A Song of Ice and Fire

I just finished 'A Dance With Dragons' the most recent in George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. The fifth of seven. The fantasy series seemed to take the improv world by storm last winter before the HBO series premiered. A lot of people got hooked on it, including myself. As I progressed through the series however I became slightly turned off because it seemed George didn't really know where to go with the story. The fourth book in the series is set in the same time frame as the third but with a whole new collection of different characters. Not that the characters aren't interesting or their stories compelling but to me it seemed a delaying tactic. He's set up this really compelling interesting story where you want to know what happens and he's drawing it out to a painful length.

'A Dance With Dragons' came out this past July and I didn't really hear much about it after the initial release date. I just finished it and I realized why. No real action takes place. Don't get me wrong it's well written, interesting, and a page turner but it never gets anywhere. Every storyline is just a work in progress with no resolution and no end in site. At this point Geroge has written so many chapters from the perspective of so many characters we only get to hear from any given character two or three times in a thousand page book.

I enjoy the story, I can't wait to see how it ends but this most recent book left me wanting in every way. We got hints and glimpses of possible revelations to come but after a thousand pages I want and deserve more. Also there was a six year gap between the 4th and 5th book in the series so who knows when the next one will come out.

Talk about literary blue balls.