Song of Ice and Fire novels...ranked

Nerds_feather

Nerds_feather

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over at the blog, I ranked the 5 novels in the series according to my (subjective) sense of their relative quality:

5. A Dance with Dragons
4. A Feast for Crows
3. A Game of Thrones
2. A Storm of Swords
1. A Clash of Kings

you can read the rationale for these choices here. disclaimers apply about all these books being good in an objective sense, but i think there are clearly better and worse entries in the series.

how would you rank the 5 existing novels and why?
 
1 - Storm of Swords (this book couldn't have gotten any better)
2 - Game of Thrones
3 - Dance with Dragons - loved this book
4 - Clash of Kings - I read this right after watching Season 2 of GOT, so it wasn't that exciting to me. Great book though - I just should have read it before.
5 - Feast for Crows (i enjoyed this book, but it was more character development then plot progression)
 
i think you're right to note that your enjoyment of Clash of Kings may have been affected by watching the show just before. For me, it was the best novel in the series (just so many great moments). However, Storm of Swords was nearly as good, and choosing one over the other felt a bit arbitrary. They are both brilliant, and Game of Thrones is as well. If you think of those books as a trilogy, I think it's as good as any ever written in SF/F.
 
A Storm of Swords- great book overall, and TRW was the single most gut kicking event I've ever encountered in all my years of reading.

A Game of Thrones-absolutely ground breaking for me. I don't remember ever reading something done with POV chapters before. I could actually swap AGOT with ASOS, but gun to my head ASOS is slightly better

A Clash of Kings- fine book, just not at the level of ASOS and AGOT

ADWD- I'm liking it a lot more the second time around, but the almost all of Dany's chapter seem a waste of space, and Tyrion's were not all that much better. I am also unhappy with how little progress GRRM made in this book. I loved the bran, Arya and jon chapters. More of those and fewer of Dany and Tyrion would have probably had me rate the book above ACOK

AFFC- It took me a month before I could move forward with this one. It felt too scattered and seemed to spend too much time in Dorne and the iron Islands.
 
Storm, Game, Clash, Feast, Dance.

There's a big gap between first and last there, too. I've not read many novels better than aSoS and aGoT, and there isn't much to seperate them. aCoK is a solid second book, not reaching the height of the first and third installments but easily outshining the fourth and fifth. Of those two, I feel aFfC was easily the better - aDwD was just frustratingly dissappointing. These two I've only read the one time each, however, and I wonder if my opinion would differ on a re-read. I probably won't do that until the series is complete, though, which will be a ways off.
 
The Imp said:
A Storm of Swords- great book overall, and TRW was the single most gut kicking event I've ever encountered in all my years of reading.

A Game of Thrones-absolutely ground breaking for me. I don't remember ever reading something done with POV chapters before. I could actually swap AGOT with ASOS, but gun to my head ASOS is slightly better

A Clash of Kings- fine book, just not at the level of ASOS and AGOT

ADWD- I'm liking it a lot more the second time around, but the almost all of Dany's chapter seem a waste of space, and Tyrion's were not all that much better. I am also unhappy with how little progress GRRM made in this book. I loved the bran, Arya and jon chapters. More of those and fewer of Dany and Tyrion would have probably had me rate the book above ACOK

AFFC- It took me a month before I could move forward with this one. It felt too scattered and seemed to spend too much time in Dorne and the iron Islands.
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totally agree with everything except your assessment of Clash of Kings...curious why you feel this way? for me, there were was just so much greatness:

*arya's escape from king's landing
*tyrion navigating the "players" in the red keep
*the fist of the first men and craster's keep
*the death of renly
*the battle on the blackwater
 
I'll go with Imp's order for pretty much the same reasons he mentioned. We don't agree often but when we do, it's on the ranking of the five books.
 
You building a fanbase here, The Imp? :p


1. Storm of Swords
2. Clash of Kings
3. Game of Thrones
4. Dance With Dragons
5. Feast For Crows


I'm not sure I ever got over the shock of TRW. Not having paid any attention to the foretelling that came beforehand, I found it the most unexpected plot twist to ever happen in a story.
 
