George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series *spoilers*

[Critical]

Book 3
I just finished book 3 and OMG, what a jaw-dropper of an ending! I couldn't figure out where he was going with that epilogue and then there's

Starting book 4 tonight! Book 5 is on the way to me right now. I don't think I'll get much of anything done until I'm done with A Dance With Dragons!

[elk]

Thanks, Cantstopwatchin and Kao for the recommendations, I will give them a try!

[elk]

Book 3
I just finished book 3 and OMG, what a jaw-dropper of an ending! I couldn't figure out where he was going with that epilogue and then there's

Starting book 4 tonight! Book 5 is on the way to me right now. I don't think I'll get much of anything done until I'm done with A Dance With Dragons!

Finished book four, waiting...waiting...waiting... for DwD

Sorry for the double post, but I just had to answer your post, Critical. Storm of Swords was an incredible book ;I think it is the best so far. GRRM is certainly unafraid of persuading the reader to take a trip and then removing all the signposts!

I am so happy you are enjoying them.

[Critical]

I was trying to time my finishing of book 4 with the arrival of book 5, but I'm about halfway done with A Feast of Crows already. I love being able to finish one book and then just pick up the next one! Since book 5 isn't due for another month, I'll just have to wait

Elk - I agree with you about A Storm of Swords - I think it was the best one yet, although I've loved all of them. My favorites so far are books 2 and 3. Not so sure about book 4 yet. I'm missing Daenerys in this one, although the excerpt from book 5 at the back of my copy of book 4 starts with her. I guess that gives me something to look forward to!

[cantstopwatchin]

I love that you're loving these, Critical.

There's just so much to them, isn't there? I love the show but there's no way it can cover *everything* Martin has included in the books. And what's included in the books just blows my mind b/c of how people tie in together in even the smallest of ways. I definitely to him. That's the main reason Dance with Dragons took so long - he calls it his "Meerenese Knot" and according to his blogs, there were two people who needed to be in the same place at the same time but things weren't working out and he was having problems trying to tie it together. (My guess is Dany & Arya but I'm not positive.) Obviously, he figured it out and he says the book is better the way it turned out (solved with different viewpoints).

SoS was my favorite book as well. I don't know how it's possible to fly through a book that big, but I just couldn't put it down. Feast of Crows didn't do it for me. I could do without all Iron Islands filler. Only another month for DwD!! And I love that I have people here to discuss it with when it does b/c DH hasn't even gotten halfway through GoT yet.

[cantstopwatchin]

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to separate this out since it's a question -

There are theories out there in cyberworld regarding the books and what certain things could mean or even speculation about who Jon's mother could be. Do we want to bring them here for discussion or do we want to hold off?

I didn't want to mention something here (about Jon's potential parentage) without a consensus so I figured I'd ask first.

[elk]

Sorry for the double post but I wanted to separate this out since it's a question -

There are theories out there in cyberworld regarding the books and what certain things could mean or even speculation about who Jon's mother could be. Do we want to bring them here for discussion or do we want to hold off?

I didn't want to mention something here (about Jon's potential parentage) without a consensus so I figured I'd ask first.

Finished Book Four - spoilers

Cantstopwatchin - I think that now the people posting in this thread have finished book four, bringing in the speculation is a fine idea. There is so much to talk about. So, that is my vote.

In addition to Jon Snow's parentage, I'd like to talk about the riders on the three headed dragon (prophesy), Cersie's situation at the end of book four (lol), whereabouts of a certain Imp, the Red Wedding, the nastiness that was mentioned in Critical's spoiler, the question of King, the future of Arya, and my inexplicably favorite character, Bronn! There is so much even beyond that, for example will the Iron Island stuff ever be able to hold my attention so that I can read it?

On a different note if you are missing your fantasy diet, try "The Name of the Wind", by Patrick Rothfuss. This series (2 out of 3 books, so far) came highly recommended and I started it last night. I find some fantasy hard to get into but this gabbed me right away. It, too, has great characterizations and a very cool 'world'.

[Critical]

All of Them But no spoilers.

I'm about to go back and re-read them all, since its been a long time. I figure maybe by the time I finish re-reading book 5 will be out in paperback and I can save some money. This is absolutely the best fantasy series I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. I just wish that by the time finish book 5, the final book will be out so I can finish it. But I'm not holding my breath on that one.

As soon as I finished book 4, I had the urge to go back and start the series all over again.

I finally went and read GRRM's blog that cantstopwatchin posted in a link above and There are things I'm happy about like

, but there are other things I'm not so happy about like

I can only hope that it doesn't take him 6 years to write The Winds of Winter!

I have a few friends IRL who are reading the series, but are only on book 1, so I can't really talk about it with them. One just cannot believe that Jamie becomes a more sympathetic character (at least IMO). I guess that, in comparison to Cersei, everyone is sympathetic!

[Kao]

That's what I like about this series. The characters aren't all "good" or "evil." They're human. Granted, some of them do some truly repugnant things, bad things happen to good people, and the path to hell is paved with good intentions but it's more true to life than a lot of Fantasy books which is why I like this series so much. In most of them you have the "evil person" and then the "good person" and even though bad things happen you know nothing is really going to happen to the main characters. These books take away that trope. Literally, no one is safe; you can't get attached to ANY character, and at the same time you can't "hate" certain characters either!

[cantstopwatchin]

ALL BOOKS - SPOILERS (Sorry, my phone can't do the tags to bold)

I brought up and wanted to have a discussion about speculation on different topics but then I found as I was wrapping up my re-read of CoK that I was revising some of those theories.

The one I want to figure out most is who Jon's parents are. yes, he's a Stark but I believe he's Lyanna's son. then the question becomes who is his father. the most likely candidate is Rhaegar because of Dany's visions in the house of the undying (which, when doing the re-reading I realized had soo much foreshadowing). The problem with this is how could Jon be Dany's brother and another head of the dragon? So then I wonder if Lyanna could have been raped by Aerys but that doesn't fit with Dany's vision of love between L and Rhaegar and his saying his son is the child of fire and ice. So then the question becomes was Dany the true-born daughter of Aerys or could she somehow be his granddaughter and possibly Jon's twin or younger sister? And if that's the truth, then it could explain why Ned so adamantly didn't want the assassination attempt to happen. The problem with that is Viserys would've been old enough to know if his mother were truly pregnant or not. See, soo many questions.

_________________

Another point of speculation is who the three heads of the dragon could be (Kao, you'd mentioned this). my guess is we somehow find out that Tyrion is the third but I'm not sure how this would've come to pass. I just keep thinking about the dreams he said he'd had about riding a dragon.

___________________

Critical, you mentioned something in spoiler tags, which I can't do on my phone, but I wanted to answer. after grumbling about how could he leave us hanging like that, I thought about it and imagined the Braveheart scene where he yells Freedom!...only that's not the scene and probably not what was said. . like you, I'm waiting to find out what happens there!!

________________

I know there're a ton of more things to speculate about, so let's pass the next few weeks throwing our thoughts out there until DoD comes out and hopefully answers some of them...