HOTD is honestly only good because it's one of the last farts of fiction that Martin was able to squeeze out before he'll likely stop writing and just chill out on his pile of money (that or die cuss dude's blood could likely be used as popcorn butter).
Thing is it provided a whole outline and important key events and compared to GoT HBO knows not to murder a money cow again with poor writing direction and oversight (then again they also just tanked Westworld so who knows). HOTD is also literally just a play by play of the war of roses but with dragons and more incest.
HOTD is honestly only good because it's one of the last farts of fiction that Martin was able to squeeze out before he'll likely stop writing and just chill out on his pile of money (that or die cuss dude's blood could likely be used as popcorn butter).
Idk the books that hotd was based on was more of an outliner rather than a more detailed thing like the main books
Thing is it provided a whole outline and important key events and compared to GoT HBO knows not to murder a money cow again with poor writing direction and oversight (then again they also just tanked Westworld so who knows). HOTD is also literally just a play by play of the war of roses but with dragons and more incest.