1040 pages Hardcover (Fantasy Fiction)
This is the 5th book in Martin’s A song of Ice and Fire series. Ever since I was introduced to A Game of Thrones I have been a huge Martin fan. The latest installment continues the story. However, it continues where we were left at the end of the 3rd book, A Storm of Swords. The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons follow the same time line. At the beginning I was a little confused as some characters seem out of place. Martin uses this to tell some of the story that we didn’t know yet, but already know what happens.
A Dance with Dragons point of views focuses on Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys, Bran Stack, and Devon Seaworth. Once we get towards the end of the book you see the timeline of the 4th and 5th book start to blend together and we see chapters from a few characters most readers were excited to read about. Most interesting is one character is not mentioned at all and that left me wondering what happened with that person.
Tyrion has traveled across the sea and now on the run because of the murder of his father. He starts the book with Magister Illyrio. He soon is shipped off with others and his adventures take him across the world. Jon Snow is now Commander of the Night’s Watch. He struggles with forming alliances with Stannis as well as the wildlings. The threat of the others is imminent and he is looking for anyway to protect the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys has taken Meereen, but with eneimies on all sides within and without the city she struggles to control what she rules. Her dragons have grown almost large enough to ride and eat enough food to show it. Bran continues past the wall in search of the three eyed crow. Devon Seaworth, at the order of Stannis, sets out to find support for his king.
It is easy to compare this to A Feast for Crows. Both books follow the same timeline and both have a similar feel. It seems as Martin is setting us up. All the background and movements and relationships and alliances are all being developed. Honestly, this has the reader feeling as if it is all a bit slow paced. Happily, as the book goes on and the timelines remerge the things we are looking forward to start to build up and we can see major things are right over the horizon. Characters that we haven’t heard about in 2000 pages start to reappear. And then the book ends.
I truly enjoy Martin’s writing. His ability to get inside so many different people’s heads and allow you to “think” with them is what makes this series appealing. By itself this book is disappointing in that it is telling the “story in between the story”, but it is well written and I feel we’ll be rewarded once we have the whole series in hand…whenever that will be.
4 Intellectual/Emotional: Seeing the continued story of my favorite characters was great and Martin is fantastic at getting the reader to become involved with his characters.
3 Style/Readability: Martin’s style is still great and we continue with each chapter representing one point of view. However, the first part of the book is slow moving.
3 Long Term: This part of the story needs to be told, but in the future, when I have no doubt this series will be acclaimed as one of the greatest fantasy series, this will be a book people burn through to get to the next one.
10 out of 13 and well deserved. This series has been fantastic and is now getting to the point that expectations are going to be hard to live up to, but I hope that in the end we will all be wonderfully treated.
As always,
Keep Turning Pages
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