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Notes -
I'm also enjoying Dorothy Dunnett, and I find that Guy Gavriel Kay scratches a similar itch (he isn't explicitly historical but its extremely clear what his inspiration is, so he constrains the story that way).
I'm not sure Martin's problem is a lack of interest, or frankly even in skill. He's far too much of a perfectionist, and the amount of moving pieces that he has to manage in TWoW is staggering. The reception of the later sessions of the show I think caused some quite extensive rewrites from him, which is why we are seeing such a huge delay. Interesting that Dance is your least favorite book in the series: I just did a reread this summer, and while I found I didn't like Dance as much as I used to (was my favorite book in the series from about 2012-2022), it still held up pretty well thematically.
I'm not sure the blue-blooded characters are all one dimensional in ASOIAF. Joffery is probably the least well developed of these I can think of, but he still clearly has reasons for his shitness (absent, whoring father and doting/controlling mother). Even in Harry Potter this isn't true: Draco gets a redemption arc in the last few books.
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