So basically, does it make all other fantasy books look bad in comparison? Nope.
While it is a strong series, there are a lot of things wrong with it. The atrocious pacing for one thing, and I can't overstate this enough. The plodding storyline, the utter inability to tie the plot threads together properly, a needlessly obfuscated and convoluted plot, with a number of characters that borders on mental diarrhea, etc. I'm not saying the books are bad, quite the opposite, I think they're great books. However, they are great DESPITE all their shortcomings and they are far from being the apex of the fantasy genre.
Shortly after I finished reading Feast of Crows I started reading the Dresden Files books. They were to polar opposite of the Song of Ice and Fire books - fast, well paced, tightly plotted, not bogged down in endless waves of pointless characters, etc. If anything, I'd say they are better written (by far) than the ASoIaF books. Then I went on to read some Gene Wolfe and his mindfuckery in Book of the New Sun. And not too long before all of that I went through most of the Wheel of Time books, which pretty much filled me up on long, plodding, multivolume epics.
Martin's work is decent, even solid, but not outstanding in general. ASoIaF is carried by a few strong characters and the occasional strong plot twist, mainly based around Martin's willingness to repeatedly do terrible things to his characters. However, his writing style and overall structuring of the books is often lacking.
Another thing worth noting is that Martin owes a lot of his popularity to bridging the gap between Fantasy and "regular" Fiction, to the point where a lot of people who don't normally like Fantasy can enjoy his work. He weaves the fantasy elements in to spice the fiction up, instead of making them integral straight away and asking readers to just suspend disbelief, which is the norm for fantasy (and which fans of the genre do without question, but it turns non-fans off). In fact, most of the "magical" elements of the first few books (dragons aside) can be rationalized away as superstition or coincidence. It slowly ramps up and that buildup is one of Martin's great achievements with the series.
Again, I love the books. I've read all of them twice so far and will likely do another run through them within the next year or so when my book backlog clears. But they aren't awesome to the point of making all other fantasy look bad. Granted, they may strike a chord with someone, but that's normal.
While it is a strong series, there are a lot of things wrong with it. The atrocious pacing for one thing, and I can't overstate this enough. The plodding storyline, the utter inability to tie the plot threads together properly, a needlessly obfuscated and convoluted plot, with a number of characters that borders on mental diarrhea, etc. I'm not saying the books are bad, quite the opposite, I think they're great books. However, they are great DESPITE all their shortcomings and they are far from being the apex of the fantasy genre.
Shortly after I finished reading Feast of Crows I started reading the Dresden Files books. They were to polar opposite of the Song of Ice and Fire books - fast, well paced, tightly plotted, not bogged down in endless waves of pointless characters, etc. If anything, I'd say they are better written (by far) than the ASoIaF books. Then I went on to read some Gene Wolfe and his mindfuckery in Book of the New Sun. And not too long before all of that I went through most of the Wheel of Time books, which pretty much filled me up on long, plodding, multivolume epics.
Martin's work is decent, even solid, but not outstanding in general. ASoIaF is carried by a few strong characters and the occasional strong plot twist, mainly based around Martin's willingness to repeatedly do terrible things to his characters. However, his writing style and overall structuring of the books is often lacking.
Another thing worth noting is that Martin owes a lot of his popularity to bridging the gap between Fantasy and "regular" Fiction, to the point where a lot of people who don't normally like Fantasy can enjoy his work. He weaves the fantasy elements in to spice the fiction up, instead of making them integral straight away and asking readers to just suspend disbelief, which is the norm for fantasy (and which fans of the genre do without question, but it turns non-fans off). In fact, most of the "magical" elements of the first few books (dragons aside) can be rationalized away as superstition or coincidence. It slowly ramps up and that buildup is one of Martin's great achievements with the series.
Again, I love the books. I've read all of them twice so far and will likely do another run through them within the next year or so when my book backlog clears. But they aren't awesome to the point of making all other fantasy look bad. Granted, they may strike a chord with someone, but that's normal.
