Dom

I think you make some good points here. I enjoyed many of the events in ToM (it had so many moments of awesome), but I didn't enjoy the book as a whole as much as I expected to. I think this is not just that I had ridiculously high expectations, but is also due to some of the issues you identified - pacing and character changes, particularly the drop in IQ of so many of the characters. I had some of the same issues with TGS, but I found that on a reread (forewarned so to speak) they didn't grate as much. Anyway, I'm fully intending to try and reconstruct the books into pretty much chronological order and reread them that way in the run up to AMOL.

However, I think you go too far in supposing how RJ would have written the books. One thing I loved about RJ was how he surprised readers with what he chose to make use of, sometimes setting up storylines that were just overtaken by events, and tricking us with points of view. If anyone knows how these books should be it is Harriet (after all, she's been at the heart of them for years and she heard the story). I trust her judgement.

I also think BS is right to say that the books he has written are like a film with a different director. BS writes great action scenes but can't do politics so well - hopefuly in the last book this won't be a problem!