After getting hooked on Game of Thrones HBO series, I started simultaneously reading the novel, which is one in a series  of  7 by the author. Yes, I said 7, and the final three have not been released.

Martin writes beautiful prose and reading his work is as smooth as silk. I am nearly finished with the first, (Game of Thrones). I doubt that I will read the others,for several reasons. First, he has taken 10 years to write the last 2, another is projected for this year, but the final 2 are unwritten. Second, Martin is way melancholy for my taste.

His work is excellently readable but it is more like fantasy docudrama than fiction. He kills off major characters with no regard for the affection I have come to have for them. Often, their fate is pure Shakespearean tragedy.

Too damn depressing for me.