These are books 2, 3, and 4 of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. The fifth book, A Dance With Dragons is slated to be available 12 July 2011. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival.
Like the first book, A Game of Thrones (I had it wrong on the last post), these books continue the fictional fantasy world. A few more characters are introduced, a few more die. Okay, more than a few die. The 4th book, A Feast for Crows, is a slightly different format. It's quite a monster but it only covers half the characters for a period of time. Reportedly, book 5 will cover the other half of the characters for that time. I am hoping that Martin has at least one more book in him because there wasn't really an ending for the half covered in book 4. I am guessing he will need one more monster book after 5 to finish the whole story line. Who knows, maybe he has a bigger vision than I or maybe he just likes it when authors leave everything hanging (I hope not).
Although these books are big (book 1 694 pages, book 2 708 pages, book 3 976 pages, book 4 704 pages and book 5 is listed at 1040 pages), they are not hard or laborious to read. If it weren't for various sex scenes and all the violence, they often read like young adult fiction - meaning fast.
If you like fantasy and/or medieval-type era fiction I would highly recommend these books.
I couldn't put them down and they kept me from finishing my book club book in time :(. I need to get to work finishing that now so I can tell you all about it.
