No, I haven't decided to read ASoIaF; I'm tentatively following the blog to see if it looks interesting enough to overcome the negatives. :) I doubt I'll read it in any case; I have a nice long list of "to be read" books that I KNOW I'll like. Mostly I'm following it for a while because the WoT reread is so slow now.

I got a chuckle out of your comment, because I don't think I fit your image of the typical Cadsuane supporter. I started reading these books back when there were only two. For many years I only found Cadsuane annoying, as do the majority of readers. One day, less than a year ago, (as frequently happens) I found myself playing devil's advocate when she was being ragged on during the reread. As I tried to consider other possibilities than "she's just a bossy, overbearing old woman" I realized that the books are actually stuffed full of information about her that I had not adequately considered before. The more I looked with my eyes open, the more I realized that I had been completely unfair to her in my prior understanding. ::shrug:: It's happened for a few others as well, so I know I'm not alone. There are some here who really loathed her with a holy passion, but have started to develop, if not an actual liking for her, at least a certain amount of respect. However, I sadly note that there are many who are incapable of setting aside their first-impression antagonism enough to honestly consider other possibilities.

Greyhawk - they both got balefired in the Great Tor Hiccup of 10-6-10 or whatever; Tor had a server issue and lost pretty much everything posted after midnight EDT until sometime this morning. I thought about reconstructing it, but I've said the same thing so many times, and mostly proved to myself that when people have made up their minds to dislike a character, you're not likely to change their minds by pointing out conflicting evidence. So... I shall say no more. For now.