I do agree that the comment comes over to me as having a go. Having said that, the guy is entitled to his opinion. So you're both right
ICE shows promise as a Malazan author, I think, but he is far from the levels of Erikson. Understandable, but nevertheless. I found NoK to be worth the money I paid (can't remember what it was, but something like £35 signed hb), but it wasn't a fantastic book. Perhaps more for the Malazan-obsessed than the casual reader.
As to the comment and whether I'd have bought the book after reading the comment - hell yeah
I love it when authors and the like are prepared to say what they actually think, instead of tip-toeing around each other. I've never read aSoIaF, so I don't even know if the comment was justified or not... I just like that he's willing to say it.
@Valko - there are surely many opinions of your favourite authors' that you don't agree with. Is that really the be all, end all? If one of them had a pop at Martin, would you avoid their overpriced niche market output (and NoK definitely falls into the niche market category imo)? I'm not trying to flame here, just asking.
PS - I am coming round to the idea that Bakker excels Erikson, but I'm going to do a re-read of PoN in a couple of weeks, so I'll leave my final judgement til then