Candace's Reviews > A Dance with Dragons

Wow! Another one down! Each of these books are so incredibly long that it feels like a major accomplishment to complete them. I feel like I should get a merit badge or something.

Nonetheless, this epic saga continues. While I didn't see a lot of forward movement, I appreciated the time spent with some of my favorite characters. Mr. Martin is not one to spare details, and this book is full of them.

That being said, I spent a lot of time feeling lost. As if there weren't enough characters already, Mr. Martin continues to add even more side stories to this epic adventure. Maybe I'm missing something or just lack the insight to understand the workings of his brilliant mind, but I found many of these extra details to be trivial and irrelevant. I'm having enough trouble keeping the major characters straight. I certainly didn't need more added to the mix!

Unlike book 4, this fifth book offers plenty of time with Dany and the dragons. This was a major plus for me, since Dany is my favorite character in the series thus far. I particularly enjoyed the way she finally embraces her dragons. I have an image in my mind of her flying through the sky on the back of her dragon that leaves me dying to get my hands on the next book.

However, this book also showed the less confident side of Dany. She often struggled in her role as Queen, failing to make wise decisions. As her advisors have been whittled down, her ability to be the effective leader that she wants to be has declined. Many of the changes she implemented seemed to unravel in this book. Although, by the end of the book I had a renewed sense of optimism where Dany is concerned.

'A Dance With Dragons' also features Cersei finally getting a taste of her own medicine. She is a character that I love to hate and seeing her brought down a few pegs was long overdue. If for no other reason, I would've read this gigantic book just to see her public humiliation and degradation. It was so worth it!

Tyrion also reappears in this book. He's slowly making his way to Dany...and boy does she ever need him! Although his recent life events have made him even more aware of his expendability, he continues to be highly entertaining and incredibly wise.

I am curious to see where this epic adventure is heading. It seems that these worlds are about to collide and I can only hope that my favorite characters don't begin killing each other off. Now that I've finished this book, I guess I can join the wait!

As a side-note, I can say that the differences between the books and the HBO series are becoming more apparent the further along the series gets. Some of the events happen out of sequence and some things are added in that haven't happened yet. However, I'm still enjoying both immensely.