A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five Mass Market Author: Visit Amazon's George R.R. Martin Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0553582011 | Format: EPUB
A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five Mass Market Description
Review
“Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, A Dance with Dragons is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined.”—The Washington Post
“Long live George Martin . . . a literary dervish, enthralled by complicated characters and vivid language, and bursting with the wild vision of the very best tale tellers.”—The New York Times
“By turns thrilling, funny, scary, emotionally devastating, oddly inspirational, and just plain grand.”—Entertainment Weekly
“One of the best series in the history of fantasy.”—Los Angeles Times
About the Author
George R. R. Martin is the #1
New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire—
A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and
A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on
The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Series: Song of Ice and Fire
- Mass Market Paperback: 1152 pages
- Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (October 29, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553582011
- ISBN-13: 978-0553582017
- Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 1.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Edited: 3/20/2013 (I re-read the book, wanting to give it another chance after watching the very well done television series, but my feelings generally remain the same with some new insights)
Warning: I do not give specific story spoilers, but some of my comments can be considered spoilers to the structure of the story.
So, to lighten the blow a little first, I will make it clear that I am a fan of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Like many others, I think the first three books were some of the best fantasy books in recent history. They held my interest like few others, took directions many other writers would not dare to take and had me itching to read the next. I'm a fan who checked on the status of this book at least a couple dozen times through each year to see how the progress was coming and I'm a fan who also believes in a writer taking the time he or she needs to do it properly. While I honestly was a little impatient to read the next book (which is a good thing, unless you're attacking the author over it), I could not fault someone for wanting to do other things with their lives.
As far as the positives for A Dance with Dragons specifically, Martin continues to show a strong and addicting narrative style with a great attention to detail without going too overboard most of the time. His use of language remains strong with some good character insights and quotes derived from it, and there are a number of moments in the book that were intriguing. These are the reasons why I gave it three stars and if a lesser writer had authored the book, I probably would have never finished it.
And before I go into my criticisms of the book, there is something I would like to note.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm Varamyr Sixskins. I'm here for the prologue to set us all up for the impending horrors of the North and all the excitement to come...
I'm Tyrion Lannister, the most popular character in all of Westeros! I spend this book meandering down a really slow river, ruminating bitterly about my life, misplacing my former charm, eroding all the goodwill I built up in the other books, and wondering where the whores go. Though perhaps I should have been wondering where the plot went. I also observe turtles and women, play board games, mouth off to all and sundry, and coincidentally run into various characters like some wandering monster in a D&D campaign. Maybe I'll make it to Daenarys in the next book, but at least I ditched that pig.
I'm Asha Greyjoy. I don't have much to do, so I'll be the POV character keeping track of Stannis and his forces. At the beginning of Dance with Dragons, he's working his way towards Winterfell to take it back from the Boltons. At the end of Dance with Dragons, he's...working his way towards Winterfell to take it back from the Boltons. Hope that helps.
I'm Ser Davon Seaworth, the Onion Knight. I'm still running errands for Stannis and getting captured frequently. It's a living.
I'm Bran Stark. I am a tree.
I'm Daenarys Targaryen. I'm only a young girl, and I know little in the ways of war, governance, what have you. I used to think I said these things to misdirect people, but as of DoD it seems to be true. I spend my time taking baths, fretting, being wishy-washy, and mooning over this hot mercenary dude. In the end I learn that "you have to go back to go forward.
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