A Dance with Dragons | Thoughts
3 Stars.
Eesh. What a long. Long. Long installment. Not to mention the time I took to read it. Half the chapters are long winded tangents that lend nothing to the story (at least, not the story or characters I'd come to care about in the first three books). I'm all in favor of epic fantasy, but 959 pages later the plot has BARELY moved forward. What's more, just when the characters reached the point where FINALLY they were about to do something of significance...nope sorry end of chapter and last appearance in book. Dany finally gets her head together (at least, I think?) and that's the end...after countless chapters of her making decisions based on the well being of a country that isn't even her main goal, acting less like the mother of dragons by the page, she finally acts like a dragon queen. But I feel with her as with every other significant character; we were just finally reaching a climax in each of their parts after trudging painfully along with them (for nearly 1000 pages!) to only be cut off at the brink, forced to wait another several years to be satisfied...but really, by then, the anticipation will have grown cold.
Bad form. Bad form indeed. All I can hope is that the next one cuts the shit and gets on with it. Because of course, I'll be among the hoards to line up for my copy, hoping desperately that GRRM will not play me for a fool again.