*This book review contains spoilers*

George R.R. Martin. You love him and then you hate him.

Eventually you do love him. But it drives me crazy that this book is not a sequel to his last one; it runs in parallel instead. So the chapter about Jon which is really happening in sequence somewhere in "A Feast for Crows"- the fourth book - is being read by you in the fifth book instead. So you are sort of travelling back in time. Only, you have already read through that time!

Clearly time travelling is not for me. It gets confusing, very confusing.

Why Martin chose to adopt this technique is beyond me. Perhaps he was tired of being predictable - where every character turns evil (if good) or good (if evil), displays a trait that you wouldn't imagine and then dies, often in a shocking moment with no farewells. The world understands how Martin's mind works, so maybe that's why he decided to say - "Ha! I bet you didn't see this coming." (The reason he actually employed this technique is because the manuscript ran into way too many pages! I would still like to think he decided to toy with his fans instead.)

It took Martin six years to get out this instalment, that too set at the same time as the start of the previous book. It doesn't help that the previous book was sort of runt-in-the-litter... well, in my opinion. I wonder if fans were disappointed when the fifth book first came out in print in 2011.

Ok, so I'm a very sequential person.

Are there any redeeming points?

Yes of course. Martin is a favourite for a reason.

One - he continues to keep Tyrion alive. Thank god for that. I can't imagine a world without Tyrion. Not Westeros. Not HBO. Not my real world where all his real fans exist.

Two - the book does offer a twist that the HBO series didn't cover. Aegon Targaryen, Rhaegar's son is alive. He didn't die in the sack of King's Landing. I wonder if he might be an imposter though, the way King Henry VII faced imposters during his reign.

I wished the book had more of Bran. Too few chapters told his story. I keep thinking he has a much bigger role to play before the end and I was hoping the book would show more of him. Alas, disappointment!

It was heartening to see Reek, though not in the tortured form that he is in. I obviously disliked Reek back when he was Theon. But ever since Ramsey walked into his life, I've only felt sorry for him. Sure, Theon is a turncloak, having stormed Winterfell and left it in ruins, and his father's derision for him could have been punishment enough, but Reek as he is in this book, is little more than human. I like that the story had this unexpected twist, but I feel he has been tortured enough. Time for him to be rescued?

Jon Snow is learning to live like a Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He doesn't agree with everything that is happening, but he does them anyway because he is responsible for the Watch. That said, he is not supposed to take sides in the war raging in the kingdom, and yet, he does.

I like Daenerys. Or used to. In this book, she doesn't seem to be doing much. Except waiting. Which she seems to be doing a lot of. Several characters seem to be moving towards her, but she stays right on in Meeren. I wonder if that actually means something good; that power attracts and people naturally gravitate towards the man, or woman in this case, who might actually rule Westeros someday.

Many other characters have chapters devoted to them, which frankly I could do without. It's nice to know what is happening with Quentyn Martell, Asha Greyjoy and others, but I would much rather read more about one of the main characters instead.

This book was really like a game of chess in progress

A lot of pieces move around the board, but there is no conclusion to it - because this is just one part of the fifth book. Perhaps this is why I should be buying one volume editions.

At this point I am taking a break from reading the next part of the book for two reasons - one, this book was too much matter without enough adventure, which made it slightly boring (and yet I scored it a 4 on 5); two - the minute I end part two of the book, I suspect I will be left in a vacuum. The next season doesn't release on HBO till at least April of next year, maybe even gets delayed, and the sixth book releases Martin-only-knows-when. Or maybe he doesn't know either.

For now, I will indulge in reminiscing about my favorite fantasy series, recommend it to anyone who has the heart to digest the massive tomes and Google for which of the characters or rather actors are walking the ramp. The last one's a fun pastime. ( )

← 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". ( )