[Studlock]

I read the first two books in ASoIaF right after each other and loved every moment of it but I'll be damned if I haven't read such a cynical series in my life. Don't get me wrong I love the books I have read, but I got kind of worn out by all of the terrible shit that was happening (some of it I think wasn't really needed like the child with Arya in CoK). I had to tag out and read something different because of the 'realism'. I personally don't find it all that realistic mostly because it's activily deconstruction tropes of fantasy thus in someway has to be aware of tropes so sometimes it comes off as just trying to deconstruct said tropes for the sake of deconstruction (IMO). Has anyone else get worn out while reading straight through(maybe on a re-read?)? If so what was your pick-me-up? Mines the Dragons Path

[Starling]

I didn't get get that, but then TBH I didn't read one after the other. And honestly I find the same with the Malazan books. In fact, I started reading them back to back and they gave me the strangest dreams ever

My go-to pick-me-ups are Pratchett. Every time. So easy, so funny and I know them all so well

[worry]

I read the first three one after the other in college, and couldn't get enough. I don't think it's cynical to suggest that the more "needless" killing the series depicts, the closer to realism it gets. Most of what GRRM has done is stopped pretending that history isn't, all told, a horror story, where the monsters were people. SE goes a lot more post-modern though, upending the tropes in a totally different way.

That doesn't answer your question about the pick-me-ups though. I dunno if I have those. Tom Spanbauer is my favorite non-fantasy author but he only has four novels, but they're all fantastic and life-affirming. The Princess Bride is my favorite comic novel and re-reading it is always a pleasure.

[Studlock]

I really apperticate what GRRM and I guess 'realism' wasn't the word I was looking for (since worst things have happen in real life) but why death and killing is handeled in generally which I don't neccessarily agree is dealt with the most realistic way. Mostly because we see all the bad and none of the good. I am not saying killing and death are good but sometimes good comes of it. We get Tywin and Gergor and Bolton and in return we get Bran and Jon who are mostly powerless. Haha what I am trying to say is I feel the book is challenging my moral compass and it wears me out.

[Toc Anaster]

I think what part of what GRRM (and at times SE) is trying to say about the face of war is how far reaching it can become and how the price of lives drops quickly in times of need and strain. In medievil times from the non-fiction I've read, your chances of making it to be an old man weren't too good. In and around a war people get in the mindset of the beseiged and begin to think only of survival. If you have that slice of bread and I need to eat or die, you're dying. If you get in someone's way as they try to escape some horrible end they're just as likely to trip you up as to push you along. In short, the world is a horrible place and we all die alone. Now everyone smile and sweet dreams.

[Otataral Toblakai]

I read this series way back before becoming a Malazan convert and what attracted me was exactly what detracted you from it - the gritty realism and brutality. I did a re-read when a Dance of Dragons came out and was even more amazed by the book. So far, in terms of sheer emotional excitement caused, this series comes closest to Malazan. It is also a bit more vulgar and profane than Malazan filled with gratuitous bits of physical activity.

Overall, I must say that I was never worn out but shocked, horrified and amazed at each step with each storyline. It has characters you either love or love to hate - no in between.

[acesn8s]

I haven't read them back to back, more like read one and wait for the next. I could see how slogging through a couple of them could be emotionally draining, but the cliff hangers . . . must know what happens next!

[yuna_anomander25]

i still have my copy of AGOT left untouched for almost a year now, but i have already read i think half of it in an e-book(pdf format), so atleast i still know who is who,

don't want to compare GRRM and SE, but as i have already read all SE's and 1 ICE book, i'm still willing myself to read it,

maybe you could fault my curiosity, as i was lurking in that forum site or whatever, can't remember where,
as i was browsing there, i read somewhere about that eldest son of ned stark, rob(sp?) and his direwolf and their fated end, i was shocked, and that is still BEYOND anything i have read, even by SE standard,
i don't know how sick you could get just by conjuring that image,

Spoiler

to be beheaded then stitched with your wolf's head

i can accept incest and other stuff, violence and gore stuff, but that 1 thing, 1 of the reasons i still haven't continued reading aSoIaF,
well, that's just me,

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

I read all six back to back. No problems at all and no pick-me-ups needed.

