But lets acknowledge some of the good bits, and thankfully there were more of those than in Feast. When Bran is ambushed by a bunch of wights in a scene straight out of Dead Snow I stopped reading just long enough to let out a 'Hells Yeah!'. His apprenticeship to the three-eyed-crow (btw I loved the idea of a half-man, half-weirwood tree, complete with a root growing out of his eye socket) is fascinating. Jon's chapters continued to be some of the best as he creates a fragile peace with the wildlings.
Arya's training with the faceless men finally gets interesting as they intentionally blind her and give her a face from the thousands of dead people they have skinned(!) We also get to watch an assassination through her eyes, complete with a con reminiscent of early locke days.
...faces full of greed and rage and lust, bald faces and faces bristling with hair. Masks, she told herself, it's only masks, but even as she thought the thought, she knew it wasn't so. They were skins.
But it just isn't enough. The story doesn't move as much as it should have, especially given GRRM had 1000+ pages to work with. Tyrion and Victarion are still travelling to meet Daenerys. She's mooning around with Daario while Tyrion is being a circus act, and the dragons barely feature. Neither Arya or Bran finish their training. Stannis doesn't reach Winterfell. The others don't attack the wall. Is there anything more boring than reading about someone being bored?
Life aboard the Selaesori Qhoran was nothing if not tedious, Tyrion had found. The most exciting part of his day was pricking his toes and fingers with a knife.And just to make sure you know he has still got it, Martin kills off a major character. I felt like he was trying to make a point like 'see? In this world, one careless decision can kill you', and while I respect the 'nobody is safe' ruthlessness, this reeks of an ad-break cliffhanger that will end up with resurrection by magic or subterfuge a la Catelyn, Mance, Davos...
So, not as bad as Feast, but not as good as it could be. Here's hoping he actually finishes the series sometime in the next couple of decades. Getting overtaken by the HBO series might provide some motivation. I'll leave you with some of my favourite quotes.
"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one."
If this were a story, he would gallop up just as we reached the temple, to challenge Hizdahr for my hand...Four hours later, they emerged again as man and wife, bound together wrist and ankle with chains of yellow gold. [guess this isn't a story then]
The Lyseni took the table nearest to the fire and spoke quietly over cups of black tar rum, keeping their voices low so no one could overhear. But she was no one and she heard most every word.
"You took me unawares, my lord. I was not told of your coming."
"And I seem to have prevented yours." Jaime smiled at the woman in the bed.
3.5 stars
