A Dance With Dragons

I definitely hyped this one up way too much for myself. All Ice and Fire fans simply waited too long for this one. When an author gives that much time in between books it's just too late. We've all already developed the plots and characters ourselves. There's just no winning that game.

I will say that I am looking forward to not only the next in the series, but also rereading Dance again in the future.

I felt that Martin was too easy on the characters this time, seemingly uncharacteristic. As a reader and a fan, you don't want your favorite characters to die or suffer too much. However that is exactly what made Martin such a strong writer in the previous books, his ability to kill someone off so easily and sometimes so unfairly - that is what made it so easy to get sucked in and what made the story so believable. His writing style feels so much more like a historical novel. However Dance didn't carry that atmosphere as much as the others. Maybe Martin has just gone soft in his old age.

I did have moments with the story this time that can only be described as nostalgic relief. For example, there's a clear point in the book where Martin has moved on from the sequel to Crows to continue the story where the characters that have been excluded start up again. At that point I had to stop and take a sweet moment to reminisce over the histories of the characters I've grown to love so much.

Over all I would say that Dance is the weakest part of the series thus far. I hope that it doesn't continue on his route but it won't stop me from continuing to follow the tale.