I have always been hesitant to read fantasy books because of their reputation of being long and overly detailed but the Game of Thrones Series has received such high praises that I decided to give it a try.  Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I read the first three books!  They were quite good and moved along at such a pace that I couldn't put them down.  Unfortunately, then came the fourth book (A Feast of Crows) which was quite a slog to get through.  I told myself, that is okay.  Every writer has an off book.  Then came this book.........and was saddened that nothing has changed.

A Dance with Dragons has proved to be just as slow and monotonous as the Feast of Crows with the story barely limping along.  The story has just become too unwieldly with too many pages spent on repetitive internal character development and on other characters that have little to no impact with the overall story.  A much better book could have been made by combining this book with the fourth book and editing everything down to around 1,000 pages.  I hate to say it, but I suspect that the only reason to keep these two books separate might be greed.  Why write one  book when you can write two and fill it with repetitive catchphrases and characters saying the same thing over and over?  It also disheartening that Martin has also released a short story book set in Westeros.  Great!  More characters and a chance to cash in!  It seems like you could skip every other character's chapters and not lose anything.

To get an idea of the scope of the story, I painstakingly counted the characters listed in the appendix and came up with a whopping 935 characters.  Assuming that each book is about 1,000 pages long (some shorter and some longer) that averages to about one character introduced every five pages!  It has come to the point that when a character is introduced, I don't have the energy anymore to try to remember their name.  Having to read a book by using a wiki numerous times is not enjoyable.

Although I really liked the first three books, I'm not sure I would have even bothered knowing what I know now.  With Martin taking many years between books I am starting to wonder whether this story will ever have an ending or whether it will go on and on for as long as possible so that Martin can milk as much money out of it.  If you haven't started the series, I would recommend that you don't even start.
I have always been hesitant to read fantasy books because of their reputation of being long and overly detailed but the Game of Thrones Series has received such high praises that I decided to give it a try. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when I read the first three books! They were quite good and moved along at such a pace that I couldn't put them down. Unfortunately, then came the fourth book (A Feast of Crows) which was quite a slog to get through. I told myself, that is okay. Every writer has an off book. Then came this book.... .... . and was saddened that nothing has changed. A Dance with Dragons has proved to be just as slow and monotonous as the Feast of Crows with the story barely limping along. The story has just become too unwieldly with too many pages spent on repetitive internal character development and on other characters that have little to no impact with the overall story. A much better book could have been made by combining this book with the fourth book and editing everything down to around 1,000 pages. I hate to say it, but I suspect that the only reason to keep these two books separate might be greed. Why write one  book when you can write two and fill it with repetitive catchphrases and characters saying the same thing over and over? It also disheartening that Martin has also released a short story book set in Westeros. Great! More characters and a chance to cash in! It seems like you could skip every other character's chapters and not lose anything. To get an idea of the scope of the story, I painstakingly counted the characters listed in the appendix and came up with a whopping 935 characters. Assuming that each book is about 1,000 pages long (some shorter and some longer) that averages to about one character introduced every five pages! It has come to the point that when a character is introduced, I don't have the energy anymore to try to remember their name. Having to read a book by using a wiki numerous times is not enjoyable. Although I really liked the first three books, I'm not sure I would have even bothered knowing what I know now. With Martin taking many years between books I am starting to wonder whether this story will ever have an ending or whether it will go on and on for as long as possible so that Martin can milk as much money out of it. If you haven't started the series, I would recommend that you don't even start.