In what way is the writing in A Song of Ice and Fire bad?
It's kind of hard to put into words without going into very specific example though, but that's pretty much the case with any piece of writing, and I don't have the text in front of me or the time to do that so I'm sorry if this doesn't answer your question very well, but here goes:
Martin's very good at certain things. He's a very good composer of stories and lore, and he's also excellent at placing you into the character's eyes through some clever diction and good dialogue. Those are his strengths, his weaknesses are pretty much everything else. His moment to moment action scenes are cumbersome, his descriptions (while certainly very detailed) are often tiresome and unnecessary, and much of the way he presents things lacks what I could describe as flair. I've read the first 3 books many many times, but after reading a greater variety of stuff, I've just seen him woefully outdone in terms of writing and general structure and, more than anything else, pacing.
Martin's very good at certain things. He's a very good composer of stories and lore, and he's also excellent at placing you into the character's eyes through some clever diction and good dialogue. Those are his strengths, his weaknesses are pretty much everything else. His moment to moment action scenes are cumbersome, his descriptions (while certainly very detailed) are often tiresome and unnecessary, and much of the way he presents things lacks what I could describe as flair. I've read the first 3 books many many times, but after reading a greater variety of stuff, I've just seen him woefully outdone in terms of writing and general structure and, more than anything else, pacing.