George Martin can write very well...it just barely fits in the fantasy genre. If it helps to fit him in the sub-genre of high fantasy, then so be it...but the best works of fantasy throughout history always contained much more fantasy then Martin's world. I consider "high" fantasy to be Homer's works, the Faerie Queen, Paradise Lost...and these contained fantasy.
Still true that his writing is depressing, simply because it IS so true to reality(which again is the opposite of fantasy). I can very well imagine many of the things happening in his books in real life, which makes me sad.
Like when that lady in book two was captured by an evil lord for her land, locked in a room, and they found her weeks later. Her hands were bloody because she was eating her fingers off.
Perhaps what hit me was just how matter-of-fact it was described.
Also, Martin doesn't let two pages go by without describing some kind of sexuality, and usually the raping kind.
As for Catelyn, after book 2 I got sick of her complaining. It's almost as if she is the character in the book who is thrown in there to make everybody feel even more depressed about the crap going on in the world.
I suppose that if you haven't seen much in life then this book can be an education on reality. For others, it's just a reminder of things that we don't want to think about.
As you can see, I'm not yet ready to read book 3.
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