Best Fantasy since Tolkien

I have been reading George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. The breadth and depth of the story is amazing. There is a great history to the world and characters and their families. The characters are wonderful, the story has twists and turns that *nobody* could predict. And nobody is quite what they seem. 'Good' characters are shown to have fatal flaws, and 'bad' characters are shown to be more than the reputations they have. And the magic is mostly subtle, leaving one uncertain if it is real. And the magic which is undenialably real has horrible consequences.

There are some real shockers in the books too. Many main characters die. George isn't afraid allow the intertia of events to have consequences, logical if not predictable, that are also fatal.

My only upset is that the fourth book isn't out yet, and won't be available until August.

I highly recommend the series though.