... there you have it, Quartet - Four Tales from the Crossroads, four stories in four genres, Martin's writing in a nutshell. Does that make this book worth reading? I'd say only for the real fan. An unfinished novel, a piece of another, a teleplay... they are all worth reading but their still only bits and pieces of Martin's career. Unfinished projects, unrealized ambition and a taste of a far larger project, none of that makes for very satisfying reading. It does give the reader a better understanding of Martin's development as a writer and why he chose to follow the path he did. Martin's career is littered with ideas that did not lead to stories and projects that were eventually abandoned. It takes nerve to publish some of it anyway and in that sense enjoyed reading it. On the other hand, it leaves me wishing he had finished Black and White and Red All Over. Or that he will at some point. The chances of that happening seem remote at best. So think carefully before picking this up, Quartet will leave you hungry for something that hasn't been written yet, and what's worse, something that may never be written.

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