Book: A Dance With Dragons

Going through this one was quite a slog. Martin wrote about the last two books: "The last one was a bitch. This one was three bitches and a bastard." It really felt that way reading through it. When an author doesn't enjoy writing a book, how could we enjoy reading it? I wish I found those two sentences in the foreword, not the afterword, maybe it would save me from wasting time.

GRR Martin, it seems, is too busy with the production of HBO's TV series based on the first three books, which were fabulous. Or, he simply lost the flare for action, and is given to politics. Maybe he simply let too much time pass since the first books, and can't re-create the atmosphere he had there. Whatever the reason, this one was a bitch, slow and expansive, with (too many) new characters entering the story, while the old characters are trapped in place and the author can't think of a creative way to get them going again. Imagine a (very simple) video game in which your character is driven to the wall, and it keeps walking in place and pushing without going anywhere - that's how it felt with many of the old heroes we followed from previous books - Daenerys, Jon Snow, Arya, Tyrion, Jamie...no one is going anywhere, or doing anything of interest and essence, yet the book grew to 1,200 pages.

One thing I have to give Martin credit for - with his writing, raw and gritty, he keeps the promise of suspense going through the book, so you keep reading expecting something to happen. When nothing does, you feel betrayed.

When the next book comes out, I think I'll wait to see how readers like it, before deciding whether to read it or not.