Review: A Dance With Dragons, by George RR Martin

This is the long-awaited fifth books in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire series (intended to be a series of seven parts). Naturally, this review has some spoilers, both for A Dance With Dragons (ADWD) and the series generally.

It runs more or less concurrently with A Feast For Crows, the fourth part of the series, but features as the main characters those neglected in the previous book (namely Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys, backed up by Melisandre, Ser Barristan and Stannis). The characters/storylines of A Feast For Crows do make fleeting appearances towards the end of the book.

ADWD did take me a little while to get into, simply because of the enormous scale and complexity of the series (not aided by my own rubbishness with names). The quality of the writing is as good as ever, and I did prefer it to A Feast For Crows, which was reckoned by many to be a dip in form after the first three excellent books.

That said, I do have some mixed feelings. The story progressed quite well in some regards (around the Wall and Winterfell, with Jon Snow, Stannis and so forth), but for others either little happened (Daenerys) or what happened seems somewhat insignificant (Tyrion).

Tyrion was my favourite character in the first three books, but I think Theon Greyjoy was perhaps the best written this time around. There was some excellent writing describing his rather horrid relationship with Ramsay Bolton.

The Epilogue was amongst the strongest parts of the book, and dealt with characters in King’s Landing rather than the North or Essos where most of the book’s time is spent. That aside, the ending was somewhat unsatisfying. I don’t want to say anything more specific, but whilst new storylines were added in ADWD none of the central ones were resolved.

That said, it is worth pointing out that the series’ storyline is as complex and large at this stage as it is likely to get, and that (with only two more planned books to go we) things should start to come together in The Winds of Winter (title of book six).

So, overall I enjoyed it. The writing was as good as ever, and the plot advanced nicely in the North. However, some more action/progression in Essos would have been welcome. I’d give it four stars out of five.

Thaddeus

A Song of Ice and Fire: summary so far, and look ahead to A Dance With Dragons

Dance With Dragons is the fifth instalment in George RR Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s been long awaited, and comes out in just over a week (12 July). Given the slightly protracted wait and my own rubbishness with names (I somehow managed to forget several important characters in Best Served Cold and The Heroes) I thought it’d be cunning to have a quick refresher as to what’s happened and who’s who.

Naturally, there are bloody enormous spoilers for the first four books. So, if you just watched A Game of Thrones and are just getting into the series, stop reading. Unless you like spoilers, obviously.

King Robert Baratheon asks Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and his best mate, to become his Hand (effectively, doing all the work of kingship but without the shiny hat). Eddard agrees, despite his predecessor dying rather suddenly.

Unsurprisingly, Robert ends up dead and his son Joffrey (of House Lannister) gets the job. Eddard discovers the three kids are illegitimate and that Stannis, Robert’s younger brother, ought to be king.

Meanwhile, Renly, Stannis’ younger brother, contests the throne and Robb Stark, Eddard’s son, is pronounced King of an independent northern kingdom.

Eddard got the chop in A Game of Thrones (rather predictably), and George RR Martin has a rather splendid bloody red streak running through his plots. Likewise, almost all contenders for the throne (including Joffrey) end up dead one way or another (the death of Renly was pretty damned good even by Mr. Martin’s exalted standards), except for Stannis, who is a miserable bugger (imagine a competent, decent person with the charisma of Gordon Brown).

The throne is sat upon by the unlikely and, if my fuzzy memory is right, quite likeable Tommen, a little boy and brother of Joffrey.

Stannis, being miserable, gets little support from the nobility of the realm and heads north to The Wall, where he seeks to protect the kingdom. It’s an action of both self-interest and responsibility.

The Wall is, er, a wall. A bloody enormous wall erected to keep out horrid things (the Others) from the far north, and manned by the Night’s Watch. Joining the Night’s Watch is meant to be an honour, but quite often people end up there when convicted of a serious crime and given the choice between that and death. Jon Snow, a bastard son of Eddard, rises to become the leader of the Night Watch.

All of this has occurred in Westeros, which is a large continent of Seven Kingdoms, with Winterfell, in the north, being the biggest. The other part of the story takes place in Essos.

Robert took over as king from Aerys II, a Targaryen with the Caligulan nickname of The Mad King. The sole two Targaryen scions remaining, Daenerys and her elder brother, escaped the death of their dynasty eastward. She marries a powerful warlord, who in turn killed her brother (don’t be sad, her brother was an arsehead).

Daenerys, however, lost her husband to sickness and gradually rose to become a power to be reckoned with in her own right. She also has three dragons, a Targaryen tradition.

