Rating: 
Summary: "All My Children"
Review: This books owes more to TV soaps & dramas like "All My Children" & "Dallas" than it does to written works like Tolkien's "Rings".
That's not to say it's a "bad" book, far from it. The story lines are well written and despite the 900 plus pages, it is a very enjoyable fast paced read. The short chapters focusing on an individual character at a time keep the book flowing and moving forward quickly. And, like TV soaps, the plotting, scheming and backstabbing (literally in this case) are first rate! However, if you enjoy reading books (a trilogy in this case) that come to a conclusion, ending or finale, best look elsewhere. After 3 books and almost 2500 pages, you would think the "R.R." could have finished what he started, not. The book ends with more unanswered questions than answered ones. Most of the storylines woven throughout the book are left hanging with no closure. I guess the reader will have to wait for the next installment of the series to find out "who shot J.R.". Personally, I am looking forward to the next book; but, I still can't decide if Martin's choice of the initials "R.R." is blasphemy.
Rating: 
Summary: Your Favorite Book X 10 = A Song Of Ice And Fire
Review: If only I could could rate this book with a million stars. I cannot believe how great, amazing (there are not not even words) this series is, and it isn't even finished yet!!!. The story is incredibly extense yet easy to follow, there are lots of characters and they are all spectacular, their development troughout the story is simply fantastic. You just can't put it down, I can't wait for the last three book left, I hope it never ends. If you are thinking about buying this book, DO IT!!, and get it for your friends also.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Words... MORE JON !!
Review: Love this series, but I could do without Caetlyn & Deanerys and more Jon please!!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Epic Fantasy Series Out There!!
Review: This is the best epic serious fantasy series out there by far. Gets away from the cookie-cutter books of Brooks, Eddings and Goodkind, which are quick fun reads. Martin keeps your intrest unlike the endless Jordan Wheel of Time series, which I have temporarily given up on. This series is very original. And each book is better than the last. Lots of political intrique where the magic is very little at first, increasing as the books go on. Great characters and multi-storylines merging into one big showdown. Only problem is the series is not comlete. Only 3 of 6 are written, book 4 A Feast For Crows constantly being delayed. Mr. Martins website does update and has a sample Arya chapter from book 4. READ IT. In the meantime if you want a series that is complete and very good. I reccomend Memory Sorrw and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams. Book one being The DragonBone Chair. Not quite on par with Martin. But very enjoyable none the less. Martin is gritty, graphic and realistic.Major characters do die! You will loathe villains in one chapter and be cheering for them in the next. I.E Tyrion and Jamie. Two of my favorites. Please read you will love!
Rating:
Summary: A cloud with a questionable lining
Review: Many praises have been offered here for George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and very much of it is warranted. True, Martin's writing ability is formidable (with one annoying exception detailed below): his story line is complex and packed with a bewildering number of interesting subplots; his characters are on the whole multi-dimensional and his ability to create in the reader an emotional attachment to the characters is well deployed (perhaps too well deployed); and Martin drives the story along, especially in this third part of the ongoing series, with a continuous stream of action scenes that are heavy on the horrible reality of human conflict (and a good smattering of swash-buckling heroic antics).And yet . . . and yet this reader has ultimately been left dissatisfied with the choices Martin has made in the development of the story. Before I get too far into that aspect of things, though, I would like to say a few things about Martin's writing style. After reading a disappointingly long run of poorly crafted and even more poorly edited novels, I find Martin's writing to be refreshing, at least in structure. His prose is generally crisp and concise, allowing for a quick pace unburdened by superfluous ornament. And through this prose we get just enough detail to make his world seem real, its varied terrain well formed in the mind, melding into a consistent and believable whole. However . . . Couldn't you just feel a "however" coming? . . . Because Martin generally constrains his prose to the crisp writing style palatable to the fast-paced taste of modern readers, his insistence--but frustratingly inconsistent--use of pseudo-antiquarian language becomes