Originally Posted by Burning Down

Heh, I only just started the series a couple of weeks ago and I'm already on the second book. I actually love that each chapter focuses on a different character's journey and experiences. You're not that far into the book - keep reading and you'll see that the format makes sense. All the characters are tied together, but I think if Martin wrote it all as one big epic saga, it would just be fucking messy and hard to follow. Your memory of each character will be jogged every time you read their chapter.