The Open Way explores the idea of what would happen if Rhager Targaryen had defeated Robert Baratheon and won the War. As expected there are many changes that are set to occur because of this Alternate history with the many of the characters we know and love finding themselves in different positions then they were in canon.
However the main problem is that this story has been written before the last two books have been published. Which means the author is forced to come up with their own explanations on why Rhager instigated the war with his kidnapping of Lyanna Stark. It fails to explore the consequences of Rhager winning despite alienating five of the seven kingdoms, and his father King Aerys murdering many noblemen unjustly without due process.
Another weakness of the story is that the Author riddles the story with many PO Vs reminiscent of Martin's writing style. Many of these POVS are secondary characters in canon who are lacking personalities because we only know of them based on second hand accounts by other people. As a result those PO Vs become OC-stand ins and we are given a false account of who these characters may have been like. Furthermore the writer fails to utilizes the many characters who would have been affected by the war such as Ned Stark, Catelyn Tully, Jaime Lannister are either forgotten about or are simply added as extras to the characters in their story.
Unfortunately this story will age badly when the last two books are finally published and will render most of the characters and events in this story meaningless as the motivations of such characters will turn out differently then what we will find in this story.
Don't waste your time with this story, just wait for the books to come out, ultimately GRRM will come out with a better story then this author could ever hope to achieve.
Wasted Story Potential
The Open Way explores the idea of what would happen if Rhager Targaryen had defeated Robert Baratheon and won the War. As expected there are many changes that are set to occur because of this Alternate history with the many of the characters we know and love finding themselves in different positions then they were in canon. However the main problem is that this story has been written before the last two books have been published. Which means the author is forced to come up with their own explanations on why Rhager instigated the war with his kidnapping of Lyanna Stark. It fails to explore the consequences of Rhager winning despite alienating five of the seven kingdoms, and his father King Aerys murdering many noblemen unjustly without due process.
Another weakness of the story is that the Author riddles the story with many PO Vs reminiscent of Martin's writing style. Many of these POVS are secondary characters in canon who are lacking personalities because we only know of them based on second hand accounts by other people. As a result those PO Vs become OC-stand ins and we are given a false account of who these characters may have been like. Furthermore the writer fails to utilizes the many characters who would have been affected by the war such as Ned Stark, Catelyn Tully, Jaime Lannister are either forgotten about or are simply added as extras to the characters in their story.
Unfortunately this story will age badly when the last two books are finally published and will render most of the characters and events in this story meaningless as the motivations of such characters will turn out differently then what we will find in this story.
Don't waste your time with this story, just wait for the books to come out, ultimately GRRM will come out with a better story then this author could ever hope to achieve.