A Dance With Dragons, George R.R. Martin

Publishers: Harper Voyager

Pages: 959 (Hardback 2011)

Main Characters:

Tyrion, Jon, Daenerys, Cersi, Araya, Jaime,

This is the fifth book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Many people believe that it is the last novel in the series but it isn’t, it is just the latest book published so far. The novel picks up after A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold. The three main story lines in the book are that of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryean. Tyrion’s story picks up after his escape from Kings Landing, follows his attempts to reach the Dragon Queen. Jon’s story sees him as Lord Commander of the Nights Watch after the defeat of the Wildings at the Wall. It sees Jon make decisions on what to do with the thousands of Wildlings left after their defeat, and the growing defence of the Wall against the Others. Daenerys story sees her becoming Queen of the ex-slave city of Meeran. Following Daenerys in her attempt to gain peace in the city, with the growing threat of war.

This book was brilliant. It was all I wanted A Feast for Crows to be. It brings us right back to the tempo at the end of Blood and Gold and keeps that tempo throughout the book. There are also so many twists to the plot in this book. As in previous books Martin makes you think the story line is going one way and then adds a character who we thought was long dead, or has a character who we thought would go on through all the books killed. It makes for brilliant reading and keeps the story fresh because we are not just reading over the same old characters all the time. Also keeping us on our toes because he keeps killing off characters who I thought would have massive story lines in the next few books. The ending is also brilliant. It left me just wanting to go on and read the next book straight away and really shows us that one story line is ending and another is just going to begin. Again I tip my hat to the detail Martin adds to the book, which makes his world that much realer. It was a brilliant book and a great way to leave the series, can’t wait for the next book ‘The Winds of Winter’.

Link to George R. R. Martin’s Official site:

http://georgerrmartin.com/