Short version of the review is that the book is only "okay" but doesn't live up to George R.R. Martin's earlier standards. Also, beware SPOILERS below!... though honestly not a lot actually happened in this book.

Let's start with the characters. Yes, as others have mentioned, that horrible harlot Cersei eats up a large portion of this book. I guess it's interesting to get a glimpse into her mind, but given the horrific things she's responsible for in earlier books, none of it is really a surprise. I don't know if Martin was trying to justify or make us understand her behavior by making us see that she just wants to protect her children, but if that was the case he failed, because she is not a sympathetic character even from the perspective of a mother. In fact, she is so terrible as a mother--something that we, again, already knew--that you can't help but wish for Child Protective Services to take Tommen away from her greedy clutches. On the other hand, I immensely enjoyed watching all of her half-baked plots explode in her face again and again and watching her spaz out over Tyrion, like he's just going to come out of the walls with a knife and stab her. The fact that she seriously believed that Tyrion would do the same to Tommen just shows how utterly clueless and stupid she is. Lioness. Ha! More like a yapping chihuahua. Anyway, aside from probably unintentional comic relief her chapters don't really tell us much else about her and just sort of push the story to its next catastrophe. Even the part where she relived the fortune teller foretelling her doom told us nothing new because by that time we've already gone over that moment roughly a billion times.

Other characters also don't add much. Brienne's quest amounts to wandering around aimlessly, the reader knowing all the while that she won't get anywhere. Indeed, it seemed pretty damn obvious to me that she wouldn't find Sansa in this book, as Martin obviously has not made her suffer enough, and anyway how the hell is she going to find someone who's cooped up in an absurdly designed castle that's so hard to access that I find it hard to imagine how it was even built in the first place? Then there's some scenes with the Ironmen, but frankly I hate all of them and their horrible, barbaric way of life and hope they all die as painfully as possible. And there's this Dornish princess who tries to pull off some plot, but fails, and then we have to read about her being confined to quarters and having nothing to do. Wow, glad we covered that ground. Lastly, Samwell is a blubbering putz. There, I said it, and I'm not sorry. Of course, there's more, but it left little impact on me. You need to pick your protagonists better, Martin.

I don't suppose anyone has noticed this, but the Game of Thrones books have too often resorted to making one character travel around and around, and have another character or two follow them, willingly or not, and I guess they might learn about each other in the process or even respect each other. And I guess that's a common trope in fantasy books, but Martin does it far too often and eventually you may start to wonder if you're reading a chapter you already read.

The problem with the Game of Thrones series, I think, is that, at the moment, it has lost its momentum. It had a rip-roaring, amazing start, but now it's just grudgingly plodding forward, tying everything up. I think there's a few reasons for this. One, too many damn characters and plot threads to follow. I mean, Martin has no problem killing characters we like, why can't we just prune a few that we could care less about? Two, speaking of killing characters we like, yeah, all the horrible events we've endured so far--Eddard Stark's fate, the Red Wedding--were pretty shocking, but the result has been to leave us with nothing. There's almost no one left to root for, and many of the characters that we might still give a damn about aren't even in the book. Oh, they're in the next book? Great, why did I bother reading THIS thing, then? Really, though, Martin did what few other writers dare to do, and now we're finding out exactly why they don't. It's like if there was an episode of G.I. Joe where Cobra wins and kills all the Joes, and it's not just a dream or time travel or something. Okay, what now? Exactly. Nothing. Third, and this relates to point two, WHERE IS TYRION!? He's the big, bright, shining star of the series and you're not doing anything with him? Wow, bad idea. I sorely needed a classic quip from him as only he could deliver... but I was denied, and he only appeared in the form of a hilariously evil phantasm in Cercei's malformed brain.

