A Game of Groans: A Sonnet of Slush and Soot

A Game of Groans: A Sonnet of Slush and Soot - George R.R. Washington, Alan Goldsher

Dumb.

This could have been funny, as great as 'A Song of Ice and Fire' can be there is ample fodder in the series and in Martin's writing: his "titillation" scenes, meandering plots stuffed with extraneous detail, stupid fantasy spelling, etc. this should have been a fun and light read that both deflates the series and offers another angle of appreciation. Nothing to see here.

Oh there are jokes, desperately over-thought wordplay of the sub-Mad magazine variety that overshadows the rare clever pieces the stock writer came up with - for example, Daenerys' named 'Lolyta', two for the price of one. If that didn't get you into hysterics, I'm sorry, that's the prose Everest as far as 'Game of Groans' is concerned.

I think its great there's a television show, and even better a well-done one, but this parody focuses on material that is only present/applicable to the HBO version of the series. Who did they think were more likely to read a spoof of a book franchise? But that's not what I disliked about the book, I wouldn't have even minded banality or clumsiness, I've read plenty of tie-in novels and products and taken them as the cheap entertainment they are, but I do want such things to go swiftly.

This book is scanty, but I could hardly get through a page at a time once my initial patience wore thin. Enough is enough, this is awful, you're welcome.