A Song of Ice and Fire
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Please note that this book is the first part of A Dance with Dragons, which was previously published as one single volume in hardcover, but has been published as two books in paperback. The second part of the paperback edition is A Dance with Dragons Part 2: After the Feast. |
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Review
‘In the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best'
Time Magazine
‘Richly satisfying and utterly engrossing’
Sunday Times
‘The sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads …Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias’
Guardian
‘Colossal, staggering … Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome'
SFX
Review
'In the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best' Time Magazine 'Richly satisfying and utterly engrossing' Sunday Times 'The sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads !Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias' Guardian 'Colossal, staggering ! Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome' SFX
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this series, but after growing old waiting for this book, I was disappointed to find that it was not worth the wait or the ageing process.. Nothing happens. Danny sits around and doesn't even bother setting off for Westeros. Tyrion sets off to find Danny and doesn't get there. And if I can word this without too many spoilers .... after crafty old Doran Martell has plotted away and bided his time for so many years, his master plan comes to absolutely nothing and the reader is left wondering why she even bothered to read about it when it never went anywhere. And perhaps most disappointingly of all, for a book entitled "A Dance with Dragons" there was really not much in the way of dragons, dancing or otherwise. And this applies to dragons in the literal sense as well as the Targaryen sense. Sigh. I am already calculating how old I'll be when the next book comes out, and it is not a good thought. I have a very serious concern that Mr Martin will never actually finish this series, especially if any further books he manages to produce move as slowly as this one. I am surprised and disappointed to report that, as I neared the end of the book, I flipped forward a few times to se how much I had to get through before I could read something else. Not something that has happened to me so far in this previously superb series.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
George Martin doesn't really write novels, he channels history from some other weird world that exists somewhere inside his head. Anyone who reads history knows it's messy, unpredictable and often the good guys don't actually exist and even if they do they often lose! All this I have accepted since I reached the end of book 1 in a state of shock and trauma! So I won't complain about the plot, I won't complain about some of the deaths and I won't even complain about the absence of some of the lead characters (or their decidely bit part appearences)
No the huge frustration for me was the long build ups in tension and drama followed by complete anti-climax! The number of times we reached a moment of real drama only for Martin to close off the chapter and dump us somewhere else in his world where sod all was happening only to bring us back 150 pages later when it was all over. The worst example of this (if you will excuse a small spoiler) was the confrontation between Stannis and Roose Bolton. A battle that crawled towards a conclusion, then changed it's mind, then disappeared and then finally happened when we were not looking though we were told of it's outcome through a letter!!! A letter?!! Ahhhh!!!!! How frustratinhg is that I do not buy heroic fantasy full of heavily armoured characters with names like 'Bloodbeard', Eric Anvil-breaker and the Tattered Price, all armed too the teeth only for them never to come to blows!
I couldn't help but be suspicious that Martin is now writing story that can portrayed easily on the small screen as we have seen in the, it has to be said, excellent TV series which concentrates on the drama but avoids full pitch battles for budgetry reasons. Well I don't want to read a book with a small budget!
It's such a shame because characters I really care about just seem to drip from the end of Martin's pen whereas other authors can write 600 pages full of faceless no-ones with the personality of a slug, but the colour charaters here are carrying an awful lot of text with precious little actual plot to go round. It's like the start of book one was the big bang and Martin is now desperately trying to describe all the universe as it expands outwards at the speed of light and spreading himself too thin in the process. There are now so many people in this story in all honesty I have forgotten who half of them are and so don't really care what happens to them.
And yet...and yet I know when in presumeably the next 10 years or so the next volume comes out I shall have to go out and buy it to know what does actually happen but please George do make something happen and let some it of it be actual battle!
No the huge frustration for me was the long build ups in tension and drama followed by complete anti-climax! The number of times we reached a moment of real drama only for Martin to close off the chapter and dump us somewhere else in his world where sod all was happening only to bring us back 150 pages later when it was all over. The worst example of this (if you will excuse a small spoiler) was the confrontation between Stannis and Roose Bolton. A battle that crawled towards a conclusion, then changed it's mind, then disappeared and then finally happened when we were not looking though we were told of it's outcome through a letter!!! A letter?!! Ahhhh!!!!! How frustratinhg is that I do not buy heroic fantasy full of heavily armoured characters with names like 'Bloodbeard', Eric Anvil-breaker and the Tattered Price, all armed too the teeth only for them never to come to blows!
