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lightofdayeThere was very little dancing and the dragons didn't appear much.
So yeah. I'd already spoiled myself on Jon's death but... Damn it was still a shock and a blow to the gut. I mean It was just so sudden one page, i'm trying to figure out what happened with the giant and how Jon will keep a lid on things and then bam, knives in the gut and the back and... :-(
I really don't know how I feel about the novel, there are bits and characters that are genuinely interesting and It was well written I can tell because it one of those books I read and think 'I must put it down and go to sleep at the end of this chapte' and then end up reading another couple of chapters before I actually managed to tear me away from it.
The real weakness of the book in my opinion is that there's no damn ending. Nothing feels like the natural end of an arc just a quick and nasty cliffhanger so he can end the book. In fact I think its weaker than Feast For Crows on that account. For Feast lots of people's arc seem to come to a natural climax, Cersei being hoisted on her own petard, Jaime taking Riverrun, Arriane's confrontation with her father. The Results of the Kingsmoot for Asha, Victarion being sent to Mereen etc.
But most of the characters in this seem to be treading water. Especially Jon and Tyrion. Character I usually enjoy but suddenly seem to be much more boring in this book. It's not helped by the fact Jon immediately decides to sent every interesting and fun night's watch character as far away from him as possible.
Despite making it to Mereen Tyrion never gets to meet Dany which I think is the greatest injustice in the book.
As with Feast, GRRM introduces a lot of new characters view points but Damn is he getting bored with just using their names or what? Like Feast there are lot of new faces and new viewpoints that are only used very briefly.
And these Aegon son of Rheagar thing seems really out of left field, technically there had been some foreshadowing with Daenerys in Quarth but its still weird to introduce such a big character this late. I'm wondering if he really is the prince that was promised like Rhaegar said or if Aemon was right about it being Dany.
I think the strongest chapters were surprisingly enough Theon's. He wasn't that great in Clash but he has a really strong redemption arc coming off here. And I note that despite all the things that have been cut off. He still has enough fingers at least to use his signature weapon. Epic redemption arc here we come?
I also enjoyed Asha's chapters with Stannis and Jaime's which is one of the most pointless since all that was really significant was the last few paragraphs with Brienne that could have fit at the end of Feast with little alteration. Still seeing Jaime treating honourably with Blackwood and handling both Blackwood and his allies of Bracken was really good and its strange how Jaime always seems to end up likely respecting his opponents more than his allies but when he's got allies like Bracken and Frey its not surprising.
Now to watch the Game Of Thrones episode Baelor, this ain't going to be traumatic at all...
So yeah. I'd already spoiled myself on Jon's death but... Damn it was still a shock and a blow to the gut. I mean It was just so sudden one page, i'm trying to figure out what happened with the giant and how Jon will keep a lid on things and then bam, knives in the gut and the back and... :-(
I really don't know how I feel about the novel, there are bits and characters that are genuinely interesting and It was well written I can tell because it one of those books I read and think 'I must put it down and go to sleep at the end of this chapte' and then end up reading another couple of chapters before I actually managed to tear me away from it.
The real weakness of the book in my opinion is that there's no damn ending. Nothing feels like the natural end of an arc just a quick and nasty cliffhanger so he can end the book. In fact I think its weaker than Feast For Crows on that account. For Feast lots of people's arc seem to come to a natural climax, Cersei being hoisted on her own petard, Jaime taking Riverrun, Arriane's confrontation with her father. The Results of the Kingsmoot for Asha, Victarion being sent to Mereen etc.
But most of the characters in this seem to be treading water. Especially Jon and Tyrion. Character I usually enjoy but suddenly seem to be much more boring in this book. It's not helped by the fact Jon immediately decides to sent every interesting and fun night's watch character as far away from him as possible.
Despite making it to Mereen Tyrion never gets to meet Dany which I think is the greatest injustice in the book.
As with Feast, GRRM introduces a lot of new characters view points but Damn is he getting bored with just using their names or what? Like Feast there are lot of new faces and new viewpoints that are only used very briefly.
And these Aegon son of Rheagar thing seems really out of left field, technically there had been some foreshadowing with Daenerys in Quarth but its still weird to introduce such a big character this late. I'm wondering if he really is the prince that was promised like Rhaegar said or if Aemon was right about it being Dany.
I think the strongest chapters were surprisingly enough Theon's. He wasn't that great in Clash but he has a really strong redemption arc coming off here. And I note that despite all the things that have been cut off. He still has enough fingers at least to use his signature weapon. Epic redemption arc here we come?
I also enjoyed Asha's chapters with Stannis and Jaime's which is one of the most pointless since all that was really significant was the last few paragraphs with Brienne that could have fit at the end of Feast with little alteration. Still seeing Jaime treating honourably with Blackwood and handling both Blackwood and his allies of Bracken was really good and its strange how Jaime always seems to end up likely respecting his opponents more than his allies but when he's got allies like Bracken and Frey its not surprising.
Now to watch the Game Of Thrones episode Baelor, this ain't going to be traumatic at all...
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Date: 2012-05-20 02:23 pm (UTC)Martin hardly includes Bran anymore. I guess he's learning so much magic-type stuff that we can't have his POV all the time because it would reveal too much, which is why I think we'll never get a Varys or Petyr Baelish POV either, because they know everything. I miss Bran though. His adventure with the Reeds has been really interesting.
I was frustrated with the eastern plotline as well. I wanted Tyrion and Dany to meet, because he's one of the few characters that could actually fill her in on what Westeros is like. Barristen and Jorah gloss over the truth so Dany has this unrealistic idea of what happened when her father was the king. Tyrion would actually tell her the truth.