Is a Song of Ice and Fire better than Lord of the Rings?

[Eönwë]

For me, I think the main difference is that LOTR is story-driven, and the characters are expressed through that, while ASOIAF is the other way around. They can both be very good approaches, but the problem with ASOIAF is that it gets too big and starts to fall apart/spiral out of control in AFFC. Yes, it's fun to see each character's personal journey, but it gets too much by that book.

That said, sometimes his dialogue is quite entertaining, but comparing his general writing style to Tolkien's can only end in sadness, though it does get better as the books go on (it's almost inversely proportional to plot strength).