Yes, at the risk of sounding hopelessly naive, I tend to take GRRM at his word that he thought he knew where the story was going, but then ran into massive structural problems that meant he basically had to scrap a near-as-dammit-already-written book and start from scratch. Imagine how demoralising that must be.
Got to admit I won;t be rushing out for ADWD, namely because I feel the series has become so convoluted with different character perspectives that I just won't be able to follow what's happening unless I re-read the previous books with a fine tooth comb.
I really enjoyed the first book, but as the character perspectives have grown I've gradually felt it thinned out the story, so what we end up with is world-building with a narrative.
The Jaime and Cersei POV's were interesting in the follow ups, and as major characters were certainly worth exploring, but I feel GRRM became far too interested in the intricacies of following minor characters to the detriment of the main story. I really really don't want to know what peripheral characters in a story are doing unless it's important to the story, but I've never gotten that feeling.
Oh, sure, Stannis and the Onion King were part of the story - but it was the back story. It never felt significant. And a sectoon ehaded Brien just says to me "skip this chapter"!
Anyway, I know I've main my views plain before - I would love it if an editor would dare to tame GRRM's character explorations and force him to keep focused on the main characters for the main story, and release background novels based on other minor characters separately.
However, I appreciate different people have different tastes - heck, there are a load of Author boards on chronicles and I doubt everyone here has read books by all of them.
And by all accounts, those who really enjoy the ASoFaI really appreciate the detail and the world-building that has obviously gone on with the books.
I just personally feel left behind by it all - I need to feel engaged with a story, but I haven't felt like with with the last couple of books.
Maybe I'll return to it one day, but in the meantime, I enjoyed my ride, A Game of Thrones was a great piece of literature, but I'll wave bon voyage to those who keep with the series and hope they truly get to a satisfying ending.
Perhaps, then, I'll be persuaded to return.
In the meantime, though, as before, everyone has different interests, and just because something doesn;t grab you, doesn't mean to say you have to pservere, or make life difficult for those who like oranges when you like apples.
