recent releases, I feel this should absolutely fall from the top. This series cannot possible top even LOTR, people will not read this series as we have now in 20 years.
So yes we get it they have made a successful series on these books, but from there to go and claim Game Of Thrones as the best fantasy series in the world?
A couple of years back the very same books would be perhaps have managed to crawl in somewhere between tenth and twentieth place on this list. Seriously the last book has not yet been written so you don't know what the series will turn out to become like when finished, what if you don't like how it ends? You are a bit premature, further you can't read the books separately like you can in many other of the series on this list. Now I'm not a Tolkien fan but even I understand that Tolkien is in a different league to Game Of Thrones, the only thing the US can match against him is Fritz Leiber and he's not even on your list. Lastly a comment to what your claim that Fantasy has books written just as well as "Normal Literature" well you don't you don't have a Calvino of fantasy nor a Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Hrabal, Maupasant, Balzak or Hesse or Mann fantasy is pulp fiction to make comparison with literature where some books took 12 to 30 years to write is a discussion you will loose - better then to claim that Goethe's Faust is fantasy and Calvino's Baron In The Trees is fantasy that is something you can get away with the other way around is just silly.
Fantasy, as it is referred to in normal conversation, is the genre with the least literary pretentions of all book genres. So it is a bit silly to rank them, beacuse you aren't really ranking them in any sort of objective way. However, this list isn't meant to be an objetive list, it works best as a way for people to find some great books and the ranking is close to meaningless.
People new to books often start at fantasy these days. Game of Thrones has an amazing effect on this type of person, it immeditely grabs their intrigue with the scene of dire wolf puppies and becomes what is known as an 'effortless read'. It isn't only easy to read, but all round of extremely high quality.
People tend to automatically venerate writers after they die. But writing is always a product of it's time and the genre as a whole has progressed massively since tolkien. A song of ice and fire is arguably the best example of modern fantasy that modern readers enjoy most and the best middle ground for number 1 spot on this list compared to more esoteric stuff.
I understand what you are saying David though I disagree with you on the great evolution in fantasy literature, the genre suffers from a lack of new ideas it is a rather predictable repetition of elements laid down by Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. My very reason for mentioning Italo Calvino because - though he probably would turn in his grave for having his trilogy Our Ancestors called fantasy fiction, he represents a fresh approach that does not follow the predictable and he is one of the world's most renown authors, a man who; when used as an argument for quality of a genre will win you the argument - as for "pretentious literature" one should remember that culture is built on the shoulders of people who were pretentious, without them you wouldn't have had Shakespeare, Beethoven, Da Vinci, Picasso, the moon landing, or the internet and we would all still be living in the trees.
I think critiques of GRRM are a healthy thing. But a critique with typos and poor punctuation - to the point that you have to struggle to actually make any sense of it - is well beyond ridiculous!?
Made me almost cringe on your behalf.
P.S. david - well put & well written. 
so over rated, just a Lord of the Rings porno and snuff film.
I was blown away by the first book, but I am stalled in the middle of the most recent book, "a dance with dragons". I can't stand all the POV and he keeps introducing characters I don't care about and killing the ones you do care about. So, I think I'm done. The HBO series was AWESOME though. What got me to stop the book was when I picked up "The Way of Kings". Much more engaging. It takes dedication to make it through the song of ice and fire books and I have just lost it.
Most
Overrated
Series
Ever
best description of this series ever, so boring dry and political.
Everything about this series is awesome except for the number of POVs. Just too many. I particularly hated reading Davos', Reek, Asha, Victorian, Samwell's and Quinten's POVs. The killings of characters is gritty too. (unlike what some think) only that Jon Snow shouldn't have been given so much importance if he was going to be killed. I am going to hate reading what happens at the Wall through someone elses POV. On another note, Martin has developed these characters superbly- Tyrion, Carsei, Joff, Arya, Jamie (i may have forgotten some) AND everything thats happening outside Westeros (especially Mereen) is very long drawn and annoyingly written. Dany is really senseless. I enjoyed reading this series (atleast 90% percent of the time) Valar morghulis.
1. I doubt Jon is dead
2. Don't post spoilers
Everything about this series is awesome except for the number of POVs. Just too many. I particularly hated reading Davos', Reek, Asha, Victorian, Samwell's and Quinten's POVs. The killings of characters is gritty too. (unlike what some think) only that Jon Snow shouldn't have been given so much importance if he was going to be killed. I am going to hate reading what happens at the Wall through someone elses POV. On another note, Martin has developed these characters superbly- Tyrion, Carsei, Joff, Arya, Jamie (i may have forgotten some) AND everything thats happening outside Westeros (especially Mereen) is very long drawn and annoyingly written. Dany is really senseless. I enjoyed reading this series (atleast 90% percent of the time) Valar morghulis.