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Cloudstreet... most overrated book in the Australian literary history.

Cheers, just canceled the Amazon order and placed it there. First nine books cost less than the price of first eight at Amazon, very happy with that.

Been meaning to read the Malazan series for ages... are the Esslemont books required reading as part of the series? EDIT: Just ordered the first 8 on Amazon, oops, impulse buy if there was ever one.

Agree with Andre on the Dark Tower series, a great read. If sci-fi interests you then Peter Hamilton and Iain Banks are definitely worth a read... the scope of the futuristic world Hamilton builds is pretty epic. Like Martin, Hamilton's characters are pretty ruthless and occasionally deviant...

Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy is brilliant, and if you like that she has written two more equally great trilogies in the same world. Cannot recommend these highly enough. James Clavell's Asian saga is unbelievably good (Shogun, Taipan, Gai Jin, King Rat, Noble House, Whirlwind). Stating...

Agree... The Stand Uncut and first four books in teh Dark Tower series are my favourites of his.

Jordan's first 5-6 books were of a greater quality than the first 3 books of ASoIaF in my opinion, but it is a close run thing. Both series up to that point were amazingly good. Jordan began dropping the ball from book 7 through 10, with the atrocious book 10 easily the worst and pure self...

No need to apologize, just pointing out that these samples are parts of Feast that were cut and automatically overflowed into Dance. It is a really good sample, so is the Dani POV that's been up on the site (on and off) for roughly the same time. His problem is not an ability to write, but...

That sample has been up on his site, on and off, for at least three years...

Yet more evidence GRRM has little idea what he is doing... seems everything he writes is purely trial and error. He seriously lacks the expertise, experience and knowledge to handle this series... thus why he has to constantly go back and rewrite significant sections of books when he corners...

Thought the ending to Shogun was great, although agree that Gai-Jin's ending was simply a stopping point rather than a clean wrap up. Noble House his best book IMO, and Whirlwind I enjoyed almost as much as Shogun (albeit very different).

Top of my head... The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene Collapse - Jared Diamond Salt A World History - Mark Kurlansky Soldier's Son Trilogy - Robin Hobb David Copperfield - Charles Dickens The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon Asian Saga - James Clavell...

Comments like this make it very easy to infer though... Fact is ASoIaF is not that complex yet and there are plenty of authors capable of handling this sort of scope. Anyone with a moderate amount or reading behind them would recognise that. Anyway, what we both have in common though is a...

This is my main fear as well. If he is having trouble navigating his plot structure when most of the POV characters are geographically separate, how the hell is he going to cope with all the storyline convergence and intersection associated with the series end game?

Everything in bold is spot on. Nothing to with me being offended, it is you making blatantly incorrect statements based on very limited information and knowledge. You make broad and sweeping generalizations even though you've only read 3 of the 11 published books. If you had of read all WoT...

Kaiser, you have absolutely no idea... for starters try reading the rest of WoT before making such sweeping, inaccurate and ignorant statements. ASoIaF is complicated but no more than other fantasy/sci fi works out there ATM. WoT's scope, world, history and plot is deeper and more complicated...

Very keen to see the movie, Viggo Mortensen plays the role of the father and is receiving quite a bit of Oscar buzz ATM.

By experience I mean experience in writing novels. He cut his teeth writing for TV and writing short stories. He is actually inexperienced in writing novels, never mind multiple book series. FWIW I think there are plenty of authors around today can handle something of this scope, particularly...

Dance was supposedly nearly finished 5 years ago, but his lack of experience/ability in handling a story of this size and complex has led to many mistakes and rewrites. Half the time he gives the impression he knows where he wants the story to go but doesn't quite know how to get it there...

Martin was born on September 20, 1948, Jordan was born on October 17, 1948... so Jordan was actually younger and healthier than Martin prior to being diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis. Martin is 61 and has lived a fat and sedentary lifestyle for a very long time, thus is at greater risk of...

Being a HBO production I have the feeling there will be quite a few norks on display. How they handle the twins incestuous relationship and the scene were Bran catches them going at it at Winterfell will be interesting. Hopefully HBO don't have to over simplified or sanitised it too...

This is his first fantasy series, he wrote for TV for a vast majority of his career. I don't think he has much clue what he is doing ATM. He is a very good writer, but is a limited novelist. Completely disagree. Firstly the pacing in the first three books were spot on. There was...

Martin has most of the cast (with pictures) within the blog on his site, although I think most of the child actors are basically unknown. The roles of Dany and Tyrion should be the most interesting IMO. Tamzin Merchant has been cast as Dany... Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, although hopefully...

I honestly think it is a case of ambition exceeding talent Cap. He has created a beast of epic proportions and don't think he has the skills to handle the associated complexity as the series has evolved. Jordan was an exceptionally intelligent man and had a team of people working for him to...

Pilot won't be complete for quite a while yet. Filming is still going, and I imagine the post production process will take some time. If it gets the go ahead I think HBO are targeting September / October 2010 to commence the first season. The lazy fat **** has still not finished DwD and...

Check out Brandon's website. He's posted general comments about this, but cannot go into more detail until the books are released. Not sure if he will release annotation once each book is released or if he will wait until the end of the trilogy. I think he'd prefer to do this after each...

Books have arrived and The Reality Dysfunction is sitting proudly on top of "to read" books on the bedside drawer. Couple of others to finish off before I dive in. Quick question for you Chief, is it necessary to read Misspent Youth before embarking on Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained and the...

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Basically an introduction into space, time, reality, dark matter, space warps, quantum mechanics, string theory... you get the picture. Covers scientific advances chronologically, carefully explaining each breakthrough in layman terms everyone with...

Got a mate in the US who lost a bet and instead of transferring cash he bought me six Peter Hamilton science fiction books of on Amazon. Read various reviews on the interweb and the detailed and complex worlds he creates sound fascinating. Anyone read any of this bloke's science fiction novels?

Just bought the new Robin Hobb book, The Dragon Keeper. Got another two books on the go, but struggling to find enough time to finish them off. First is David Copperfield by Dickens, second is Collapse by Jared Diamond. Before that I re-read Shantaram... brilliant book.