almost laughable. For example, Martin uses words like "lordling", "sweetling" and "Ser" (instead of "Sir"), then suddenly includes invectives or slang references to one character or another's private parts that you'd more expect to be coming from a gangsta rapper than a pseudo-medieval knight. This sharp juxtaposition throws a huge stutter into the natural flow of Martin's otherwise fine prose and I found it very annoying. Be that as it may, I have still found this series to be entertaining and full of interesting plots, plots that I can't wait to see developed to their conclusion. I only wish Martin would feel the same way about these plots for, as others have pointed out, like Robert Jordan or Tad Williams, George R. R. Martin seems completely uninterested in bringing his plots to their ultimate conclusion with any rapidity. And here's my major concern with this series: Martin is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Simultaneously, he sets out to write a fantasy/action-adventure AND a historic account of a fictitious world. What's wrong with that? Well, the way Martin writes it, we get a tale with clearly defined good and bad sides (the action-adventure part), but we also get the devastating disappointments that real history too often delivers. Obviously we are supposed to side with the Starks, a family epitomizing the medieval ideals of honor, loyalty and fairness--all that chivalry stuff. Just as clearly, we are supposed to side against the Lannisters who strategize and jostle for political power with supreme Machiavellian prowess, employing unspeakably masochistic minions, spawning incestuous heirs and spitting ceaselessly in the faces of all right thinking people everywhere. And yet, as a historic epic, Martin regularly kills off the characters we have been following as our heroes. Yes, that takes literary guts and it smacks of true history but the actual result is that even halfway through the third novel of the series, the reader is suddenly faced with having to decide AGAIN who the real main character(s) is(are). My conclusion is that there are no main characters in this series because, just like a medieval history, everybody dies in the end. But in a true history there are no clear good guys or clear bad guys and you don't waste time investing emotional energy in empathizing with those you're reading about. And that's the problem. Martin writes so that we DO get attached to the good characters and when he brings them to an untimely end, what we're left with is this awful feeling that everything we've read about them so far has been a complete waste of our time and energy. Obviously none of the ex-main characters are going to end up winning the crown of the Seven Kingdoms, and THAT'S the major plot of the book. So, when a character you've been rooting for since Throne of Kings is suddenly relegated to the status of minor characters, vis-à-vis their death, who you gonna cheer for? Okay, kudos to George R. R. Martin for writing the first epic fantasy novel since Tolkein's Lord of the Rings that really explores new territory and is completely non-derivative of others' work . . . but you know what? These novels can end up being a whole lot of no fun. In conclusion, though this well-written series is full of interesting plots and characters--and A Storm of Swords is the best part of the series yet--on the whole Songs of Ice and Fire has turned out to be a cloud with a very tarnished silver lining.
Rating:
Summary: The best series in the genre
Review: George R.R. Martin is an infuriating man. As I read his Song of Ice and Fire, some of my favorite characters keep getting killed. Others prove to not be as admirable as I thought, and still others are not as worthless or evil as I first perceived. In other words, it is a phenomenal thrill ride that I couldn't get off if I tried. This series has more purely gut-wrenching, stay-up-late-to-finish power than anything I have read since Stephen King's It. I don't know how Mr. Martin keeps everything straight. I want to scream at him for taking so long to produce A Feast For Crows. But I will be in line as soon as it comes out, waiting to snap it up and read, reread, and marvel at it. The best thing these books do is to mirror the human condition. The vast majority of us are neither good nor evil, but in some gray area. Martin recognizes this and makes it maddeningly hard to choose your "heroes" and "villains." The violence can be graphic, but it's a hard old medieval world. The first book in this series was difficult for me to get into, but the ride gets better with each installment. Write faster, George, please! I read a lot of fantasy, and there is some good writing out there. But in my opinion, this series supersedes anything currently out there, with the possible exception of the Dark Tower series, and wouldn't THAT make for an interesting debate. Troy
Rating:
Summary: Another Tolkien? More like another Jordan.
