Even though I promised myself that after listening to the BBC interview with GRR Martin, and not hearing a whisper about the next book, I would set this one aside to read the last 150 pages at a later date. That promise lasted about a month.

As the author said at the end of his previous book, book #5 is a catch up with the characters that weren't covered in the earlier book with some convergence towards the end. It did and it was a good read.

I gave this 4 stars, but really only 3 1/2 due to length. After having read several thousand pages of the story thus far, I admit that I miss the days when fantasy authors published trilogies, even 5 volume works. But like everyone else, I eagerly await the next book in the series. Do I have a choice?