disappointing & disjointed
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I am a newcomer to this series , but have read and loved every single book in it over the course of a month...until this one. Perhaps if i had waited months or years for it my view would be more gentle, but reading it in quick succession with the earlier (and far more coherant) books it does suffer by comparison.
Of course it still needs to be read if you want to finish the series, but the decision he made to split the book into 2 and tell half the characters in 1 and half in the other just doesn't really work, he would have done better, in my opinion, to do as he did with the 3rd book in the series and split it chronologically instead.
it doesn't help that it's the less interesting half of the story in this book, or that there feels like a fair bit of padding out (for example, Brienne's story feels like it could have been edited down and large amounts of the story in Dorne feel a bit dry if you pardon the pun)
i still read the book through and will read the next one which i hope is a return to form, it was just harder work than the others and it feels a little as tho he is losing his way under the weight of his ambition to tell the best story ever, which would be a real shame!
so read it, but keep your fingers crossed for the next installment and a return to high standards!
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Good, not that great.
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I'm a newcomer to the series as was hooked after he first few chapters of 'a game of thrones' Very enjoyable books up until 'A Feast For Crows' where, after the blood bath that was blood and gold we seem to have hit the breaks hard!
Due to the way this series has been written this short review wont really apply to everyone but if your favorite characters are: Jon Snow, Dany, Tyrion and everyone else not in Kings landing your going to go away from this book feeling a little let down.
I found it hard to get into, there wasn't much exciting ever really happening the only parts i enjoyed where the Arya parts but they where few and far between, with alot of the story focusing on a game of hide and seek only you know where the person is hiding and the seeker doesn't. Becomes a little annoying after a while. The rest focuses on court politics which I find drags on, and on, and on!
This book won't appeal to everyone but the joy of being inside Martin's world is well worth the price (Like your going to stop reading this far into the series though) It leaves you wanting more. but not more of this book, more of what we enjoy and found in the previous books.
If you are going to buy this book now i would recommend not reading it until just before 'A Dance with Dragons' comes out if you read it before your going to die waiting to hear some news from the wall.
hoped this helped although this is a spur of the momment/review so if it sucks, cut me some slack ;)
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Ok, so not AS fab as the rest but still.....
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So this installment of the epic series isn't as great as the rest of them, but in the interests of keeping up with the story, you kind of need to read it!! Although a lot of the main characters seem completely ignored (Tyrion, Sansa, Daenarys etc) you still have plenty to read about and Arrys story is followed.
To be honest, I saw this book as more of a stepping stone from one main text across to another main text, which is a Dance of Dragons coming soon.
Still, you really do have to read it otherwise you'll miss key points and plots!
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Amazingly intricate
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This book is perhaps the best in the series; or, at least, it helps you to appreciate the series as a whole a lot more. More plotlines are revealed, and it is clear how incredibly complex and interwoven they are.
As the novel goes on, not only do we have the current plotlines running, the intricate politics of the aftermath, but we have even more 'flashbacks' and character development that fit in perfectly. The reader slowly starts to understand the deeper mysteries behind many of the characters, whilst still leaving so many things to keep you reading.
The story is obviously building up the tension, heightened by the profound absence of some of the main characters. Before we have been able to see things on a wider scale, but now we can only speculate. The book leaves a burning desire for more in a way that no other book has.
I cannot recommend this more.
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What a mess!
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This is the only book I have read by Martin and I would have to say it's marginally less readable than the last Microsoft certification study guide I read. It's a total confusion of names, has far, far, far too many characters and to follow it you either need a photographic memory or to spend around a month learning the names from the enormous list of families at the back of the book.
From reading other reviews here, it appears that this is because there is a long history in other books which precede this one, but I still can't help thinking that you could take a pen to it and cut a good couple of hundred pages of unnecessary material out of it. That said, there are passages that are pretty good, hence two stars, but they are lost in the jumble. My advice, unless you are sitting an exam on the subject, don't bother.
The only book I've read which was worse was called 'Scarecrow' by I can't remember who. Common theme emerging perhaps?!
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