Edit: finished the book a week ago.  I stand by everything I said.  I was really hoping for the second half to pick up, and it didn't, except for the one moment where the author went "OMG look!  Aren't you shocked?!!". But honestly by then, all of that character's chapters were so tedious and repetitious (an unfortunately common problem for this book), that I wanted to join in on what the bad guys did, just to make him stop boring me.

[original review]:

And after 15 years, GRRM is still the best writer I've come across for descriptive and character-development writing.  Mostly due to the prologue, I'm finally finding the whole warg thing less boring and seeing it less as pure new-agey mumble-jumble.  But my concern is I've read in places that the book really picks up momentum after the half-way mark?  So I still have another 20% of menu- and trip-planning to plod through before that happens?  Still, I really hope it does pick up, because so far I don't see anything happening other than "they had X stewed in Y for [insert meal here]" and "he [sailed/walked/went on horseback]" for yet another day.  It's like AFFC all over again, like I'm reading a travel book except the author only talks about sitting on the plane and brushing his teeth in airport hotels (or should I say pissing, because there really is an awful lot of urination in this book) rather than the destinations themselves...I'm squeezing time out of bar review to read this book, and I really hope there's going to be something more worthwhile.

One little thing I'm absurdly happy about is that GRRM has really cut back on Lord Mormont's crow.  Man how I hated that stupid echoing crow.  Glad it doesn't say "corn corn corn corn corn corn corn corn" after every sentence anyone says anymore.
Edit: finished the book a week ago. I stand by everything I said. I was really hoping for the second half to pick up, and it didn't, except for the one moment where the author went "OMG look! Aren't you shocked?!! ". But honestly by then, all of that character's chapters were so tedious and repetitious (an unfortunately common problem for this book), that I wanted to join in on what the bad guys did, just to make him stop boring me. [original review]:

And after 15 years, GRRM is still the best writer I've come across for descriptive and character-development writing. Mostly due to the prologue, I'm finally finding the whole warg thing less boring and seeing it less as pure new-agey mumble-jumble. But my concern is I've read in places that the book really picks up momentum after the half-way mark? So I still have another 20% of menu- and trip-planning to plod through before that happens? Still, I really hope it does pick up, because so far I don't see anything happening other than "they had X stewed in Y for [insert meal here]" and "he [sailed/walked/went on horseback]" for yet another day. It's like AFFC all over again, like I'm reading a travel book except the author only talks about sitting on the plane and brushing his teeth in airport hotels (or should I say pissing, because there really is an awful lot of urination in this book) rather than the destinations themselves... I'm squeezing time out of bar review to read this book, and I really hope there's going to be something more worthwhile. One little thing I'm absurdly happy about is that GRRM has really cut back on Lord Mormont's crow. Man how I hated that stupid echoing crow. Glad it doesn't say "corn corn corn corn corn corn corn corn" after every sentence anyone says anymore.