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.

A Feast for Crows

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, 753 pages

OK, this is four books into Martin's epic* Song of Ice and Fire series (which, as you may recall, kills off characters nearly as often as the pages turn), so I can't really go into the plot too much with out spoiling something. However, I will say that this book takes place when most of the war detailed in Book 3 has died down, and everyone is trying to carve out a piece of the pie for themselves. Martin takes the reader through some interesting places, including the Venice-esque Braavos (which included one of the most interesting storylines, at least to me) and through some interesting plot twists. I can't wait to see where these stories are going.

Unfortunately, it will be a long time before I find where these stories go. An interesting note about this book: it takes place concurrently with Book 5, A Dance With Dragons. There are some who have taken the plunge and read both books at the same time, switching back and forth (for a post about that experience, check out Jason's post from February), but I didn't want to try juggling two thick tomes. I did miss checking in with some of my favorite characters, who, save one, seemed to be almost completely missing from this book, but in a short note at the end, Martin promises to check in with all of them in Book 5. Phew! But for the stories started in this book, we won't find out until the long-awaited Winds of Winter is finally released in... um, nobody really knows when. Sigh...

*I mean this in the true, literal sense, not the teenage girl "OMG, that's so epic!" sense.

Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons

Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin, 1060 pages and 1016 pages

 

These are books four and five in Martins, Song of Ice and Fire series. From talking with coworkers and checking online I became aware that Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons take place concurrently. As it happens, they were originally designed to be one book but as Martin was writing he realized that a 2000 page book was out of the question. This led to his choice on how to split the books. Unlike what most authors do, he chose to split the book in half by characters. So Feast for Crows has the chapters for all of the Southern Westros characters and Arya, and Dance with Dragons has the Wall and the Eastern lands.

Before I began reading I had decided to read them together as Martin had intended. To aid me I found a chapter listing online that put them in order in time. The guide even went out of its way to reorder a couple chapters to save plot twists that would have been revealed. Reading both books and hopping back and forth between them made for slow progress but I think a more enjoyable experience overall.

Sadly I must now join the millions of people out there that are waiting for the next installment of Song of Ice and Fire and the publisher just announced not to expect it till at least 2015…

The Storm of Swords

Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, 973 pages                          

After seeing how many main characters die in this volume of the Song of Ice and Fire series, I am starting to wonder if any characters will make it to the end. It also seems that Martin realized what his readers would want and actually killed off some of the people we wanted to see die. Sadly I am developing a disconnect between some of the characters as they get added as any that I end of liking seem to die.

The Storm of Swords also marks a turning point in the theme of the novels as well. The previous books tended to focus on the customary middle ages. By that I mean sword fights, kings, political weddings etc. This volume introduces more magic then the previous two and actually uses magic to kill of some characters. Storm of Swords also starts to bring the different religions to the forefront. Where people would only go so far as to pray in the previous books, here we get sacrifices and killings to appease and worship the new gods.

While the adding of more themes, and more characters, brings a new outlook on the kingdom and takes it more in the sci-fi designation it has, I hope we don’t end up completely leaving the middle ages themes behind.

The Clash of Kings

The Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, 1009 pages

This book continues the Song of Fire and Ice Series that started with Game of Thrones. This series is amazing and worth reading. However, I would not advise getting too attached to any of the characters because they tend to die rather frequently. The only ones that seem not to die are the ones that you can’t stand. King Joffrey would be a perfect example. While I hoped he would die numerous times, so far no one has been able to kill the brat. But there are still more books to go so my fingers are crossed.

This series has just about everything that a science fiction series needs. It has epic battles, magic, monsters, and everything in between. This book and this book series does contain adult themes and are NOT appropriate for younger readers. In movie ratings it would likely by rated R. 

A Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, 694 pages

A Game of Thrones, the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, likely would have gone unnoticed by me if it wasn't for the HBO series with the same name. With the series receiving such high praise and my coworkers talking about it, I requested the first season through the library. Despite hour long episodes the first season flew by and I really enjoyed watching it. Since I knew it was based off a book I mentally added the book and the series to my reading list.

I planned to pick up and read Game of Thrones the next time I saw it on the shelves here at Central. As the months went by and it failed to make an appearance, at least when I looked, I finally decided to put it on request. I now regret waiting.

When I started reading it was like I had read it before. Not only does the HBO series follow it very closely, they even use some of the vary dialog from the book. In some ways this took away from the novel as the parts that were suppose to be suspenseful were not. I knew what was going to happen already, despite the chapter ending on a cliffhanger.

I still would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys science fiction and anyone who liked the TV show. But I would strongly advise reading the book before watching the show.