Nerds_feather said:
totally agree with everything except your assessment of Clash of Kings...curious why you feel this way? for me, there were was just so much greatness:

*arya's escape from king's landing
*tyrion navigating the "players" in the red keep
*the fist of the first men and craster's keep
*the death of renly
*the battle on the blackwater
Click to expand...

well, forgot to add i don't agree on DwD either, but for now i'm more curious about why you ranked Clash of Kings so low.
 
Warren_Paul said:
You building a fanbase here, The Imp? :p


1. Storm of Swords
2. Clash of Kings
3. Game of Thrones
4. Dance With Dragons
5. Feast For Crows


I'm not sure I ever got over the shock of TRW. Not having paid any attention to the foretelling that came beforehand, I found it the most unexpected plot twist to ever happen in a story.
Click to expand...
Fanbase is a bit strong :) Like-minded postyers will suffice.

when I re-read aSoS i was able to see TRW coming from a mile away. There are hints dropped even earlier. The really amazing thing about TRW is that GRRM pretty much caught everyone by surprise, despite numerous hints, foreshadowings, etc.
 
Utlendr said:
I think Zombie C. is also a huge twist.
Click to expand...

yeah, but i'd argue not the right kind. i'll reserve judgement until i see where GRRM is going with this thing, but on both read and re-read i didn't care for it. just seems unnecessary to the story IMO and, like "coldhands," felt a bit like a sudden influx of ideas from a different fantasy series. a bit jarring to me.

ned's death, though, is almost exquisite in the way it's revealed. i was convinced, as i'm sure many others were, that ned was going to take the black and go fight the others alongside jon snow. when it happened it was thus a huge shock. perfectly played.
 
Nerds_feather said:
yeah, but i'd argue not the right kind. i'll reserve judgement until i see where GRRM is going with this thing, but on both read and re-read i didn't care for it. just seems unnecessary to the story IMO and, like "coldhands," felt a bit like a sudden influx of ideas from a different fantasy series. a bit jarring to me.

ned's death, though, is almost exquisite in the way it's revealed. i was convinced, as i'm sure many others were, that ned was going to take the black and go fight the others alongside jon snow. when it happened it was thus a huge shock. perfectly played.
Click to expand...

i started reading aGoT based solely on my nephew's recommendation. I knew nothing about the plot, as I always avoid spoilers, even of the smallest sort, religiously. I assumed that Ned STark would be the central figure in the series, and there would be a long and epic battle between the Starks and the Lannisters, with Ned playing an important role. Even now, in the face of everything that has happened, i am not 100% convinced he is dead. I was in total shock when Payne swung Ice and killed Ned......if it WAS Ned :D
 
The Imp said:
i started reading aGoT based solely on my nephew's recommendation. I knew nothing about the plot, as I always avoid spoilers, even of the smallest sort, religiously. I assumed that Ned STark would be the central figure in the series, and there would be a long and epic battle between the Starks and the Lannisters, with Ned playing an important role. Even now, in the face of everything that has happened, i am not 100% convinced he is dead. I was in total shock when Payne swung Ice and killed Ned......if it WAS Ned :D
Click to expand...

hmm...how would it work if it wasn't ned? i have a hard time seeing that. but of course it does seem like everyone's coming back from the dead, black lantern style. so who knows?

otherwise though i'm in total agreement with you. it was downright masterful the way GRRM spread out the red herring. one of the most shocking, unforeseen plot twists i can think of in all literature.
 
Nerds_feather said:
hmm...how would it work if it wasn't ned? i have a hard time seeing that. but of course it does seem like everyone's coming back from the dead, black lantern style. so who knows?

otherwise though i'm in total agreement with you. it was downright masterful the way GRRM spread out the red herring. one of the most shocking, unforeseen plot twists i can think of in all literature.
Click to expand...

I don't have time to go digging right now, but if you go back on this forum, not sure how many pages, you'll find my crackpot theory about Ned being alive, and responses to it.
 
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