Nerdistan: A Dance With Dragons Review

For a nerd, I came fairly late to George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire*" series, known to most as the source for HBO's "Game of Thrones". I finally read the first book 2 years ago and the rest last year, so I "only" waited a year for book 5 -- "real" fans have been waiting for 5 years. Well, I finished it yesterday after a manic week of reading. Here are my thoughts, with spoilers at the end (and hidden, I think).

I'd rate it as the 3rd best of the books behind books 1 and 3 (my favorite). While it focuses on my 3 favorite characters, it leaves EVERYONE in a cliffhanger. And one of those cliffhangers is suspiciously similar to how Davos's story ended in "A Feast for Crows" (Book 4, and my least favorite).
My favorite characters are Bran, Jaime, Tyrion and (surprisingly) Asha. Only one of these has a strong book, but I liked it anyway.
I loved the Bran chapters and how he may (or may not) have been in several others. But we waited too damn long to get stuck with just 4 or so POVs from the boy wonder.

If you're trying to get a role as a POV character in the series...

don't accept a role in a Prologue. They're 0-for-5 on survival.

DRAGONS! Finally!

After ending the previous book with talk of a major conspiracy, there was exactly 0 progress or mention of this. Pretty freakin' disappointing.

The Melisandre POV was a letdown ...

But if Stannis really is dead, hopefully she'll realize that seeing Jon while looking for Azhor Ahai is an indicator that he's the Chosen One**. And how about her blocking Jon from Ghost? I went from hating her to wanting to smack Jon for not listening to her.

Varys!

Nice to see you back! Now, WTF? What is your game? Ser Barristan thinks you were the cause of Aerys's paranoia and now you kill the only competent Lannister left?*** And surrounded by a bunch of psycho kids? Or should I say "birds"?

All Martin's talk of the Meereenese knot ...

and the various people after Daenerys never actually meet her. Only Martell (and he was a) boring and b) unknown until now) actually makes it? No dragon horn, no Tyrion, no maester? Then it's ok. Ugh. Not awesome sauce, not at all. The lack of a maester is the worst -- unless they were behind the assasination attempt. I am pretty sure that most of Dany's story in book 3 is getting combined with book 5 in the TV show. She went from being a favorite character to meh.

Why on Earth would Jon think ...

that saving a bunch of wildling women and kids is worth risking all his fighting men? Actually, I was ok with the idea, until Mel saw it to be a complete failure. And dead things in the WATER? Are there undead seals? Krakens? That is not cool. Well, it will be for the reader (i.e., me), but not so much for the characters.

The Horn of Joramun ...

-- gone. Or not? I'm thinking this is not good at all. If it's still up there, the Others might find it. Then again, maybe they won't.

* Yeah, I think the title is a bit pretentious, too
** Prince That Was Promised, whatever
*** Actually, Jaime is turning into a heck of a negotiator. It helps when everyone thinks that you're enough of an asshole to kill everyone