Oberyn Martell vs Gregor Clegane

[Fortis]

Definitely an episode full of heartbreak... I felt so bad for The Hound. Poor dude can't seem to catch a break. And Jorah...damn.

[PMPB]

The major problem with book #4 and #5 is that they occur over roughly the same timeline, but they each visit different characters, and #4 has 1/2 the characters, and #5 have the other half. They should have been 1 super book, but obviously it was too big to publish.

The other problem is that the scope and timeframe of book #4 and 5 are so huge that you can't really grasp how everything fits together, and Martin doesn't really use a calendar, and the lack of pivotal events and information travel throughout the land and character make understanding their present location difficult.

I'm sure there are times where certain characters were supposed to come within earshot of the other (to create suspense and interest) but since you read that so and so was at location a in chapter 2 of book 4 and this other person was AT THE EXACT SAME LOCATION 1/2 day earlier, but you read about it in chapter 95 of book 5, you didn't make the connection... Martin is typing away at book #6 laughing maniacally at his own cleverness and the anticipated praise, but everyone is aloof because of the above problems.

Too many characters, too much time (literally between books, and in the story), too much detail, too much geography, and too few significant events that effect all story lines, for the reader to create a mental picture of the situations.

Don't get my wrong, I love this story. But I love like 6 out of 1,000 characters, and 1/30 chapters are really good. I've read other epic fantasies, (Sword of Truth, LoTR, part of Dark Tower, if the last can be included) all of those had more pages, and possibly larger physical worlds, but I felt less lost. Sword of Truth might have also had more characters, and was also certainly more complicated, but was just better written.

[robwbright]

Andy Greenwald over at Grantland has done some really good recaps of the TV show (and he never read the books). For example:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prosp...-the-red-keep/

The weekly "Ask the Maester" at Grantland is pretty good, too:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prosp...-combat-jorah/

And here's Tyrion with a mullet:

http://i.imgur.com/IU0AZOp.jpg