I expected Sansa to continue to be lame and stupid, and she was, but I have been surprised by Arya. She seems to be trying to be held captive by every single character in the novel, something which simultaneously annoyed me, and impressed me. I don't think I've ever read of a character going through such an intensive training montage to be consistently beaten and captured at almost every opportunity. At the end of the first book I wrote that I'd be impressed if Martin killed her off - I think I'm more impressed that he made her so helpless.
Spoilers ahead.
And speaking of killing off characters, Martin does it with great relish in this book. The 'Red Wedding' is fantastically written: if you don't pick up earlier signals, Catelyn's naive faith in the sanctity of 'guest rite' is almost comical foreshadowing:
Catelyn tasted the wine and nibbled at some bread, and felt much better for it. Now we should be safe, she thought.
The wedding marks a great turning point in this novel, when all of a sudden all the story lines get awesome at once. Jon is with, then against, the wildlings in a series of epic battles. Daenerys acquires an army, frees a bunch of slaves, and becomes a military strategic genius. Jaime, Tyrion and the Night's Watch take some completely unexpected actions, and the novel ends with a bunch of surprising character deaths.
If only Martin had compressed some of the build-up in the first half of the novel I think it would be pretty much perfect. I won't say I was bored, but with each new character introduction, and each discussion of who should be wedded to who I despaired of the plot getting anywhere.
Having said that I am very impressed with this series. I've never read anything so epic, so complex, with so many different stories that could quite easily be novels in their own right. It was nice to see Martin made a conscious effort to insert small re-caps and memory triggers - I guess it was important given the novels were released a number of years apart.
And now for a bunch of nits, observations, and predictions:
- I really hope 'Hodor' ends up having some profound meaning and some key part to play. It seems more than a little strange that he understands everyone's speech perfectly but can only say one word...
- I assumed Tryion was being manipulated through Shae by Varys, but Tyrion removed that plot line in this book, so perhaps not.
- I liked hearing about Robb's interesting military tactics, that were screwed up by an overzealous Tully.
- The creatures of the north seemed fairly ridiculous in an otherwise fairly 'normal' world - giants, mammoths, and:
Varamyr Sixskins, a small mouse of a man whose steed was a savage white snow bear that stood thirteen feet tall on its hind legs. And wherever the bear and Varamyr went, three wolves and a shadowcat came following.
- One of the trade items Daenerys is bargaining with for the Unsullied is 'a cask of pitted olives stuff with maggots'. And this is apparently worth money?
- What is with Martin and his need for female characters to stick perfume in weird places. First Daenerys, now Sansa is at it:
The maid dabbed some on her finger and touched Sansa behind each ear, and under her chin, and then lightly on her nipples.
- Sandor Clegane rips the fairly ridiculous 'Forgotten Fellowship' to shreds with verbal disdain:
"Dondarrion's a knight, but the rest of you are the sorriest lot of outlaws and broken men I've ever seen. I shit better men than you."
"Any knight can make a knight," said the scarecrow that was Beric Dondarrion, "and every man you see before you has felt a sword upon his shoulder. We are the forgotten fellowship."
"Send me on my way and I'll forget you too," Clegane rasped. - What is it with people eating swan all the time? Tyrion even mentions it, maybe because Martin's editors complained:
("Not swan again," Tyrion muttered, remembering his supper with his sister on the eve of battle.)
- I'm getting a little sick of the constant cliffhangers - every time the story gets really interesting Martin switches to another point of view. Sometimes this is great because it saves on unnecessary detail and gives a different perspective on events, but I think it is tending towards being over-used.
Many and more pages have been read (about 3,000), many and more to go (about 2,000 currently published).
5 stars.