[Lusipher]

I read the first book when I was in the Marines, but had a hard time finding the following books when they came out-crap bookstore on base and no car+crappy public transportation didn't help. When book four came out, my earlier problems had been solved, so I read all of them back to back and didn't have a problem. But when I do need a pick up, I usually put on some Frank Zappa.

[LadyMTL]

When I started reading ASOIAF only the first three were out and I did read them back to back. I admit that I was shocked at some of the storylines (I'll not mention them so as not to spoil anything) but in all honesty I actually liked how brutal it was. I'd gotten heartily sick of the seemingly endless stories where the hero gets saved in the nick of time; I've always hated Deus Ex Machina twists and to read a series where bad things happen to characters I liked and was rooting for was a "nice" change.

That said, though, when I did get worn out with it I'd usually turn to whatever wasn't a fantasy book...a biography, a historical novel, a horror story...whatever would strike my fancy at the time.

[Tapper]

Oh dear. Don't touch Stover's Blade of Tyshalle.

[yuna_anomander25]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 09 May 2012 - 02:50 PM, said:

I read all six back to back. No problems at all and no pick-me-ups needed.

um, six, is there already a 6th book, is that DWD,

[blackzoid]

Studlock, on 08 March 2012 - 11:07 PM, said:

I read the first two books in ASoIaF right after each other and loved every moment of it but I'll be damned if I haven't read such a cynical series in my life. Don't get me wrong I love the books I have read, but I got kind of worn out by all of the terrible shit that was happening (some of it I think wasn't really needed like the child with Arya in CoK). I had to tag out and read something different because of the 'realism'. I personally don't find it all that realistic mostly because it's activily deconstruction tropes of fantasy thus in someway has to be aware of tropes so sometimes it comes off as just trying to deconstruct said tropes for the sake of deconstruction (IMO). Has anyone else get worn out while reading straight through(maybe on a re-read?)? If so what was your pick-me-up? Mines the Dragons Path

You should read Bakker than, he has very little terrible shit happening.
Very uplifting stuff.

[Spooner]

Oi! That's an evil thing to do Blackzoid:( I'd treat ASoIaF as the pick-me-up series after Bakker any day. He's probably worse than that un-nice person who wrote the Fencer trilogy (K. J. Parker... hiss... boo).

This post has been edited by Spooner: 13 May 2012 - 10:52 PM

[Azathmaster]

I have gotten worn out but more by the lack of action in the middle of the book than the cynicism, though that could be why there was so little action.

[BlackMoranthofDoom]

yuna_anomander25, on 09 May 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 09 May 2012 - 02:50 PM, said:

I read all six back to back. No problems at all and no pick-me-ups needed.

um, six, is there already a 6th book, is that DWD,

Nope, DWD is the fifth. It's either a mistake or he meant one of the short stories.

[Terez]

The UK editions split 3 and 5, so ADWD is both the 6th and 7th books there, if I'm not mistaken. I asked Wert about this a couple of weeks ago, because some interview Westeros linked had a dude (I forget who) talking about how he wanted to read the sixth book, which was on his shelf.

PS—I found Wert's tweet, and he said the splits were only in paperback.

This post has been edited by Terez: 29 May 2012 - 03:30 PM

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Indeed, A Storm of Swords is split into Part 1 and Part 2.

[Shinrei]

The first time I read them, I enjoyed them for the most part. I read them piece by piece because when I started, only the first 2 were out and we all know how quickly he produces them....

But I'm almost done with a re-read, and yes, I am worn out. The violence is bothering me more and the little opportunities he allows for characters to learn about each other which slip by without fruition seems unnecessarily cruel. I guess I look for fantasy as an escape from reality. I'm not begging for tidy storylines where good always triumphs, but I read enough news and hear about human suffering that I kind of want to read something that takes me away from that for a while.