I struggled to finish this book.  And I mean struggled.  Halfway through, I consulted the Amazon reviews to find out if I was alone.  Clearly, I was not.

You can measure this book either in comparison to the first three or on its own merits, and either way, it is an epic failure.  The only difference is that if the book stood alone, I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.  It's almost as though George Martin completely forgot what made the first three books great.  The brisk pacing and surprising plot turns are all but gone.  You can see every plot turn from a 100 pages up the road.

In the first three books, Martin practices a rather extreme form of "show, not tell", to dramatic effect.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who wondered what the hell a "septon" or "warg" was, until I gradually puzzled out Martin's universe.  The story goes on with or without you, leaving you to piece together your understanding of the world from context alone, like a child.  Everything little clue you see but once, and eventually the larger picture emerges from all the little pieces.  Slightly frustrating, but brilliant.  And especially brilliant is how all the individual story arcs interact.

This book is the opposite.  You finally get the information dump you've been waiting for all this time, but in the context of a tedious and ham-fisted storyline, packaged with cheap cliffhangers and repetitive dialog.  Jaime sarcastically saying, "I love you too, sister", was slightly funny the first time, but not after the fourth or fifth times Martin shoehorned that brilliant quip in.  And for the most part, the actions of each POV character have pretty much no effect on any of the others, so that whole weaving storyline thing?  Yeah, that's gone, too.  Things happen, for sure, and yet the overall story arc seems not to have advanced in proportion to the number of pages I read.

When I read the first three books, I'd often be frustrated when a chapter ended, because I wanted to find out what happened to that particular character.  But fortunately, I was just as invested in the other characters, so at least my wait was filled with advancements of the other storylines.  Altogether, it works out quite effectively.  In Book 4, I felt impatient reading the chapters themselves, let alone the gaps between them.

All of the most interesting settings in the book don't get nearly enough pages--Oldtown, Braavos, and the Iron Islands.  This book was a massive disappointment to me, but hey, if you ever thought the Riverlands were the most interesting region of Martin's world, this may be the book for you!
I struggled to finish this book. And I mean struggled. Halfway through, I consulted the Amazon reviews to find out if I was alone. Clearly, I was not. You can measure this book either in comparison to the first three or on its own merits, and either way, it is an epic failure. The only difference is that if the book stood alone, I wouldn't have bothered to finish it. It's almost as though George Martin completely forgot what made the first three books great. The brisk pacing and surprising plot turns are all but gone. You can see every plot turn from a 100 pages up the road. In the first three books, Martin practices a rather extreme form of "show, not tell", to dramatic effect. I'm sure I'm not the only person who wondered what the hell a "septon" or "warg" was, until I gradually puzzled out Martin's universe. The story goes on with or without you, leaving you to piece together your understanding of the world from context alone, like a child. Everything little clue you see but once, and eventually the larger picture emerges from all the little pieces. Slightly frustrating, but brilliant. And especially brilliant is how all the individual story arcs interact. This book is the opposite. You finally get the information dump you've been waiting for all this time, but in the context of a tedious and ham-fisted storyline, packaged with cheap cliffhangers and repetitive dialog. Jaime sarcastically saying, "I love you too, sister", was slightly funny the first time, but not after the fourth or fifth times Martin shoehorned that brilliant quip in. And for the most part, the actions of each POV character have pretty much no effect on any of the others, so that whole weaving storyline thing? Yeah, that's gone, too. Things happen, for sure, and yet the overall story arc seems not to have advanced in proportion to the number of pages I read. When I read the first three books, I'd often be frustrated when a chapter ended, because I wanted to find out what happened to that particular character. But fortunately, I was just as invested in the other characters, so at least my wait was filled with advancements of the other storylines. Altogether, it works out quite effectively. In Book 4, I felt impatient reading the chapters themselves, let alone the gaps between them. All of the most interesting settings in the book don't get nearly enough pages--Oldtown, Braavos, and the Iron Islands. This book was a massive disappointment to me, but hey, if you ever thought the Riverlands were the most interesting region of Martin's world, this may be the book for you!