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Jan 16, 2012

Kelly rated it:

Warning: The dragons in this review are named Giant and Spoilers. I have tried to shield most of them from view, but don’t get mad at me if one of them burns you. With this book, it was bound to happen.

This one was a real mudfight. Between me, myself and I.

Me didn’t get beyond “SQUEEE!” for several hundred pages,
Myself, while also trying to get over her grammatically awkward name, came up with the logical reasoning why this reaction was totally okay and based on somethi More...

155 comments like (255 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Hirondelle rated it:

So, this is it. The dragons were supposed to dance, instead they barely spread their wings. And I am left thinking, this is it?!?

My complaint by the way, is not about the wait itself. I think I have been waiting since 1998 for this (this was supposed to be book 3 sometime in the past). After a few years of waiting, I think I managed to ignore it (by ruthlessly ignoring almost all discussion of anything related to these books for years). Other authors take their time: Megan Whalen Tur More...

34 comments like (57 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Tia rated it:

8/27/11 Ok, no it didn't take me a month to read the book. It took me a few days. I just waited to write the review because it's one I didn't want to write.

*****BELOW THAR (may) BE SPOILERS********

Ok, I'm underwhelmed. GRRM is undoubtedly a fantastic writer and the writing was superb, as always. But the god damned story is dragging.

1. Dany and her dragons will never ever ever ever ever ever ever get moving. Never ever. Never. And that's bul More...

10 comments like (52 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Bryant rated it:

If there truly is any justice in the universe, Martin will finish this one before one of us dies.

Addendum: Now that an official release date has been announced, I remain cautiously optimistic, but think this one might just be in my hands soon.

As to seeing the entire series finished by Martin and not a proxy . . . well, I suppose that depends on whether you believe in miracles.

4 comments like (52 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Valerie rated it:

Purchased anew, and laid it beside her bed,
Conflicting thoughts flying through her head.
Afraid almost to crack the covers, read the pages,
What if it was the last book? "No, More," she rages.
What if it wasn't? How long the wait next time?
Five years? Seven? Thirteen? Unlucky, even in rhyme.
First I must reread all the others...
refresh my brain of Snow and all his Brothers.
Sansa is no smarter than I did recall.
Starks should avoid other More...

8 comments like (51 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Nikkodemus rated it:

Spoilers Included, so skip if you feel the need...

So, it's like this. You like hotdogs. Hotdogs are your favorite food. And there's a jumbo hotdog coming out on the 12th, so yay. Come the twelfth, all you get is the bread, and they say, eat that, the sausage is coming. It's so meaty, you're already salivating, dribbling on yourself in public like a fool.
Munch, munch, munch. But the bread is dry... Then you come upon a sausage factory. The Jumbo Sausage factory, and you get a gr More...

23 comments like (47 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Miss marked it as to-read

I find it strange that people have already rated this book.

2 comments like (40 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

James rated it:

I'm blown away that someone could write a book so long in which nothing actually happens.

4 comments like (47 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Grell rated it:

Martin himself describes the writing process of Feast: ‘The last one was a bitch.” and of ADWD: “This one was three bitches and a bastard”. If the author had trouble writing it It’s not surprising that it is also “three bitches and a bastard” to read. Presumably the first 3 books were easier to write, I also found them far more enjoyable to read.

I think part of my difficulty with reading ADWD is my refusal to skip anything, I never felt this urge to in the 1st 3 books. I read this t More...

10 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Joel rated it:

Did any of you guys watch Lost? Remember how you'd be watching a totally banal episode, and you're like "Oh, interesting, everyone is mad at Hurley for eating ranch dressing right out of the tub, that's, gee, that's compelling, hey now do more scenes of Jack and Kate re-establishing readily apparent character conflicts and interrelationships, zzz." But then at the end of the episode, something totally crazy would happen, and you'd be all "OMG IS VINCENT THE SMOKE MONSTER?" an More...

27 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

mark rated it:

An Initial Reaction to an Initial Reaction

“What’s A Song of Ice and Fire? It’s the only fantasy series I’d put on a level with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. . . . It’s a fantasy series for hip, smart people, even those who don’t read fantasy.”

— Chicago Tribune

ugh, SHUT THE FUCK UP, CHICAGO TRIBUNE!

"a fantasy series for hip, smart people"...you make me want to never read this. but i won't let you influence me. fuck off, doucheba More...

32 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Jessi rated it:

Ok so I loved the first 3 books in this series, loved them.A Feast for Crows was a bit disappointing, but A Feast for Crows was a different format and was considered one half of a finished product. So A Dance With Dragons is the other half to make that this installment complete, but they never feel complete you need the next one right away because this George R.R. Martin bastard has created these characters that we love and we want to find out what happens to them. I kid,I kid, I love George Mar More...

48 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

ambyr rated it:

I don't know how to objectively review this book.

I first found Westeros in high school--sophmore year, to be exact. I'd had A Game of Thrones for months, maybe a year. I think it was a present. I kept opening it, reading a few pages, and bouncing off. And then one day I was bored and didn't have anything better to read and I finally forced my way through the prologue (which I still hate, and skip on rereads) and fell head-first into the book. When I came up for air, I demanded my par More...

3 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Matt rated it:

This was a struggle between what I wanted to feel and what I felt.

