\nI have a sense that GRRM has an idea where the players have to end up but no organic sense of how to get there from within his Gordian knot of plot threads; half the arcs at this point \u2013 Tyrion’s Jungle Desert Cruise, Brienne’s snipe-hunt fetch quests, Dorne \u2013 are excuses to use up pages wallowing in worldbuilding \u2013 geography, history, religion, medicine, songs, soup. Meanwhile others \u2013 Cersei’s downfall, say \u2013 are rushed and noticeably substandard even with ages between books.
\nIt’s Neal Stephenson Syndrome \u2013 just keep writing for thousands of pages in lieu of any good idea how to end things
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