Disclaimer: I do not watch HBO’s Game of Thrones show. This review is about the book, A Dance with Dragons and contains spoilers.
I do not know whether I hate George R.R. Martin or love the man and wish to worship the fantasy ground upon which he walks. I finished this book last week and I have hesitated to write this review until I felt less wobbly on this issue. Yet I feel I am still sitting in the middle of this teeter-totter so I have elected to put my thoughts – scattered brained though they are, into words. I rotated between wanting to read 300 pages on a crazy snow day (and did) and reading a single chapter then putting it down and refusing to pick it back up for a day or so. I wish I had a good way to say this was a four star or two star book but the truth is parts of it for me were easily five stars and others parts were solidly one star. So I decided to label this a 3 Dragon book.
This is easily one of the most loved fantasy series of the 21st century (thanks, in my opinion, largely to HBO). As a reader I see the appeal. Martin is a fantastic storyteller. His characters come alive in ways most other authors simply dream of. There are whole blogs and wikis discussing potential plot twists and what is going on with John Snow. You can read something in his books and suddenly a plot point you thought odd two books ago makes sense. This type of planning is amazing (although Martin’s publishing timeline is often lamented).
I love how he draws out the story Tyrion Lannister. This character is alive to the reader, from constantly itching his missing nose to rescuing another dwarf and the man who took him captive from slavery. Tyrion’s antics make A Dance with Dragons worth reading. I often found myself finishing a Tyrion chapter and glancing ahead to see how many other characters’ stories I had to deal with before getting to another Tyrion section.
I also loved when Cersi finally gets her punishment at the end of the book. I hate this character but that is another reason Martin’s work is so good. This is a fictional woman with very few redeeming qualities but his ability to make me hate her and relish every step of her naked walk to the Red Keep is fantastic. When she falls at the end and runs the last few leagues I felt as though I were part of the mob cheering for whore queen’s misery.
Most of this books follows the story happening in the Free cities and at the wall during the same time as the events happening in Westeros during A Feast for Crows. So we finally learn what John Snow, Melisandre, Bran and Daenerys have been accomplishing. There are times when this gets confusing because our characters are unaware throughout large parts of the book what has happened in A Feast for Crows. Other times the reader gets a surprise reunion with a previously thought dead character. Oh Davos, how I didn’t expect to miss you and am so glad your head isn’t rotting up on a pike!
What I love about Martin’s books is his characters and this is the biggest issue I had with A Dance with Dragons. A large part of it focused on Daeneys, a character I have loved watching grow from a scared girl sold to a man for her brother’s crown to a warrior princess. Until she withers and dies on the vine in this book (metaphorically). This is a woman who marched into a funeral pyre and out with three dragons. She pillaged cities and unleashed the Unsullied on the men and women who trained them. She is the mother of Dragons and yet in this book she is back to the young lost girl. She felt one dimensional to me and completely unbelievable. I spent most of the novel hating her. She appears to maybe have an awakening while walking back to Meereen at the end of the book but we will have to wait for Winds of Winter to know for sure.
I suspect my love/hate relationship with Martin will continue. I will read Winds of Winter, likely as soon as it hits the shelves. I need to know, like the rest of the world, how John Snow is! If you love fantasy novels I highly suggest Martin’s books but with one HUGE disclaimer – read them in order. You cannot pick this series up from the middle point.
As to the banned status of this book the answer is unclear. Based on what is in the books (sex, violence, foreign/made up gods/goddesses) it is a likely candidate to have been challenged. I did find one article from 2013 (link here) suggesting Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice Series was partially banned by the Connecticut State Prison System but A Dance with Dragons had not yet been requested by an inmate so its status was unknown. If you know of any local challenges to this book I would love to hear about it.
I read across genres and so next week will be an introduction to my “Trashy Romance” review. I plan once a month to review some fun “smut.” Up first will be Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare and If He is Daring by Hannah Howell. Have a great week and read a book!
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