I Finished Reading The 5 Books of "A Song of Ice and Fire" -- No Spoilers

[jp11]

2. I've resigned myself to the idea that I may never know what the ultimate fate of these characters

will be. I've had similar experiences even if they didn't pan out just because in my youth I couldn't wait for the next book x years out and moved on.

Not long ago I read a book that was supposed to close up the threads of a story I was strongly attached to and it was a total load of crap. I dismissed that ending for the characters as an alternate universe and allow the characters to exist in my mind in a state of uncertainty detached from that lousy story they were thrust into.

When/if the following books are released I'll read them but there is no way I'm re-reading any of those books. I agree mostly with your assessment though I think I saw the first 2 books as being better and 3/4 weaker, 4 was the worst IMO, and I know my judgement was clouded with 5 (thinking it pretty good maybe as good as 1/2) since 4 was so bad.

My take was more that we wasn't putting forth the effort to properly edit his work or that no one was giving him any real criticism to help him write as well as he did in the first. Granted it was much easier to start out before all these threads let loose but I just saw his writing decline from books 1-4 before picking up again in 5.