It's not all bad, really. We do learn a few things, and there's a few events of import which could mean big things in future books. And there a couple interesting scenes, like with the strange Faceless Men collecting bodies and gathering seemingly useless information for some mysterious purpose. Even so, there is, as you can see, much to criticize, and it's hard to emerge from reading this book and feeling astounded or moved at what occurred within it. I think you could safely pass on this book and wait for it to be adapted to the HBO show. Oh, and HBO? One season will cover this book nicely, thanks.
Short version of the review is that the book is only "okay" but doesn't live up to George R. R. Martin's earlier standards. Also, beware SPOILERS below!... though honestly not a lot actually happened in this book. Let's start with the characters. Yes, as others have mentioned, that horrible harlot Cersei eats up a large portion of this book. I guess it's interesting to get a glimpse into her mind, but given the horrific things she's responsible for in earlier books, none of it is really a surprise. I don't know if Martin was trying to justify or make us understand her behavior by making us see that she just wants to protect her children, but if that was the case he failed, because she is not a sympathetic character even from the perspective of a mother. In fact, she is so terrible as a mother--something that we, again, already knew--that you can't help but wish for Child Protective Services to take Tommen away from her greedy clutches. On the other hand, I immensely enjoyed watching all of her half-baked plots explode in her face again and again and watching her spaz out over Tyrion, like he's just going to come out of the walls with a knife and stab her. The fact that she seriously believed that Tyrion would do the same to Tommen just shows how utterly clueless and stupid she is. Lioness. Ha! More like a yapping chihuahua. Anyway, aside from probably unintentional comic relief her chapters don't really tell us much else about her and just sort of push the story to its next catastrophe. Even the part where she relived the fortune teller foretelling her doom told us nothing new because by that time we've already gone over that moment roughly a billion times. Other characters also don't add much. Brienne's quest amounts to wandering around aimlessly, the reader knowing all the while that she won't get anywhere. Indeed, it seemed pretty damn obvious to me that she wouldn't find Sansa in this book, as Martin obviously has not made her suffer enough, and anyway how the hell is she going to find someone who's cooped up in an absurdly designed castle that's so hard to access that I find it hard to imagine how it was even built in the first place? Then there's some scenes with the Ironmen, but frankly I hate all of them and their horrible, barbaric way of life and hope they all die as painfully as possible. And there's this Dornish princess who tries to pull off some plot, but fails, and then we have to read about her being confined to quarters and having nothing to do. Wow, glad we covered that ground. Lastly, Samwell is a blubbering putz. There, I said it, and I'm not sorry. Of course, there's more, but it left little impact on me. You need to pick your protagonists better, Martin. I don't suppose anyone has noticed this, but the Game of Thrones books have too often resorted to making one character travel around and around, and have another character or two follow them, willingly or not, and I guess they might learn about each other in the process or even respect each other. And I guess that's a common trope in fantasy books, but Martin does it far too often and eventually you may start to wonder if you're reading a chapter you already read. The problem with the Game of Thrones series, I think, is that, at the moment, it has lost its momentum. It had a rip-roaring, amazing start, but now it's just grudgingly plodding forward, tying everything up. I think there's a few reasons for this. One, too many damn characters and plot threads to follow. I mean, Martin has no problem killing characters we like, why can't we just prune a few that we could care less about? Two, speaking of killing characters we like, yeah, all the horrible events we've endured so far--Eddard Stark's fate, the Red Wedding--were pretty shocking, but the result has been to leave us with nothing. There's almost no one left to root for, and many of the characters that we might still give a damn about aren't even in the book. Oh, they're in the next book? Great, why did I bother reading THIS thing, then? Really, though, Martin did what few other writers dare to do, and now we're finding out exactly why they don't. It's like if there was an episode of G. I. Joe where Cobra wins and kills all the Joes, and it's not just a dream or time travel or something. Okay, what now? Exactly. Nothing. Third, and this relates to point two, WHERE IS TYRION!? He's the big, bright, shining star of the series and you're not doing anything with him? Wow, bad idea. I sorely needed a classic quip from him as only he could deliver... but I was denied, and he only appeared in the form of a hilariously evil phantasm in Cercei's malformed brain. It's not all bad, really. We do learn a few things, and there's a few events of import which could mean big things in future books. And there a couple interesting scenes, like with the strange Faceless Men collecting bodies and gathering seemingly useless information for some mysterious purpose. Even so, there is, as you can see, much to criticize, and it's hard to emerge from reading this book and feeling astounded or moved at what occurred within it. I think you could safely pass on this book and wait for it to be adapted to the HBO show. Oh, and HBO? One season will cover this book nicely, thanks.