NB: I’ve obviously missed tons out, and only covered the basics. If you want more info, there’s plenty on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire

Whereas the first three books developed these three storylines together, the fourth (A Feast For Crows) only looked at half of the cast of the series, and I think A Dance With Dragons will do likewise, but for the other half.

There are thought to be two more books that will finish off the series, although it would be a brave man who tried to predict when that would be.

I am really looking forward to A Dance With Dragons. I absolutely loved the first three books, and whilst A Feast For Crows was not quite so excellent, I still enjoyed it.

Went hunting for a picture to use, and came across this post by Mr. Martin. It’s a good reminder that good writers are often rejected repeatedly and may then have a slow-burn success rather than a Harry Potter-style big bang:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/225786.html

Thaddeus

Can a story be too epic?

‘Epic’ can describe many things, whether classical history, Hollywood films about the fall of the Roman Empire or a fantasy series.

Fantasy stories often have some epic qualities. Lengthy and perilous journeys are commonplace, as is the potential end of the world and huge wars. The Lord of the Rings is a good example, with Sauron, the destruction of the One Ring and the various large scale battles in Gondor.

There are sound reasons for this. A big journey enables characters and relationships between them to develop, and gives the writer a great opportunity to show off the fantastical world they’ve created. The potential for the downfall of civilisation and the ultimate triumph of evil is a simple and effective way of introducing a driving force for the plot and dramatic tension.

There are some pitfalls, though. For a start, the world ending is amongst the least original of storylines, second only to the princess in need of rescue. It can also be challenging to create an entire world that’s not either a bit bland and too realistic or too similar to worlds written of by others. Certain archetypes can quite freely be copied (dragons, elves, dwarves, gunpowder just about being discovered), but if anybody started writing about a giant bull-fire-demon with a whip called a gorlab people probably wouldn’t be too impressed.

Fantasy often deals in trilogies, which is handy for something epic, as three books of (often) 500-800 pages is plenty of space to describe a world, ultimate peril and a big war.

There is, however, one series (as yet unfinished) which makes a trilogy, or even The Lord of the Rings itself, look a bit diminutive. A Song of Ice and Fire is brilliantly written, but the last instalment (A Feast For Crows) did make me wonder if George RR Martin had overreached himself. The scale is massive on any level (size/detail of the world, cast list, events, page/word count). The last book dealt with only half the cast and was widely considered to be a step down from the stellar quality of the preceding books.

The series has a very large number of significant characters and a spider’s web of inter-connected and fascinating storylines. But there’s got to come a point when a story just becomes too unwieldy, and the number of characters hinders rather than helps the plot.

My hope is that A Dance With Dragons, out shortly, will allay my fears and that Mr. Martin, who has a tremendous talent for writing, returns to his very best form. I suspect we’ll find out one way or another whether he’s over-egged the cake when it comes out in July.

Thaddeus

A Dance With Dragons Waltzes Into View

Although it’s only March, 2011 could be a pretty tasty year for fantasy fans. The very long-awaited release of A Dance With Dragons (the latest instalment in the epic A Song Of Ice And Fire series, by George RR Martin) has been announced, for 12 July, with the UK release on the same date as in the US.

The book has been delayed for release many times, but it does sound likely that it will be out in July of this year. The series generally is tremendously popular, which is unsurprising as it’s brilliantly written and has the most immersive and detailed world I think I’ve ever read in fantasy. However, the last book, A Feast For Crows, did not live up to the high standards Mr. Martin had set for himself, and achieved with all previous books in the series. Fans will be very keen to see that he’s returned to his very best with A Dance With Dragons.

That’s not the only good news for fans of the series, though. In April, the TV series of A Game Of Thrones (the first book) is to air. I’m unsure how many episodes it’ll be, but given the US habit of making a score and the scale of the book I’d be unsurprised if it were 15-20 or thereabouts. It’ll be on Sky Atlantic in the UK, and if it gets good reviews I’ll probably buy the DVD.

In the future there will also be two A Game Of Thrones games released. One will be an RPG and the other will be a strategy game. Both will be out for the usual platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), I think. It’ll be interesting to see whether they get the TV series’ stars to be voice actors for the games, and whether the games coincide more with the book or the TV series.

And that’s not all for 2011. In the next week or so, Dragon Age 2 (previewed here: http://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2011/03/dragon-age-2-preview.html) is coming out, and The Witcher 2 (only for PC, alas) is out on 17 May.

Probably the biggest fantasy game release of the year, however, will be Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game will sell in droves, and the early trailers already make it look pretty fantastic. Hopefully they can stick to the release date of 11/11/11.

This year’s going to see major fantasy releases in the form of books, games and TV. Here’s hoping they live up to the hype.

Thaddeus