Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Because if you do, you'll be stuck fast in the mire of it, too. I've read up till the third book, and it took me about two weeks to get that far...but it feels like months I've been slogging through this series. There are spoilers ahead. There is one commenter who referred to this series as "evil trash", and I really feel that "evil trash" is about as succinct as it gets. I love fantasy fiction. It's hard to believe that I would be three books deep into a series and be completely disgusted and enraged by said series, but here I am. I read some review of this series that referred to Martin as "America's Tolkien", and I can't fathom how you could compare the two. Tolkien created "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings", which are not only exceptional pieces of writing, but also enchanting tales that few readers can help but be sucked in to, heart and soul. Middle Earth becomes a real place you wish you could visit. Martin's series, on the other hand, is almost exploitation- of the reader, to see how far he can push you. Cheap violence, copious mentions of rape and horse slaughter, stupid plot twists. He drags you through endless chapters from a certain character's point of view, during which time they accomplish little to nothing in the way of moving the plot forward, and then he mercilessly kills off that character just as you've begun to be truly interested. He wastes time on pointless characters that are not interesting, while doing little service to the characters who ARE interesting. It is a tedious, slogging series that could be easily fit into two or three books....but FIVE?Six or even SEVEN?? I'll go no further than three. I'll find a synopsis online, and not have my time wasted with shoddy writing and pointless nonsense. In another author's hands, this could be a decent story. Stick with the HBO series, it's pure trash...but better than the books.