I’m not going to lay false claim to being an early convert to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire cycle. To the contrary, up until April 17, 2011, I spent a great deal of time passively ignoring fantasy in general, and Martin in particular. (By passively ignoring, I mean I lived my daily life without ever thinking about the topic). However, on that date, HBO premiered Game of Thrones. Within three minutes, peo More...

13 comments like (20 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Christine (AR) added it

Done. I need to come back and add a review when I've processed. And recovered.

ETA: July 12, 2011. Oh, why not. I believe this one, too.

Amazon says this will be out September, '08.

I have no words for how excited seeing an actual publication date for this makes me. I've decided to believe it. And in pixies and unicorns and magic rainbows, too.

0 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Erin rated it:

I am ridiculously excited about this book. The Song of Ice and Fire series is one of the finest fantasy series ever created.

13 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Steven rated it:

Well, I guess we know now why Martin took so long to release this latest volume: it's a steaming mess.

Forget for a moment the fact that of the many principal POV characters, only one (Jon Snow) has any discernible character arc throughout the tome's 940+ pages. Forget too that the only female POV characters (Cersei and Dany, and even Asha in her first chapter) can scarcely go two pages without pining lustily and pathetically for their male paramours. Don't trouble yourself with the cha More...

3 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Lowed rated it:

Book reviews nowadays are becoming more and more varied. From airing out comments on the pacing of the author's ability to publish a book- to making social commentaries- up to how you found the damn book that took him six long years to finish. No, I ain't bitching out. But I would say six years was too long a wait.

Sure, everyone has been saying this isn't just what he is doing. After all he has a life of his own. And he also edits, comments, reads, and watches football. But I strong More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Janice rated it:

extremely annoyed that the book basically expected to be the finale to this series was essentially chopped in the middle and left hanging.. and that the author has still not yet finished/published/released the second half of the "finale." and, annoying to see other books being published by this author instead of this one being completed!!!!

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Jim rated it:

More of a 3.5, rounded down because I'm reflecting my declining love of this series. It started out great, but grew too large & is now choking in its own waste of words. It didn't move along at anything like the pace of the first 2 books. There were long chapters set too close together, improperly titled, & riddled with cliff hangers. The gritty realism is descending into gross for its own sake. Not all the time, but consistently enough that it is wearing.

My biggest complaint is More...

8 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Ginny rated it:

To George RR Martin,

What in the name of baby Jesus have you been doing for these effing five years?

Yours,
A very disgruntled reader

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

J. rated it:

PROLOGUE

He awoke to the feel of sunlight on his face. At last the day had come. He stretched to work out the kinks in his joints and muscles, and he groaned at the throbbing in his head. On his nightstand lay a bottle of Dornish red, which he downed in one long swallow to clear his mind, wine dribbling down his beard and shirt. He spied the book at the corner of his room where he had hurled it, and nearly threw the bottle too as the rage resurfaced along with his senses.

T More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Pat rated it:

George R. R. Martin is an asshole. And you know what? I knew after finishing the first book (Game of Thrones) in the Song of Fire and Ice series. I remember being 14 years old and, (grievous spoiler, in case you’ve neither read the first book nor seen the HBO series) when that fateful moment came where our righteous and heroic Lord Stark was killed, walking up to my mom aghast saying “He KILLED the hero. You can’t kill the hero.” He was true to the series most quoted saying, then: Winter is comi More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Michael rated it:

Martin excels at delivering disappointment. He builds characters up to the point where you think you know what is coming next, and typically want to see it happen, and then introduces dramatic changes that take the character either in a completely different direction or directly into the grave, all without seeming arbitrary. His style is a bit annoying in that almost every chapter ends with a dramatic discovery, which is a bit frustrating, especially given the breadth of the narrative and the am More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Zinny rated it:

This is an honest review of this book and hopefully it could be redeem or George could redeem himself in a better light with the next one.

The frist 3 books in this series was really good, now all he does is keep on creating same plots with no ending to any of it.
This is a novel that ended 200 hundred pages short. Throughout all of it we are given two "big" stories, the North and the East, and both of them look to lead towards large power altering battles that will riv More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Lightreads rated it:

Ah, Westeros: where the only birds are crows and ravens (who croak weighty and significant words at dramatic moments, natch), and where no man is capable of drawing a comparison without reference to the sexual organs of a virgin or a prostitute.

This is a pity four stars. A ‘yeah the orgasms were really good a few years ago, but honey. Get some new moves,” four stars.

It wasn’t bad. Definitely not. It was just really, really long, and I could make a list of Things That Happ More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Ben rated it:

Valar morghulis. All men must die. And in A Dance with Dragons, everyone dies.

OK, I'm teasing you. But I'm also being completely serious.

N.B.: As always, this review does not contain spoilers for this book, but there are significant spoilers for previous books in the series. I know you're still going to read it though, Dad, even though you haven't read the books and it's going to spoil the TV show for you.

A Feast for Crows focuses on the political situation in More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Sammy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Charlotte marked it as to-read

GAAAAAAAHHHH...I've waited for like 2 years for this book...come out already!!!!

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 02, 2011

Andrew rated it:

"Words are wind," says George R. R. Martin (GRRM) no less than 13 times in the latest installment of his A Song of Ice and Fire series. In this incredibly windy tome there was very little advancement of the overall story and no resolution to any of the myriad plot threads. Instead, most of the book followed characters travelling, yet in its 1,000+ pages only one reaches his destination while the rest are still travelling.

Words are wind, and GRRM is a windbag. His predilecti More...

54 comments like (68 people liked it)