George RR Martin is a great author and a good person:

[Czolgosz]

I am enjoying his latest book, A Feast for Crows, so I went to his website, where I found this note from the author: "Well, another year is done and gone. Have to say, 2005 was a terrific year... for me personally, at least (not for some of my friends, alas, and certainly not for America and our poor abused constitution..." <http://grrm.livejournal.com/>

You have to love it when a favorite author turns out to be a decent guy.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. The "Sand Kings" is a terrific short story.

[DrBloodmoney]

2. Love his current series...

just wish he'd write it faster. It's the best thing going in the genre these days. Well, a toss up between that and the Malazan series by Steven Erikson.

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Love his books! However, I wish he loved his characters more. He

likes to kill off or hurt the good ones, which generates lots of emotion in the reader in a cheap and easy fashion ("You killed my dog!") but is ultimatlely unsatifying, since I have come to anticipate that if he introduces a very interesting/admirable character it is for the sole purpose of having that character serve as a sacrificial dog in order to further the story. So now, I can tell in advance that so and so will have something bad happen to him just because fits the profile of a Martin "Dog".

[Shadowen]

5. Depends on what you mean.

Littlefinger and Tyrion, for example, interest me, but they're hardly admirable, except for certain of their traits which have nothign to do with morals.

Others, meanwhile, are so very upright that they could best be classified as naive. And in the world, naive guys finish last.

[pitohui]

4. wonderful author

i love "armageddon rag"