GRRM is somewhat different from a lot of other fantasy authors in that his books are harder to predict and he kills off way more characters. And not just at the end. But that makes me, at least, wind up not caring about the characters very much since it seems to be more of a "who would be most shocking to kill now?" kind of thing. In something more formulaic, you'd expect one or two major deaths along the way, to show that things are Very Serious, and then more in the climactic parts at the end of the saga.
It is interesting, at least to me, but I wish there was a cliff notes version.
Interesting theory about the certain kind of fantasy author, usually male. I'm thinking over fantasy saga type books, and the most bloated, even the ones that I do like, are male authors. Even something as completely formulaic as the Belgariad makes for a bunch of thick books, probably didn't need to be quite that long, and was written by a guy. Whereas even though the last couple of Harry Potter books got pretty thick, there was less bloating than the male authors do.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-08-27 02:45 pm (UTC)It is interesting, at least to me, but I wish there was a cliff notes version.
Interesting theory about the certain kind of fantasy author, usually male. I'm thinking over fantasy saga type books, and the most bloated, even the ones that I do like, are male authors. Even something as completely formulaic as the Belgariad makes for a bunch of thick books, probably didn't need to be quite that long, and was written by a guy. Whereas even though the last couple of Harry Potter books got pretty thick, there was less bloating than the male authors do.