Review: Ok, I like the books. They are fun reads, even if they seem to be going in circles. Everyone crossing each other's paths as they keep crisscrossing the same terrain. Arya's never-ending journey to get somewhere...anywhere, is a little annoying. Still, it's been fairly enjoyable and you get addicted, like a soap opera I guess :-). At times it's slow and overly descriptive...but,thats the fantasy genre I guess. I wish someone would rape and kill Sansa tho. Anyhow, I just finished reading Jordan's endless wheel of time series, up to book 10(it ain't ever gonna end, btw), in a matter of about 6 months. When I heard people saying this series was better written and more entertaining, I thought I'd give it a try. My first impression...is Jordan and Martin the same person? They sure as heck write alike. Wolves, Inn's and common rooms, mulled wine, light vs. dark, even some of the names of characters are the same. The style looks not similar...they look exactly the same. Now, they are different stories...true. WOT starts strong on fantasy, and bogs down into politics. This series does the reverse...starts strong into politics, and the action and magic are becoming more visible as the story progesses. Tho, there is more action, more frequently in this series than the WOT, which makes each chapter more enjoyable...the style it's written in is almost identical. WOT has just become a bore...while this one hasn't done that...yet. Have Jordan and Martin ever been seen together in the same place...at the same time? Just curious :-) Now, these are fun books. Enjoyable time wasters. But, c'mon people...this is not great art or even the pinnacle of the genre. It's fairly predictable and almost a fantasy genre cookie cutter production. That's not necessarily a bad thing...it's a fun book, and gives fantasy readers what they are looking for. But, it sure as heck ain't no Tolken...not even close. Enjoy it for what it is...I recommend the series, for now. Pray it doesn't go the way of WOT.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated and too verbous
Review: This book could have been cut by half. Full of insignificant descriptions, overly long conversations and paragraphs that do not add to the plotline or to the richness of the imagination. i found it extremely difficult to get through this book, and usually i have no problems getting through books - i read through terry goodkind's faith of the fallen and wizards first rule in one day each. I was very excited to receive this copy of storm of swords, hearing so much about it, and the first two chapters were quite promising. we are introduced to characters, there was a ton of potential conflicts...yet somehow by chapter 5 i was snoozing and feeling quite annoyed, bored, and cheated. orson scott card, terry goodkind, fiest, jordan, tolkien...all much much better, more engaging writers!
Rating:
Summary: Sweeping, epic fantasy at its best
Review: Don't let the term "fantasy" fool you: this is not limp-wristed, frolic-through-the-trees stuff. All three books have been well-written, violent, consistent and quite addictive. Without going into a rehash of the plot of this book, let me just say that it stays true to the previous two novels and continues to develop the characters even more. Mr. Martin does an excellent job of fleshing out and making believable all of the main protagonists, and he clearly provides reasons for a character's growth and change, e.g. Jaime and Daenerys. The plot is well thought out, the action is well choreographed, the cliffhangers have caused many sleepless nights and I really like the fact that "magic" has so far played a minor role. HIGHLY recommended. In addition, I hope Walder Frey gets his just desserts, the Hound comes over to the side of "good," Daenerys kicks some butt, and Rand al-Thor gets run over by a farmer's cart and is killed.
Rating:
Summary: Afraid of silly reviewers!!
Review: First of all I love this whole series. It really is fantastic! However, I was really annoyed at the reviewer that stated we were afraid of saying this was better than TOLKIEN. You my friend need to GET A LIFE! OK! There is absolutely no reason to make that determination. Tolkien invented the genre for heaven sakes. Mr. Martin has had his influence and that of other fantasy writers and whatever else he is inspired by to help him along. So you would hope that he could add something to what has gone before him. I would agree that he has but I also feel it is a shameful waste of time to say that Tolkien is somehow less than Martin. BOO!
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