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proteinscollide 's review for:

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
3.0

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I finally got around to watching season 3 of the show and decided to re-read A Storm of Sword and A Feast for Crows so I could re-familiarise myself with canon before I dove into A Dance with Dragons. The great thing about this parallel tv show/book approach is that it gives me an appreciation of the strengths of each medium (as well as highlighting the weaknesses). Having a visual reference also makes it easier for me to keep track of people and places, so since my original read of the first four books eons ago, I now have a greater appreciation for characters and storylines I had little patience for first time around, when all I cared about what racing to find out what happens next.

That helped with reading ADwD because truth be told, not a lot HAPPENS – like every man and their goat has pointed out, GRRM sorely needs an editor. Gah, the PACING of the last two books is so frustrating – it’s not enough in a giant tome to just pop in on a character POV once so you know they're not dead after the heart-in-mouth cliffhanger they experienced in the last book, especially when GRRM then has something else happen in a flash to keep us in suspense AGAIN (this happens TOO OFTEN). Meanwhile, there seem to be so many revisits to Dany’s Meereenese problems which are a turgid, unenjoyable mess for most part.

But even with the morass of new characters introduced with not a lot of time spent exploring who they are and what their motivations are and what they’re all up to (e.g. the various Martells), I was ultimately absorbed in ADwD, as GRRM unravels layer upon layer of plotting across time and place; absorbed, and at times mightily confused. Luckily, Westeros.org exists – and after I lost so much time I didn’t have in the first place reading first the books, I lost even more reading through like eight million forum threads about all the theories of what will be, lol. Bring on the next book!