A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five [Hardcover]

**Spoilers ahead**

My only consolation is that I started the series after this came out. I can't even imagine waiting 10 years for "A Feast For Crows" and "A Dance With Dragons".

A Dance With Dragons was a chore to read, even more so than Feast. By the last quarter, I found myself sighing, grunting, and skimming pages in frustration. It is beautifully written, but gets a 1 star because of the following:

GRRM is a brilliant man. He knows what he is doing, which either makes the last 2 books in this series a work of incredibly isolated ambition, or a flagrant show of dishonesty. Creating such fantastic cliffhangers, then barely addressing them over the course of the following 10 years/2 books/2000 pages/$30-$50 is an intentional move, no matter which way you slice it. It's not something "we don't get" or "different than we expected". It's manipulative, not unlike reality TV. Whatever the motives (getting us to buy the next volume, stalling for time), it's a little stinky. Plus, the author's apparent refusal to take this criticism seriously doesn't bode well for the rest of the series.

Onto the actual book : There is an incredible amount of filler, and too many concurrent storylines that go nowhere. The overlapping Feast For Crows timeline stunt was cheap, but cheaper still was not to use the rest of that timeline to tie up loose ends. We keep reading, hoping for a closure that never comes. He has completely shied away from what made the first 3 books so great. Gripping characters and fast moving action, all set inside a fascinating, lively, ruthless world. I thought A Feast For Crows was just him taking a breather, but turns out he's lost it for good. What a monumental fall from grace.

With that said, my main gripe with the series as a whole is this :

GRRM has a way of introducing fantastic characters and, if not killing them off altogether, assassinating the particular attachment we have to them, while not giving us anything in return. He just suddenly amputates whatever excitement we have for their stories. Every arc is always somehow..stunted. Why do this? It's unrewarding and exhausting. Jaime Lannister, touted as one of the most dangerous men ever with a sword, gets his sword hand chopped off. ok...so now what? Bran, the ultimate climber with the ultimate secret, has his legs broken, and loses his memory. Ok...now what? Khal Drogo, strong, leader of the Dothraki, UNDEFEATED SINCE FOREVER!! dies, his army scattered...ok. Robb Stark, king of the north, symbol of love and justice!! murdered, his army scattered...King Stannis, harsh, but fair, leading an army with the amazing powers of the FIRE GOD...freezes to death, his army scattered. ok. Brienne, devotes her life to Catelyn Stark, dies at the hands of Catelyn Stark...ok. Dany, waker of dragons, conqueror of the eastern lands to make her way into Westeros, is now afraid of dragons, and refuses to go to Westeros....ok..? Cersei, insidious, proud, beautiful, intelligent...is now foolish, childish, humiliated, weak and ugly...her relationship with Jaime, once a pivotal characteristic of the Lannisters' strength and moral bankruptcy, is now in shambles...ok, but where to now? Littlefinger, the most scheming of them all, and arguably the most efficient player in this game of thrones....was sent to rule the only neutral Kingdom in the realm. ok then. And Jon Snow...I don't even want to try to understand this one.

The list goes on and on...He pushes us away from every character that matters, but never calls us back. We keep finding our footing only to hit a brick wall. That + all those new characters and twice as many cliffhangers...It's just not fun anymore :( It's an abusive test of a reader's patience, excitement and goodwill.

Let's just pray Tyrion won't have his tongue torn out in the next book, shall we?

It has been SIX LONG YEARS since George R.R. Martin last released a book in his Song Of Ice And Fire Sequence. That's a pretty long wait.

So was "A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five" worth the wait? Well... yes and no. It returns to much-beloved characters like Tyrion, Bran and Daenarys and slowly moves us toward the complex, treacherous endgame of Westeros' power struggles. But it's also very slow-moving, and sometimes it feels like events are happening too slowly.

After killing his father, Tyrion flees his native land and ends up adrift in another, dependent on others for safety and shelter. So instead, he forges a new destiny for himself. Meanwhile, Bran is en route to the Wall, only to run into wargs and discover new facets of his mysterious skinchanging power.

The new Night Watch commander Jon Snow finds himself facing an incoming horde of wildlings, as well as the presence of grouchy King Stannis and his bloodthirsty priestess Melisandre. Jon is determined to keep doing what he thinks is right, but his steadfastness may also be his undoing.

Having conquered the city of Meereen, Daenarys starts learning the ropes of queenship there, as well as caring for her three rapidly-growing dragons. Of course, she soon discovers that it's a lot harder than it sounds, as she becomes enmeshed in a deadly tangle of love, treason, ambition and bloody murder.

It's honestly hard to sum up a George R.R. Martin's books without giving away far too much, or going into countless detailed subplots. However, this book is very slow moving, and there isn't a lot of forward momentum until the last several chapters. It feels like Martin is arranging his vast chessboard for a the final clash, but it's going to be slow moving until he's done.

However, even a Martin book moving forward slowly is a striking experience. He embroiders this bloodspattered tapestry with vivid prose ("he fluttered like a burning leaf, a moth caught in a candle flame"), sex, and quite a bit of gruesome violence handled very casually (when a man is beheaded, someone asks, "Can I have his boots?").

The only very flawed scene that springs to mind is Daenarys' final scene, which is so melodramatic as to be almost silly. And yes, it ends on a multiple cliffhanger. Prepare to scream in frustration.

As for the vast cast of flawed, intriguing characters, Martin only handles some of them -- we see more of Bran's burgeoning powers, Jon's bleak, frustrating life as a commander, the determined Tyrion afloat without his family's influence, and Daenarys' quiet nature at war with her "dragon's blood."

Well, he touches on some of the other characters -- such as Cersei -- but mostly focuses on those four. And without revealing too much, yet another much-loved character seems to have bitten the proverbial dust.

"A Dance of Dragons" dances too slowly, but it's still a deeply absorbing read -- and it feels like George R.R. Martin is arranging the grand finale. Let's hope the next book doesn't take six years.

Going to make this Short....

I was totally disappointed in this latest book of the series. Too slow, long "nothing happening" periods throughout, not sure if the author can salvage the story. I'd rate the previous books a 4.5 and with this one I'm being generous with a 2.

It was an interesting twist to see some key characters killed off in previous books, but you don't have to do it over and over. Eventually you're going to kill off all the characters that are interesting.