Review of A Dance With Dragons

Posted also on Goodreads.

Many will not like A Dance With Dragons. I and others are still bitter that books 4 and 5 were split based on worlds--at this point clearly a failure that jars the reader. Obviously Dragons continues along these longitudinal lines.

More importantly though, in Dragons George R.R. Martin departs from a number of themes established in past Ice & Fire books. But did you really want to read another tome detailing yet another war party raid along the trident? Past books had shown a tendency toward devolving into rape, murder, and heads on stakes, which is all well and good but we are over 3000 pages into the series. Mindless violence groweth stale.

Enter Dragons, set in a largely new land for us readers. For the first time in the series, Martin introduces quest themes. He also spends more time letting us read our heroes' thoughts, and not just watching their actions. At this point we have seen them defined by actions and we want more: More depth and more character development. Dragons delivers. Here too, are just enough new characters to bolster the favorites we longed for in A Feast for Crows. There are also underpinnings of romance, something alluded to but rarely explored in books 1-4. As for specific stories, Jon Snow's is great and Arya's is one of the best yet. You'll still get plenty of the violence, intrigue, and insane plot twists that you've come to expect. Just as you didn't like the outcome of every confrontation in Book 1, you may not like what you read here. Isn't that what drew you in though?

The book is flawed, as are most of this length. Daenerys's tale wallows, as it has now for some time. Dorne is still relegated to a bench warming position, and the book spends almost too much time in the distant past. But make no mistake this book is great. It is a rambling epic that brings us into a world increasingly different from reality in ways that delight the mind. The magic is inventive, the twists epic, and the writing is quite nice too.

Dragons injects life into a series that frankly needed it. To be a success, book six will have to put the pressure cooker on, leading to the epic climax in the final book that we've all been waiting for. Although as any fan of the series knows, at George's age and pace, it might just be a success if book six gets written. I for one will enjoy reading Dragons half a hundred times more while I wait.

(Slow) Dancing with Dragons

After a 5 year hiatus George R.R. Martin finally finished writing A Dance With Dragons, book five of seven in the Fire and Ice series. The interwebs are all a-twitter with fantasy lovers shelling out $19 for advance hardback copies. I have been anxiously awaiting this book since a friend turned me on to the series about four years ago.

I've actually decided to wait a bit longer on the book.

1. I'm rereading the series (again) and still have Feast For Crows remaining. 
2. I often read in bed and hardback books are cumbersome and uncomfortable to rest on my chest.
3. I'm cheap and would rather pay $7-$10 for a used copy than the $18 for a new one.
4. I quixotically believe that I can keep the spoiler blinders on for another three months. 

No Shortcuts to the Top

I recently finished reading the aforementioned book by Ed Viesturs, the first American to summit all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks. His feat is even more impressive when you consider that he did so without using supplemental oxygen. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in motivation, climbing, and patience. Since I'm very interested in two out of three, this proved to be a great read. What struck me most was the measured and careful way in which Ed climbed. Upon discovering that conditions were simply too dangerous to continue climbing, Ed repeatedly turned around to await a safer opportunity, often doing so less than 400 feet from the summit. Unlike so many climbers who have pushed themselves way too far, allowed themselves to get started late, or failed to put in the hard work training, Ed time and again refuses to make these completely avoidable missteps. Everyone loves a good adventure story and climbers such as Reinhold Messner, Maurice Herzog, and Herman Buhl deliver exactly these but these are climbers who have pushed themselves well beyond any acceptable risk threshold and as a result, it's hard for me to relate. As Viesturs penned frequently in 'No Shortcuts,' "Getting to the top is optional; getting down is mandatory." In my next post I'll be compiling a list of Climbing dos and don'ts but for now, suffice to say that I have a new hero.