Hardcover, 1016 pages
English language
Published July 12, 2011 by Harper Voyager.
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.
Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.
Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding …
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.
Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.
Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.
From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.
Probably the best of the series so far, though hard to top the first. Story lines advanced, much more of a page turner than A Feast for Crows. Now it is time to dive into the Westeros forums to figure out what happened and why in the last 3 chapters!
I finished A Dance with Dragons, the companion volume to A Feast for Crows (the timelines and stories overlap). I must say I found it much heavier going than I expected, it was unrelievedly grim, even by GRR Martin's standards. The Daenerys storyline has never been my favourite either, so the extra emphasis on that weighed heavily on me, I guess. By the end I was too fatigued to really care anymore and the (possible) demise of a major character (hardly unexpected) left me cold. In comparison I found the similar demise of a major character at the end of Memories of Ice was vivid and traumatic.
Although several plotlines were partially resolved in ADWD, nothing much really happened, just shuffling around of players for (maybe) an epic finale.I was disappointed to discover that my interest in what might happen next has diminished sharply. 3.5* really (rounded up for good …
I finished A Dance with Dragons, the companion volume to A Feast for Crows (the timelines and stories overlap). I must say I found it much heavier going than I expected, it was unrelievedly grim, even by GRR Martin's standards. The Daenerys storyline has never been my favourite either, so the extra emphasis on that weighed heavily on me, I guess. By the end I was too fatigued to really care anymore and the (possible) demise of a major character (hardly unexpected) left me cold. In comparison I found the similar demise of a major character at the end of Memories of Ice was vivid and traumatic.
Although several plotlines were partially resolved in ADWD, nothing much really happened, just shuffling around of players for (maybe) an epic finale.I was disappointed to discover that my interest in what might happen next has diminished sharply. 3.5* really (rounded up for good times earlier in the series)
