Dance with Dragons -- SPOILERS!

[LKD]

Well, I've read it and digested it. I'll share a few ideas. I'll spoiler them just in case someone accidently clicks on the thread. You've been warned! Be careful!

Spoiler!

1: Man, there is a helluva lot of trickery involved in this world. Babies switched several times, illusions allowing people to be switched, con jobs on the identity of Arya, etc. Lots of trickery.

2: I wouldn't have thought it possible but I actually felt some sympathy for Theon. I had to remind myself that he'd killed two innocent peasant children, among many other atrocities.

3: Dany just can't seem to get a break, and I was less than happy with where Martin left her -- WTF is she going to do now? Has she come to some sort of epiphany? Unclear, and uncool.

4: Tyrion constantly delivers the goods. Man he is a funny dude.

5: I felt no sympathy for Cersei. I enjoyed the idea of her walking butt-assed nekkid through the streets of the capital city. The one little boy's comment "her boobs look just like my mom's!" just cracked me up big time.

6: Either A: I'm too stupid to have seen the connection between Illyrio and Varys or B: it came as a surprise to all of us. Either way, it's a cool plot point. Varys is one sneaky little bugger. One wonders if Varys expected Tyrion would put the crossbow bolt into Tywin. I mean, Varys is pretty damn smart, it seems.

7: Are they gonna kill Stannis ignobly in the snow and give his sword to Jon? Will the Iron Bank's backing let Stannis win his battles?

8: I touched on this with Dany, but there are way too many loose ends here for a book the guy made us wait the better part of a decade for. Pissed me off.

All in all, though, I'm still glad I bought it!

[LKD]

Good God, am I the only one who has read it by now? Or am I the only one with opinions on it??

[Blades of Vanatar]

I am on page 469 and counting. Patience my good man! I am savoring the read, taking my time. After reading the first book, I had no idea that Tyrion would be the charater I enjoy most. I love that little dwarf bastard! Martin sure can write... only if he could do it FASTER!

[Harbourboy]

I had to wait about 20 years for Martin to finish this, so you'll excuse me if I take my own sweet time to getting around to reading it. If he was too lazy to write it quickly, I'm going to be equally lazy about reading it, especially if I'm going to have to wait another 750 years for the next book.

[joacqin]

Just finished it and I must say that despite working as long as he did Martin did not manage to solve his problems. He is still lost, still doesn't know how to get where he wants to go. I also think he is too fond of twists, too proud to stick to a twist if readers had figured it out. Sadly "Dance with dragons" did not quench my fears for this series, it is still a good book but it is too much. In the first few books he cut out a lot of action, left many things as second hand tellings and things were allowed to happen off-stage. Now, now everything needs to get a view point, everything needs to described in detail and I don't know. I am afraid that Martin wanted to write a story about a civil war with knights but someone talked him into writing an epic fantasy tale and when the civil war story was supposed to turn into an epic fantasy story he got lost. He does not know how to do it. I pray and hope I am wrong but the last two books have been like he is running in circles afraid of going forward.

Enough of my rantings, I think in hte end and it took long enough Dany ended up just where she needed to be. Commanding a dragon and with a khalazar ready to bend the knee. As for Jon apparently dying this is what I meant when I wrote that Martin could change a twist just cause people were on to it. It was commonly believed that Jon was Rhaegar's son and that he would be one of hte heads of hte dragon and it fit, it fit very well and if he somehow lives it may still fit but now there are strong hints that he is not only probably dead but also Eddard Stark's bastard.

Why can't any series keep up the quality all the way through? The first three books are master pieces the last two are good books but compared to the first three they pale. Same with Erikson, he wrote brilliant books but the last third is not the nearly as strong as the two first. I guess brilliance is hard to keep up, decent writers write decent books that are of similar qualities. Woe the author who shows brilliance cause he will unquestionably fail.

