Winter Is Here - A Dance With Dragons

So how are people finding this? I got it yesterday and I'm only a couple of chapters in but I can't wait to find out what happened to all the other characters! I was so disappointed at the end of A Feast For Crows until I read that epilogue. The books have been so brilliant thus far and I doubt this one will be any exception!
 
Forgot this was out, popped onto Amazon to get the Kindle version and it's more expensive than the hardback version. Only by 20p but still, bloody crazy if you ask me.
 
Luckily HDN delivered it to a neighbour yesterday so I got my hands on it, plan on ploughing my way through it this weekend. First few chapters I'd read most of on internet previews but breaking in to the new stuff now
 
Got my copy last night. Just stared to read it but it's good to get back the old characters. Is anyone else just seeing the TV characters now when they read it? Not necessarily a bad thing though!
 
I spent most of the weekend plowing through and I'm 90% done with the book. I haven't been able to put it down. It's been a long time since I've read a book or series that's actually made me outwardly emotive when something has happened to certain characters (well written, deep and intricate character development for the win) and I've now experienced it with each book so far in this series. I just found myself saying out loud "what the ****?" with the last chapter read. You'll know it when you get to it.
 
Was actually disappointed in large stretches of the book. I feel AFFC & ADWD could have been half as long each and presented as one book and nothing would have been lost. The pace is getting ponderous. AGOT, ACOK and ASOS were great because the character development was superb at the same time as so much **** was happening. GRRM has me lost a little bit, wondering where he is going to pull everything together in a couple of books.
 
jamesblade said:
Thought this thread was about the writers book not how judgemental some of you can be about him because of the way he looks and your perception of what that makes him...

He could have two heads no nose and 7 fingers on each hand for all I care, I don't have to look him in the eye or talk to him like a psychologist all I have to do is read his work and if I like it carry on reading if I don't then I just don't buy anymore..

Get real you people who are reading and seem to be liking most if not all of his Game of Thrones work but insist on still putting the guy down .... :rolleyes:
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Lol, it has nothing to do with judging him as a person or his health, it's just a fact that tying everything up in an epic series is never easy or quick. I'm therefore sceptical that there's really only two books left to go, and given the trend of each book taking longer to write I'm also sceptical he will be around long enough to finish it (not everyone lives to 80+), which isn't specific to Martin as many universe-creating writers have kicked the bucket before finishing things off. Reading someone else's attempt at imitating his style and going off his notes to wrap things up - if they're allowed to - isn't always either successful or satisfying, which spoils the rest of it for me.

I read a lot and don't like skipping between books/universes as I also tend to not completely retain everything, so with Wheel of Time say, it's finished, complete, done, and it seems the guy that did the last one did a satisfactory job, so when I get round to it I can read them all in one go as I prefer to be able to plough through an entire series/story arc without having to wait. It's different with say, Bank's and his Culture novels, because while I'm always left wanting a new book, each story is in the same universe but self-contained, so it's not like there's any 5 year cliffhangers to deal with!
 
If anyone else wants to do a spoiler, wrap in font colour tags that will change the font colour to the same colour as the default background. being the opening colour bbcode. If you're using a modified background via userstyles, that's your own problem. You're a unique snow flake. Most people are using the default.

daver said:
wondering where he is going to pull everything together in a couple of books.
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Wondered exactly the same when I'd finished it. There's so many fractured story lines (Bran/Hodor, Jamie/Brienne, Littlefinger/Sansa and so many more) that need to be pulled together and wrapped up, I don't think two books is going to cover it without leaving out a lot of story lines and leaving people disappointed.

Also what did you think of the Jon Snow story line? His last chapter was what made me all "WTF?!".
However, I said the same after the Red Wedding, but Lady Stoneheart was resurrected by Dondarrion, so I expect that Snow will be resurrected by Melisandre. There's no way we've followed him through five books only for him to be permanently killed off.

Somnambulist said:
I'm therefore sceptical that there's really only two books left to go,
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I would completely agree with that. As mentioned above in response to daver. And there's also the time span between the books to take into account as well. Hopefully he can get the last books out in a timely fashion.
 
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Is it only the hardback version available??...waiting for the non hardback version but was told about another 4 mths before its out:confused:

Almost finished the 4th book and have to say im still enjoying it but am finding it a bit of a chore as there are so many broken storylines etc and some things just dont fit very well.

Personally i dont even know who i want to win this whole thing...a lot of the characters are showing different colours which is interesting but i find it tedious trying to keep up with it all lol.
 
Opinions so far?

Reviews have been mixed and I have only just got round to ordering it myself.

Get a feeling that no matter how good it is it will suffer like Erikson/Jordan and others have toward the end of a long and good series in that people build it up so much in their own head expecting more and more then the book can never live up.
 
Just finished it. A little slow at first but the last few chapters are just WTF! :eek: I'm not sure about this change of chapter title from a name - Bran, Ned, Sansa etc to The Kingbreaker and others.

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My view on Jon Snow is that his fate is a punishment for the fans. Prior to ADWD's release there was lots of speculation that Jon was the love child of Rhaegar Targayren and Lyanna Stark, and isn't Ned's ******* at all. GRRM drops a few more hints along this line then BAM!

Good point about Melisandre rezzing him, though personally I think that's the end of Jon. Maybe he transferred his personality to Ghost just before he died, like that Sixskins fella at the beginning did.
 
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I thought it was up to his usual standard, till about 2/3 the way through, then it just seemed to lose itself a bit. He's never straightforward, doing the things you think are going to happen. Which is why I've really liked the series so far. I enjoyed it, but wasn't as good as the earlier ones.
 
Just finished.

Very good book, really like his style of writing, how he pacesthings and the general tone he sets. I disagree with reviews calling it too slow etc.

However. I feel he is now trying to be too smart with the book. He stacks twists on top of riddles on top of(most annoyingly) storyline resets. For all that happens in the book a lot of the characters are no further forward just circumstances have changed if that makes sense.

There was 3-4 arcs that could have been completely excluded or much reduced and not effected the overall story.

It's kind of turning into the "lost" version of a book for me and I hated lost. I find myself really ambivalent about the series as a whole with how he ended that book and if it's another 6 year wait I doubt I will be able to summon up the interest that far down the line to get back into it again.

So a bit of a contradictory review from me :p great author and well written book. But poor decision making in how he is moving the story along is effecting the overall quality.
 
Nice interpretation of the song "The Rains of Castamere" which features throughout the series (link contains spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0xu7P-zzsk&feature=player_embedded

I have real problems reading song lyrics in books, whether it's GoT or LotR, so it's great to hear them played as a song. I was really disappointed with my Kindle version of ADWD - didn't get the maps and the first letter of each chapter wasn't displayed correctly. If they could add songs to ebooks then it would have more than made up for it.
 
Hostile17 said:
Got my copy last night. Just stared to read it but it's good to get back the old characters. Is anyone else just seeing the TV characters now when they read it? Not necessarily a bad thing though!
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Mostly with certain characters. Ser Jorah, Daenerys, Robert Baratheon, Littlefinger and especially Jon Snow. A lot of the others didn't have much screen interaction or don't get mentioned much.
 
I might be wrong buT think it was the summer palace for the Targaryens/hold of the youngest son.

There was a fire and it killed a prince or two and some kingsguard. Nothing malicious about the fire if I remember correctly but I think it happened around the time Rhaegar was born (prophetic possibly?)
 
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