[AnotherUnixGeek]

I've thought the TV show was ridiculous since the first episode.

The books on the other hand - the first three books were absolutely terrific and were all published within a span of 5 or 6 years. The last two books are terrible, and took Martin over 10 years to write and publish. The next book may well take Martin another 10 years to write by itself, but I've lost interest in the entire story at this point. Martin has spent years and thousands of words in the last two books on trivial plot points, his characters seem to be as directionless as he is, and it's evident that he doesn't know how to get to the ending of his story.

These days, guys like Joe Abercrombie write material every bit as good as Martin's, they don't take decades to finish it, and they know how to finish a story.

[Little Pig]

Sounds like Martin’s developing “Jordan’s Syndrome”.

[chris37]

The first three books were great, but I also liked the next two as well, though they weren’t as good as the first three obviously, with the fourth being the weakest.

I’ve read all five of them twice, but I now no longer care if he ever finishes the series.

I am no longer concerned whether or not Martin dies before he finishes writing.

I am far more concerned that I am going to die before Martin finishes writing.

Also, there are some theories out there that the reason Martin has never finished the books is that he got his little pink panties all in a wad because during the wait for him to finish, fans have figured out his big super secret plot twist involving Snow.

So now he is punishing those fans by not finishing.

That theory holds water for me. Martin is a vindictive bitch democrat, so sounds like something he would do.