Jen reads... A Dance With Dragons

I should probably say from the start that this is going to be a bit (only a bit!) spoilery. So if you are like me and prefer your A Song of Ice and Fire books to be completely unspoiled, here is my short review of A Dance with Dragons – It was GOOD!

…And now for some slight spoilers.

After sort of plodding through the last book, this one drew me right in with chapter after chapter about characters that I’d been dying to know about while reading the last book. Tyrion! BAM! Daenerys! BAM! Jon! BAM! Bran! …Meh, whatever! Generally, the book is as full of exciting things going on as the last one was slow. Not that the slowness of A Feast For Crows was that bad, but reading this made me realize just how little actually happened in the last one.   

This book made me feel really sorry for a couple of characters who I had never really liked (for obvious reasons) before, and with the first proper look at Ramsay Bolton (apparently he was in the second book, which I seem to have completely forgotten about? Haha!), gave me a new character to despise. In fact, he made me wonder if maybe I had previously been a bit harsh on some of the other characters. 

Overall, the book was really gripping, and I got through it really quickly. I still have the same reservations about how women are treated in the books, and was really dissatisfied at the way that a certain character whose fate was uncertain in the last book was handled (I wanted details and I got a brief mention! Pfft!), but those misgivings aside, I think it might be my favourite in the series so far.

At the end of the book was a sample chapter from the next book, which I don’t really get. Normally these things seem to be put in to make you start reading and then really want the next book, but it’s just cruel to put that in when the next book won’t be out until… ??? So I chose not to read it.

And now I’m happy, because nothing can spoil me for the series anymore! Until the next book comes out and it inevitably takes me ages to get round to reading it, hehe.

To anybody who is struggling with A Feast For Crows now, or is wondering whether it’s worth carrying on, it definitely is!  

Jen reads... A Feast For Crows

It took me a looong time to get through this. A loooooong time. The only thing that really motivated me to carry on reading it (after stopping for a few months) was that I'm lending the other books in the series to one of my friends, and he was up to the second half of A Storm of Swords, so I wanted to finish reading this so I could lend it to him. 

See, the thing is... I had heard before that this was boring. In comparison to the other books in the series, that is. That it was just people travelling to various places and plotting and stuff. To be fair, I get what people are saying as nothing really major happens (especially not compared to storm of swords!), but I forgot that I actually enjoy those bits of the books as much as the more action packed stuff (sometimes more?). So, I don't really know what I was thinking. 

I also managed to forget in my break from reading this that it only featured half of the characters, so when I got to the end I was thinking, ahhh, what happened to (insert character name here)??? Did they die and I just forgot about it??? Then, at the end there's a note from George R. R. Martin saying "So I guess you're wondering whats going on with the other characters eh?" (Not a direct quote). And then I went, OH YEAH! Hehe. 

It gets a bit spoilery from here on in so if you plan to read this at some point... don't read any further! Unless you like spoilers? 

So my thoughts about this book... 

No Tyrion? No Daenerys? No Jon? No Davos? And stuff from Cersei's point of view? Pfft! I don't care what Cersei thinks about anything! Hehe. Ah well. Apart from wishing that her chapters would end, I enjoyed the rest of the book! I REALLY hope that that isn't the end for Brienne, as I really like her... 

All in all, it's definitely the weakest book of the series (so far!), but that isn't to say that it's bad in any way. I am kind of sick of the way that women are treated in the books though.. like, I get that that's just the way that that world works, but it doesn't have to be pointed out so much! It just makes me sad for all of the female characters. 

..I already started reading A Dance with Dragons... the first few chapters, are like... Tyrion!!! Daenerys!!! Jon!! Woooo!!! I'm enjoying it so far :D