[Shev]

Stop after 7 heh, save yourself the tragic waste of paper it's become.

Read Robin Hobb instead - all the realism of Martin without the constant slaughtering of every one of your favourite characters. Admittedly, seeing the heroes live through everything without a scratch apart from the one scripted, overdone death near the end(see Eddings, Feist if that's your sort of thing, it's all good fun to read) gets pretty freaking anonying after a while, but Martin takes it beyond the ridiculous from my point of view. Hobb is the only one to have found the balance I would like to see.

Bernard Cornwell is another whose historical fantasy are hugely realistic and gritty - the Warlord and Grail trilogies in particular.

There's been a lot of other good series listed so far in the thread, so I won't make this any longer by writing reviews of them all online. (I work in a library, so i've got the time heh :p)