Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Chat – Game of Thrones, etc., a Negative Review

From the ArmChair Squid:
“The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same. In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers.”

Sometimes I get a hold of a certain type of book that, while interesting, makes me skim words, sentences, and then paragraphs. Ultimately, plowing through the wordiness frustrates me to the point of skipping whole pages. In the category of Skippy books, I place the following:

The Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) – George RR Martin. At some point, do we really need to know what they are eating at every meal? I want the tale to advance and not hang up in too many storylines. Plus, his penchant for killing off characters is wearing thin. If the initial hook is in the characters, I tend to lose interest if they are killed off. I mean, why invest my time and enjoyment in (insert name here) if he is going to die later?

The Wheel of Time – Robert Jordan. All started so well, so interesting. But, after a point, I groaned, “Just get on with it. Don’t bring in more characters, darn it. No more inane conversations. Move along. Gaaaah! Not another plot twist.”

I bought every WOT book and would again. At least he and co-author Brandon Sanderson, who picked up the reins after Mr. Jordan passed away, made the first five and the last two books amazing. The ones in-between, not so much. 

And I never liked the book covers. Too amateurish, IMHO. Though not as bad as anime, a style of art that I intensely dislike. Hate actually.

But Martin’s books...eh, I don’t know if I care enough at this point to continue the series. 

Recently I read One Second After by Willaim Forstchen and it quickly turned into a skipper. The reviews were wall-to-wall 5-stars but I didn’t buy it until the price dropped to $2.99. Glad I didn’t pay the full price now. It turned into a version of Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank complete with a death of a secondary character by the same disease. Too much “Bob” dialogue, the method of delivering info the author wants you to know via Y.T.M. aka Yapping Too Much. No strong females. All are wimpy and whinny. Bleh.

Mr. Frank's book is the one to read but it is dated and reading it makes me very uncomfortable. 

Do you have a famous Skimmer book?