Item: A Dance with Dragons
Rating: 2.00
Author: sa090

by George R.R. Martin

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • THE BOOK BEHIND THE FIFTH SEASON OF THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES

NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF THE DECADE

Dubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers the fifth book in his landmark series—as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: BOOK FIVE

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

Praise for A Dance with Dragons

“Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, A Dance with Dragons is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined.”—The Washington Post

“Long live George Martin . . . a literary dervish, enthralled by complicated characters and vivid language, and bursting with the wild vision of the very best tale tellers.”—The New York Times

“One of the best series in the history of fantasy.”—Los Angeles Times

I did it!! I’m finally up to date with this series!!!

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Well, what can I say? I liked this one better than the previous book solely for the fact that it included Tyrion and Daenerys, AKA the only characters I actually care about in the series. However, like the previous book, it’s filled to the brim with so much filler from so many characters (including the two I love) that I’m just curious as to what exactly is Martin’s plan here? How much stretching is going to happen until we finally get to the final arc in the series? I do understand the drive to be as immersive as possible in your series with high fantasy, but does it really need to include the point of views of all of these people who add absolutely nothing to the series? I’m not sure.

I won’t deny that it was interesting to see how some characters act now in contrast to how they started, even when I don’t actually like them all that much (Jon for instance), but I can’t help feeling like I’m sometimes reading nonsense that with or without, wouldn’t change much for me when there are faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar more interesting stuff in the series that could have used that focus instead. I always hoped to see more of Essos for example, know more about what’s beyond the wall or Bran’s new found abilities, but I don’t think I got that in the same way I wanted here when what was focused on.

I sometimes worry that I may have done myself a disservice by picking this series up, a couple of books were fantastic for sure, but 3/5 out of them made me want to do everything, but most of the time.... the only thing that kept me going was my hope to be blown away like most fans of the series keep saying, but alas I don’t think I’ll ever get to that level if it continues like this. I find it really strange why these huge books didn’t give a bigger focus on the many subplots in this series to wrap them up, or at least aid them enough to be easily wrapped up in the remaining 2 books. It would most likely be a better move in the end than to focus on all the new characters that consistently keep coming up in this series, but that might be just me.

Hopefully, I can lose myself in his history books because if the focus on the world is that important to him, then those books should blow me away.... maybe clear up some of the questions I have about the series as well. I do think that the basis of the world, the struggle for power and some of the characters are pretty good, but to actually get to that I have to scrape the excess and dig through hundreds of pages, which unfortunately is becoming a hassle. But it will do, because I don’t plan on watching the show or investing all that time in something that long, some scenes like that badass scene in S07E04 are fine though.

Final rating: an incredibly weak 2.5

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)

by George R.R. Martin

Reviewed by sa090 on Oct 21, 2018

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