Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike F
At least Robert Jordan has a strong thread of a central plot running through his bloated epic.
Martin's love of yanking the carpet out had led to his plot becoming a muddled mess of blind alleys and neglected promises.
The series started about a battle to settle the Seven Kingdoms in time to fend off the White Walkers from the north and the Dragon Queen from the east. 5 massive tomes later, the war for the Seven Kingdoms in barely simmering, with Stannis, the only remaining original contender, no threat to anyone, the White Walkers are still bogey men, and Dany shows no signs of stirring to head overseas. The only real threat to progress the central plot is a character Martin essentially pulled out of nowhere, and which I'm betting is nothing more than another false start.
And nothing has replaced the original central thread beyond a whole bunch of individual set pieces that emerge, live for a bit, then vanish, often with another carpet yank, with little tying them together.
I have little faith in Martin pulling this together in two (or even three) more books in any satisfactory way.
Edit: I should add, this wasn't a rant at you, per se. Your post just triggered something that's been bugging me since I finished book 5.
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Lol I have posts in this same thread from 2012 that say this exact thing. The field is littered with aborted plots, discarded foreshadowing, dead characters, and the overarching plot, the thing that's supposed to differentiate a book or books from a Sinfeld novel, has hardly moved at all, IF at all.
Yeah don't get me started. I swore off it after book 5, it's been long enough I'm sure I'll read book 6 and the rest, but he's got a lot to do to move from my rating of "The most gripping and engaging terrible books you will ever read."