What are the problems with the "A song of ice and fire" series?

[Dienekes]

On cynicism. I might be a bit biased here since most of what I read outside of fiction is on Greece, Rome, and Quattrocento Italy, but when compared to those periods GRRM doesn't seem very cynical at all. Honestly some of his characters survive when they really shouldn't. And no one has really gone on a full on purge yet.

On Twilight. I honestly do think the book is pretty bad from every standard I can tell. It's prose is bad, it's story is bad, and while I admittedly only read the first one to see what the fuss was about, I did not grow an emotional attachment to anyone.

But. My standard response to these situations is to raise a glass to Meyer. She beat the system, congrats, I wish I was half so lucky as her. Or even had the motivation required to take pen to page and look for a publisher.

Perhaps, but the Seven Kingdoms do have an influential, active state religion in the Faith of the Seven, which seems firmly entrenched in all aspects of daily life and has moral tenets not that far from 'comfortable modern, western' morals.

So did the Crusades, what's your point?