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Title: A Dance with Dragons
Author: George R. R. Martin
Genre: Epic fantasy (book five of sevenish?)
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Can things get worse in Westeros? Of course they can!
Thoughts: Did you like the last four books? If not, you won't like this one. It's more of the same, which you can consider to be a good or a bad thing.
I think it's a good thing, although I'll admit I'm getting a little fatigued. Yes, there are problems, especially with some of the female characters. But overall, it's a fascinating, bloody tapestry that we still haven't seen the whole of.
The fact that the first half of the book is parallel to the last one instead of sequential has its pluses and minuses. The lack of surprise here and there does undercut a certain amount of tension. We know from the last book that Cersei doesn't find Tyrion, where Arya is, why Gilly's so upset. Which makes some scenes, like Jon's decision to send Gilly away, rather anticlimactic. But it does a nice job of reinforcing Martin's overall point about the senselessness of most of these battles, when people go frantically storming after other people we already know aren't there.
The sheer number of plotlines is becoming exhausting. We add a couple new viewpoint characters. Fortunately, Martin continues to be willing to cut off characters with abrupt deaths, so the cast is only terribly unwieldy rather than ridiculously so.
I have appreciated, though, the diversity of viewpoints this gives us. For example, my image of Rhaegar from the first book was a murdering tyrant. Now seeing him from a multitude of perspectives--from Dorne, from Cersei, from Connington, and more--a more interesting portrait is emerging. Similar ranges of views on Daenerys's attempts to rid Meereen of slavery--from her compassion to other slaves' desperation to merchants' cynicism to Barristan's pragmatism--show how good intentions go awry, but how turning a blind eye to evil corrupts.
That's where Martin's real strengths lie--in taking the black and white and slowly bleaching it to gray, showing how the best make compromises and the worst have their own redeeming values, and how the mix nonetheless slowly drags everything into the mud. It's a deeply pessimistic view of the world, but it's not necessarily unrealistic. The world he has created is the fallen remnants of a golden age, and even as they look back, the gold is tarnished.
Author: George R. R. Martin
Genre: Epic fantasy (book five of sevenish?)
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Can things get worse in Westeros? Of course they can!
Thoughts: Did you like the last four books? If not, you won't like this one. It's more of the same, which you can consider to be a good or a bad thing.
I think it's a good thing, although I'll admit I'm getting a little fatigued. Yes, there are problems, especially with some of the female characters. But overall, it's a fascinating, bloody tapestry that we still haven't seen the whole of.
The fact that the first half of the book is parallel to the last one instead of sequential has its pluses and minuses. The lack of surprise here and there does undercut a certain amount of tension. We know from the last book that Cersei doesn't find Tyrion, where Arya is, why Gilly's so upset. Which makes some scenes, like Jon's decision to send Gilly away, rather anticlimactic. But it does a nice job of reinforcing Martin's overall point about the senselessness of most of these battles, when people go frantically storming after other people we already know aren't there.
The sheer number of plotlines is becoming exhausting. We add a couple new viewpoint characters. Fortunately, Martin continues to be willing to cut off characters with abrupt deaths, so the cast is only terribly unwieldy rather than ridiculously so.
I have appreciated, though, the diversity of viewpoints this gives us. For example, my image of Rhaegar from the first book was a murdering tyrant. Now seeing him from a multitude of perspectives--from Dorne, from Cersei, from Connington, and more--a more interesting portrait is emerging. Similar ranges of views on Daenerys's attempts to rid Meereen of slavery--from her compassion to other slaves' desperation to merchants' cynicism to Barristan's pragmatism--show how good intentions go awry, but how turning a blind eye to evil corrupts.
That's where Martin's real strengths lie--in taking the black and white and slowly bleaching it to gray, showing how the best make compromises and the worst have their own redeeming values, and how the mix nonetheless slowly drags everything into the mud. It's a deeply pessimistic view of the world, but it's not necessarily unrealistic. The world he has created is the fallen remnants of a golden age, and even as they look back, the gold is tarnished.
