A song of Ice and fire discussion (spoilers incl A Dance with Dragons)

[Chrischa]

May I chip in to this thread with a confession? I've read book one and three quarters of book two of A Song of Fire & Ice, and then I gave up. I found the book incredibly hard to follow with over 20 main characters, of whom you had to remember the background history and alliances for each and every one. On top of that it seemed that most of it was politics, which is not very interesting to me.

Since then I've seen this series top the reading list of most fantasy fans, sitting comfortably among all my other favorite books. So, the fault must be with me.

What was I not seeing? If one of you can slap me around the head and enlighten me on the way I should have read these books, I'll happily give the series another go.