[LKD]

I have to agree with my Swedish friend. Martin keeps introducing all sorts of new threads, and I think he's overreached himself a bit. Ambition can be a dangerous flaw . . .

[Ben Snow]

I don't want to slight GRR Martin, but it seems that in order to achieve the 7 book goal he's added characters and plot lines instead of making his existing plots stronger. The plots that I love are Jon, Bran, Tyrion, Arrya and I was really enjoying the Davos story. Now that I am reading A Feast For Crows and none of those plots are used other than Arrya I feel abandoned almost.

I know that A Dance With Dragons features those plots through the majority of the book because he had to split the stories due to a length issue but instead of having Asha and Aeron basically have the same plots and adding Arianne and the Arys plots he could have included the ones I mentioned above and make their already solid storylines even better.

I don't know, maybe it's just me but it seems to be that he is over reaching on his storyline trying to create an immense web and it seems to be weakening the strong story he had.

[joacqin]

Yes it does.

[Exor]

I also read it and didn't like it that much.

Spoiler!

To my taste it was too heavy on Daenerys and Jon ... both doing nothing but "organizing".

Just imagine how awesome it would have been from Hizdairs point of view, "Being head of the rebellion against the Daeneries, while also trying to marry her" I mean how can that not be interesting.
Or Vals travel beyond the Wall to convince the Wildlings, which kinda just happened offscreen (ok that missing I don't mind that much.. since it would have been mostly walking through snow anyway^^)

But damn was I happy when Daenerys jumps into the Colosseum whips Drogon into shape and takes off. Best Moment of the book.

I can't wait to see Cerseis The-Mountain-that-rides-Zombie in action.

I also agree to the general consent that there are a bit too many plots going on.

[Ben Snow]

I cannot lie. I need A Dance With Dragons to be better than Feast of Crows. I am having a hard time getting through it. Especially with Northlanders vol.5 (fantastic Viking graphic) and House of Mystery vol.5 having been released this month.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Fnished it over last weekend. I enjoyed the book. He is adding a lot more plotlines. Hopefully he will make it all fit together inthe next book.

As for this book, I was hoping for more Tyrion and we got it. More Jon Snow and we got it. More Daeny and we got it. My favorite character by far is Tyrion. If Martin could work it out that Tyrion ends up as King of the World I wiill piss myself. Nothing like a smartass dwarf!

[Merlanni]

Wheel of time syndrome?

You know what, I will start al over again when it is done and than add feats for Crows and al the rest to it.

So many series to read that are finished.

[Barmy Army]

I've finished it whilst away on my jollies and really enjoyed it.

I agree there's perhaps a few too many threads moving around now. But it's still enjoyable.

[Ben Snow]

Well, I'm like 200 pages in and so far it has been better than A Feast of Crows. Just in the sense that it's more about the plots that left us gasping at the end of A Storm of Swords and less about some random chick in Dorne who is attempting her teenage rebellion.

Although Dany's story is dull. But I am enjoying Tyrions and Jons.

[Harbourboy]

Originally Posted by Barmy Army

I've finished it whilst away on my jollies and really enjoyed it.

I agree there's perhaps a few too many threads moving around now. But it's still enjoyable.

Me too. I enjoyed it. I just dread to think how long I will have to wait to find out what happens to Arya. The dodgiest bit for me was when Bran happened to stumble upon a long lost tribe of Tolkien high elves. That all seemed just a bit random.

[The Great Snook]

I just finished it also, and I enjoyed it. I was stunned with the last chapter at the wall and with the way the epilogue ended.

Hopefully, I live long enough for the series to be wrapped up.

As an aside, with Sanderson about to finish off the the WoT I wonder if we could convince him to finishi off this series too?

[joacqin]

I don't think he would be able to. Sanderson's clean-cut wholesome way of writing suits WoT I don't think the result would be as successful with asoif.

[The Great Snook]

I never have thought of him as clean cut and wholesome, but you may have a point.