A Dance with Dragons Book Review

Alright!  So the picture here really tells the tale.  Romantic love story between two drag...

Oh wait.

You meant this didn't you?

(and Spoiler Free!)

Much Better!

And the question you've been waiting for?  Was it EPIC?!  Well, KIND OF!  The characters were MUCH better, although the plot wasn't all I hoped it would be.

To begin,

THE CHARACTERS!  

The people in A Dance with Dragons are SO much better than the characters in Feast for Crows.  As mentioned in my previous review (<--Click), this book features different characters, and starts where a Storm of Swords leaves off.  

I think one of the book's greatest strength are its characters.  The boldness of their actions, complex histories, and occasional (/frequent) irrational behavior help them to feel real and relatable.   This causes you to grow very attached to certain people, and curse at others.  The really remarkable thing is that, after four books, George Martin's characters continue to pluck at my heartstrings.  They continue to surprise and delight you, and cause you to frequently wonder if you really just read that?... (You did).

Also, A Feast for Crows did these One-and-Done characters.  I'm thrilled to say they are (mostly) GONE!  I thought it really weakened the depth of the characters, and made it hard to grow attached to the people you read about.  Fortunately, A Dance with Dragons sticks to its main characters.  It's true you see a few rather sparsely, but at least you see the same person...

And speaking of the same, let's move onto the next part of this review...

(For all the successful diplomacy...)

The PLOT! (spoiler free)

The story line of this book was surprisingly action packed.  By about page 100, the action actually picks up, where it would usually begin to quiet down.  Also, there were a lot of really cool plot twists!  I actually missed quite a few of them the first time, but there's a lot of pieces set into place for the next two books!

With this being said though, it was disappointing because there was so much more that could have happened!  There was a lot of walking on thin ice, and cool new powers being discovered, but very little actually happened with those cool possibilities!  Also, there were many interesting scenes that HAPPENED, but you didn't get to experience them.  There were a few bits of drama at the end that were simply read from a letter, and would have been so much cooler if Martin had let us experience them.

IN ADDITION TO THIS, it feels a bit old because you start back at the end of Storm of Swords.  By the time this book comes out, you may be a little curious about what some people were doing, but what you really want is to find out about the madness that was the end of the fourth book.  Unfortunately, you don't catch back up until about page 600.  It is worth it, mind you, but it was a bit of a slug...

To be fair though, the story was pretty wonderful.  Storm of Swords is the only book that was loaded with more action or better characters, and that book was pretty remarkable.  The action kept a pretty good pace throughout, the character interactions were exciting and full of tension, and the book ended with its usual glorious chaos.

All in All,

A Dance with Dragons was EXCELLENT, but ever so slightly dissapointing...

Enjoy!

Chris

PS - Coming next !

And it'll probably be coming pretty soon.  It's so short compared to DwD!