George R R Martin - Song of Ice & Fire

Alright, so, I've been hearing wonderful praise from goons about the Song of Ice and Fire series from George R R Martin, and I was wondering what the world4ch userbase has to say.  Is it well written?  Fast paced or slow and carefully developed?  Pages of flowery prose describing the tarnished gold epaulets of the general, or conversations taking every turn imaginable?  Lots of plot holes?  How much of a "fantastic" feel do they have?

Tell me of them.

It starts off a bit dull but picks up rather quickly. Best fantasy series I've read in a long time, if not ever. The characters and setting are extremley well developed. At first the world seems to just be a historical middle-age european setting with odd weather but it soon turns out to be much more than that. As I said, the characters are extremley well developed and interesting (and there's a lot of them). Lots of interesting politics too. I personally havn't noticed any plot holes.

Anyway, I'd highly reccomend it.