A Dance with Dragons spoilery thoughts

Almost a month after getting my sweaty palms on A Dance with Dragons, I've finally finished the gargantuan tome. Overall my thoughts are mixed. I wasn't expecting miracles, having followed the trials and tribulations endured by Martin over the last five year or so, and indeed the problems I anticipated were present. However, it's a much better showing than A Feast for Crows. Massive spoilers follow!

The bulk of the Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys chapters were a little disappointing for different reasons. In Tyrion's case, I get the sense Martin struggled to find a purpose for him and so his chapters function as a rather slow-paced travelogue for much of the book. Bereft of the interesting family dynamics and political manoeuvring that made him such an interesting figure in Westeros, he bumbles along as a rather passive figure, dragged along by events that aren't spectacularly interesting. The fixation on his father's death also gets tiresome by his third or fourth chapter. The reader doesn't need to be reminded of the stink of Tywin's loosened bowels every other page. Luckily, he seems to recover some of his ironic wit as the book draws to a close. I didn't think much of Penny.

Jon's chapters are decent but initially suffer from the timeline issues leftover from the AFFC/ADWD split. It's odd reading chapters that relate to events that happened near the start of the last book. Things pick up when Tormund (an awesome character) is reintroduced. It was nice to see the grudging respect Stannis has for Lord Snow, perhaps realising they are two peas in a pod. I didn't like the cliffhanger at the end. Yes, we have Melisandre's prophecies indicating that something bad is going to happen, and yes, the prologue itself might be said to elaborately foreshadow the "et tu, Brute?" punchline (and Snow's eventual survival, most likely), but it still felt a lot clumsier in its setup and execution than previous plot twists.

Dany's chapters are a mixed bag. I think most would have preferred the invasion to have begun in earnest, rather than reading endless chapters where she gets bogged down in Slaver's Bay. For the first half of the book, this plot line really is quite plodding. Luckily it is redeemed somewhat when the dragons begin to dance (or at least throw a few moves before going to sit down in the corner). One major issue with these chapters is how Martin struggles to describe the setting when outside the comfort of Medieval Europe, aka Westeros. In previous books where chapters set outside of Westeros are rare, he gets by using spare description. Not so much here. The only image I have of the Slaver Cities is the fact they are hot and contain pyramids of "many-coloured brick." The disparity in the quality of world-building between Westeros and cultures Martin is comfortable with, and those he clearly isn't (the vaguely Egyptian/Middle Eastern Slaver's Bay) is pretty noticeable.

Also, I hated the final Dany chapter. Wandering around in a featureless savanna reminiscing about previous events before another cliffhanger was kind of a lame end. Fortunately the epilogue that follows is pretty awesome.

I liked Theon's chapters. This is Martin at his best, taking a character that seems beyond redemption and somehow getting the reader to root for them. It helps that the author clearly loves writing about the characters and locations in this part of the world. Ramsay Bolton and his father are unapologetic one-dimensional psychopaths/sociopaths, which actually makes them refreshing in the context of the series. Here Martin throws down the grimdark gauntlet to the young pretenders to his crown, with flaying, rape, and even references to scat and bestiality thrown in for good measure. In fact, the whole book raises the stakes in the grimdark arms race. Barely a page goes by without characters getting murdered, raped, burned alive, drowned, shitting out their innards, getting their intestines torn out, cannibalised... it goes on. Even R. Scott Bakker might raise an eyebrow at the mistreatment of women in this book, especially. It does become a bit too much at points.

Ramsay's (supposed letter) was another cliffhanger, and this one came completely out of left field and was most unwelcome. You don't have the reader read 20 or so chapters building up to a conflict only to apparently resolve the damned conflict in a letter miles from the action. Was the letter fake? I don't know, but I thought the author might have taken notice of the howls of rage that accompanied Brienne hanging at the end of AFFC. Waiting 3-5 years to discover the fates of dozens of characters is cruel.

Quentyn Martell's chapters seem the most pointless in the entire book. They reminded me of the Maiden of Tarth's chapters in AFFC: wander around a lot, do uninteresting stuff, die; except unlike Brienne, he really does die. I reckon the book might have benefitted had these been cut. Aegon/Jon Connington's chapters already fulfill the quota for new POV characters, and they ultimately have far more purpose in the story.

The handful of Cersei/Asha/Davos/Bran/Arya/Victarion chapters are genuinely solid and provide a refreshing change of scenery. Cersei's walk of shame was well-deserved; Asha's chapters were okay but provided a much-needed perspective on Stannis' march; Davos's chapters shed some light on Lord Manderley, who is far more interesting than he initially appeared; Bran's chapters went full-on high fantasy, with the jury still out on how worthwhile these will prove to be (where's Rickon?); Arya's chapters did what was necessary to inch her story forwards; and Victarion's almost read like comic relief. The iron captain is so ridiculously alpha, with his fist clenching and over the top macho posturing and violence that I'm actually starting to like him. The bit where he pins some poor sod to a mast and chokes the life out of him in retaliation for some petty insult actually made me laugh.

In conclusion, I think ADWD is a pretty inconsistent novel. This is hardly a surprise. A large chunk of the chapters were written to be in another book or arranged differently, some show obvious signs of an author battling writer's block, and others were clearly either rushed or added to address fan complaints over cliffhangers (Jaime/Brienne) or lack of presence in AFFC. On the other hand, as a whole the novel is well-written, there are some great new character arcs (Theon), and there are signs Martin has the story back under control. Editing could have been a bit tighter: I don't know if it's because the chapters were completed and then edited over the course of a decade or so, but phrases and words keep appearing more than is healthy. For example, "Words are wind," "many-coloured brick," "fists like hams," etc. I noticed a couple of typos too.

It's been odd for me to see how, on one hand, critics have fallen over themselves to lavish praise on the novel. At least a couple of high profile critics slobbering over ADWD seem to be close friends or acquaintances of the author, which immediately calls their objectivity into question. On the other hand, fans are coming dangerously close to giving it a roasting on Amazon and certain community forums. I think fair judgement lies somewhere in between: ADWD certainly doesn't match the first three books in the series. But it's better than AFFC, and if anyone really thinks this is a 1 or 2-star book by the standards of the genre, they need to read a lot more fantasy (or alternatively don't, as they're going to be very disappointed). Personally, I'd give ADWD 7/10 or *** 1/2 out of *****.