GRRM (George R. R. Martin) make my brain hurt.

I swear, the man must sit around all day thinking, how can I make these books more dense and confusing?

I’m maybe a hundred pages into A Feast for Crows, GRRM’s latest brick in the Song of Ice and Fire googology. And my eyes are crossed with confusion at every chapter.

Who the fuck is Aryn? Wait, who was Dontos again? Why is Myrcella important? Wait, I thought Stannis was dead…

Dammit Martin, you need to put some synopsis pages in these volumes if you’re gonna make us wait five years between. I cannot fucking keep track of all your characters and connections.

Honestly, though, I’m remembering again why I used to say GRRM is the most intense, compelling fantasy writer working today. The man’s amazing. Most of these giant multi-brick series are nothing but rehash Tolkien; the best of them still trapped in a genre that is getting thicker and thicker with cliche, and the worst going on and on and on without ever seeing an end. Clearly editing is a thing of the past for most of these series.

Martin, even while writing a series that is growing and growing, seems to have some laser-tight focus on where his story’s going. For all his hundreds of characters, this series feels like a history, not like an aimless jaunt through someone’s daydreams of heroics and magic.

I don’t know how he keeps track of it all. But I know it’s brilliant.

Yet, I hope he’s close to done. There’s another book due out next year, and after that, knowing Martin, another half-decade wait; that’s ok if he’s getting close to the end, but I’d really like to see how it all ends sometime before my kids go away to college.

Ok. Now it’s time for another dose of cold medicine, and I’ll crawl back into the book.