← Part 5

“Agh! My face! You stabbed me in the face!” I cried, having just been stabbed in my face. I wondered whether having a longsword driven hilt-deep into one's head would leave a scar. Probably. I risked opening my eyes and found myself stood outside Blackwell's, just as I had been a little while earlier, and without a sword in my face, just as I had been a little while earlier.

I peeked into the window of the bookshop and noticed a dashingly handsome young man in there talking to the guy behind the counter. And behind the handsome guy there was me, waiting to purchase a book or three.

“Well!” I thought out loud, “This is a little discombobulating!” Still, it made sense. I had a lot to get done today and precious little time to do it; tearing a hole in the space time continuum and allowing myself to do two things simultaneously was the easiest solution, especially if the alternative was getting out of bed before midday. Maybe now I'd have time to finish A Dance with Dragons, or at least the first part of it. It was shaping up a bit like the earlier two-parter A Storm of Swords, GRR Martin's slow-build-up writing style not helping the first part of any of his novels that have been sliced in twain.

A slightly more mercenary benefit of my being back in the same time occurred to me and I tried to recall if I'd learnt anything important from the first time around. I had, alas, utterly neglected to memorise that night's lottery numbers. Probably because I'd been distracted by that traffic accident that I'd seen happen just outside the shop. A little annoyed that I couldn't get much benefit from my accidental time travel, I stared sullenly at the pavement and stepped out into the road.

Part 7 → ( )

← Part 5

“Agh! My face! You stabbed me in the face!” I cried, having just been stabbed in my face. I wondered whether having a longsword driven hilt-deep into one's head would leave a scar. Probably. I risked opening my eyes and found myself stood outside Blackwell's, just as I had been a little while earlier, and without a sword in my face, just as I had been a little while earlier.

I peeked into the window of the bookshop and noticed a dashingly handsome young man in there talking to the guy behind the counter. And behind the handsome guy there was me, waiting to purchase a book or three.

“Well!” I thought out loud, “This is a little discombobulating!” Still, it made sense. I had a lot to get done today and precious little time to do it; tearing a hole in the space time continuum and allowing myself to do two things simultaneously was the easiest solution, especially if the alternative was getting out of bed before midday. Maybe now I'd have time to finish A Dance with Dragons, or at least the first part of it. It was shaping up a bit like the earlier two-parter A Storm of Swords, GRR Martin's slow-build-up writing style not helping the first part of any of his novels that have been sliced in twain.

A slightly more mercenary benefit of my being back in the same time occurred to me and I tried to recall if I'd learnt anything important from the first time around. I had, alas, utterly neglected to memorise that night's lottery numbers. Probably because I'd been distracted by that traffic accident that I'd seen happen just outside the shop. A little annoyed that I couldn't get much benefit from my accidental time travel, I stared sullenly at the pavement and stepped out into the road.

Part 7 → ( )

This book is the first half of the fifth instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire. In my opinion, this book does not reach the heights of the preceding books in the series, but then the author seems to save the big climactic events for the end of each instalment so I look forward to the second half. I was concerned that as the events in this book paralleled those of the immediately preceding book, A Feast for Crows, that a lot of the mystery would be gone, but I was pleasantly surprised, especially when it came to the fate of Davos Seaworth and Theon Greyjoy. I still thought it deserved 4 stars as the writing is so good. ( )

It's been nearly a year and a half since I read the previous volume in the Game of Thrones series, by far the longest gap between any two of the series. This is the first part of the fifth book, split into two in the UK market due to its length, and like the first part of the third book, A Storm of Swords, this one felt like it was treading water too much (a comment which, looking back, I also applied in my review of this book's immediate predecessor, A Feast of Crows). It's overwritten and does not justify its 620 pages. The most interesting characters for me were, as ever, Tyrion Lannister, but also now Daenerys Targaryen, practically the only truly decent protagonist in the complex tapestry of the game of thrones. I will, however, leave a much smaller gap before reading the second part of book five, which will then complete the so far published series. Finally, I must record one great saying by a minor character: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one". ( )

Author George R. R. Martin's decision to split the stories of his Song of Ice and Fire characters between two books, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, is surely his most controversial. Though I liked Feast, I saw where the book's critics were coming from. Dance sees the return of many key characters, including fan favourites Tyrion, Daenerys and Jon Snow, who were absent from Feast (though Jon was present in some of Samwell Tarly's chapters). This is surely the reason the fanbase is kinder to Dance than its predecessor, as with perhaps the exception of Jaime, none of that earlier volume's main characters have the charisma and appeal of these three.

But fundamentally, Dance has the same remit as Feast; its goal is primarily to lay the groundwork for the second Act of Martin's Song. It's just as intriguing and easy to read as Feast (or, indeed, any of the preceding volumes), but the reason it is more favoured is that it does so with greater élan. Those who didn't like Feast will be appeased by Dance; those who did like it will need no convincing.

It's rather difficult to write about the books in this series without spoiling plotlines but from Dreams and Dust, the first part of A Dance with Dragons, it is clear that something big is taking shape. The author destroyed Westeros in the War of the Five Kings, as depicted in the first three books, but in subsequent books he has all but rebuilt it. The seeds have been sown; let's hope there will be some reaping in A Dance with Dragons, Part Two: After the Feast. ( )