George RR Martin's New Book, Fire and Blood, Is Getting Some Seriously Mixed Reviews

Many fans of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, a.k.a. the books that inspired HBO's smash hit Game of Thrones, were extremely peeved the acclaimed author was taking time to write a companion book, Fire and Blood, instead of finishing up the next book in the series, The Winds of Winter. But a new George RR Martin book is still a new George RR Martin book, and Fire and Bloodhas seen some brisk sales—even if the reviews have been rather mixed.

Let's start with the positive: The Sunday Times published a review in which it declared the book "a masterpiece of popular historical fiction." Writer Dan Jones wrote that, "Martin is an avid consumer and regurgitator of history: his Westeros writing pulses with influences from Plantagenet-era Britain and beyond." However, the critic does recognize the book itself is "a piece of epic procrastination."

Writing for The Times, critic Hugo Rifkind wasn't quite as kind:

"Essentially, it is all one long synopsis for about 50 books that he will never get around to writing, which itself has only been written because he can’t get around to writing the other two Game of Thrones books that his fans are waiting for. Worse still, after a doorstop of a thing, we’re still a century and a half short of GoT even beginning, which means there’s another volume of this interminable, self-indulgent crap to come."

Ouch.

Publishers Weekly didn't mince words either, writing: "Martin’s evocative storytelling style and gift for gripping narrative are mostly absent from this dry history. Fans hungry for the next Song of Ice and Fire novel will find this volume whets, but does not satisfy, their appetites."

We're sure Martin's writing is on par with his previous books, but it's just the content that people don't want. All we can really hope for moving forward is that the author is motivated to continue writing The Winds of Winter. In the meantime, if you want to form your own opinion, Fire and Blood is out now.