I couldn't help but be suspicious that Martin is now writing story that can portrayed easily on the small screen as we have seen in the, it has to be said, excellent TV series which concentrates on the drama but avoids full pitch battles for budgetry reasons. Well I don't want to read a book with a small budget!
It's such a shame because characters I really care about just seem to drip from the end of Martin's pen whereas other authors can write 600 pages full of faceless no-ones with the personality of a slug, but the colour charaters here are carrying an awful lot of text with precious little actual plot to go round. It's like the start of book one was the big bang and Martin is now desperately trying to describe all the universe as it expands outwards at the speed of light and spreading himself too thin in the process. There are now so many people in this story in all honesty I have forgotten who half of them are and so don't really care what happens to them.
And yet...and yet I know when in presumeably the next 10 years or so the next volume comes out I shall have to go out and buy it to know what does actually happen but please George do make something happen and let some it of it be actual battle!
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Well, after years of waiting, Dance with Dragons came out and did not fail to disappoint. The writing's been getting slower and slower on Martin's end, and the quality of the story is getting worse and worse. Feast for Crows already felt average compared to the 3 previous books, but we were all willing to accept that because we thought the book was a pedestal for Dance with Dragons to dazzle us with its pure might. Needless to say, it was a complete disappointment as Dance with Dragons is the most uneventful book in the series. Basically, nothing happens. The status quo doesn't change, characters seem to stay exactly where they are, the plot lines barely evolve (Tyrion wasn't entertaining. How is that even remotely possible? Tyrion's dialogue alone could make the first 3 books worth reading, well, lemme tell you what, not in this one). Martin is pulling a Robert Jordan on us, dragging on his series while the quality of the writing and story worsens periodically. Dance with Dragons is Song of Ice and Fire's equivalent to Wheel of Time's Path of Daggers (thankfully not quite a Crossroads of Twilight). Yes, for those of you who know that it means, it is that bad. Considering that I thought of Song of Fire and Ice would go down in history as one of the greatest fantasy epics ever written, I'm starting to have doubts now. Martin better pull a hell of sixth book to get his story back on track. He didn't ruin anything with this book as he barely added or removed anything, so there is still hope. But at the rate Martin's writing, I'll probably be worrying about putting my kids through college by the time he's done (and I don't even have kids yet).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not for me!
This looked like being a great adventure novel, but I have to say I had never read Martin before. What I found was essentially a book dripping with blood and gore on every page. Read more
Published 3 days ago by S. C. Comfort
An epic epic
I have read all five volumes (in two parts for volumes 3 and 5) since Easter 2012. To me the books are very well written and the character development is nothing short of... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Alistair Thomas
George Martin
I was very pleased at the speed of delivery for this item and no concerns over it's condition ( excellent )
If you admire George Martin then this colossal epic is one you... Read more
If you admire George Martin then this colossal epic is one you... Read more
Published 3 days ago by scampton617
Great read
As someone who has been sucked in to the series I expected to enjoy this book. And I did. Only issue is the books are being split into two parts all the time which makes it more... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Jusdiver
Worst book ever!
OK not literally - I have read many worse books but never a worse book by a writer who used to be able to do so much better - and for this reason and that its score here is being... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Roger McCarthy
Disappointing
I have stuck with all 5 so far but very much doubt I will read any more, there are still so many lose ends, some of which stem from the very first book, that I feel almost cheated... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Steaders52
Game of thrones all volumes
All the volumes of Game of Thrones area very good read, can't wait to get onto the next volume. Once you start you can't pit it down till you've finished it.
Published 12 days ago by JT
Good continuation...
I love this series, but was a little disappointed in this book. Some of the chapters just seem like filler with only the odd event and then a lot of fluff. Read more
Published 19 days ago by C. Kemp
A Dance with Dragons Pt.1 book 5
What a boring book! The first 3 books were excellent but now he just waffles on and on. I feel this is all just padding so he can sell more books. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Gearnob
A nice surprise
Having read various negative reviews on Amazon, I didn't rush to get this book as I thought I would be disappointed. Read more
Published 24 days ago by coolforcats
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