Dance With Dragons

A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin, 1016 pages

With this fifth volume in Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, I'm now caught up with the story. As I mentioned in my review for the fourth book, A Feast for Crows, these two books happen concurrently, each focusing on a different group of characters. This one is the better of the two, most likely because we know more of the characters from the outset. (A Feast for Crows suffers from a lot of oddly named chapters and brand new characters in a world that is already filled to capacity with them.) Also, A Dance With Dragons is aided by the fact that the stories of books 4 and 5 converge toward the end of this most recent volume, allowing us to get a little bit more information about those characters we did care about in A Feast for Crows.

I am constantly amazed by the depth of the writing, the strength and nuance of the characters (particularly the female characters), and the well-realized cultural elements in this series. There are so many different locations, each with its own climate, religion, language, food, style of dress, and more; while it is occasionally difficult to keep the multitude of characters straight (especially the minor ones and the new ones), Martin can never be faulted for confusing his readers on where they are. It's an impressive feat, and makes the long time between books understandable. Doesn't mean I'm excited about the LONG wait before book 6, but it is at least understandable. I'd hate for Martin to rush himself and give us something that's not worthy of the series he's created so far.