Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At the end of "A Feast for Crows" (AFFC) we could read : "Tyrion , Jon , Danny ..... will be along next year (I devoutly hope) in A Dance with Dragons (ADWD), which will focus on the events along the Wall and across the sea, just as the present book focused on King's Landing. G.Martin June 2005" Further, to justify that just 680 pages of AFFC took 5 years to be written, G.Martin tells us that ADWD was ALREADY finished. He merely had to publish the available material in two books instead of one. Well as we all know, ADWD didn't come the next year nor the year after. The book "already written" in 2005 took full 6 years to be published. It was necessary to remind these facts because, obviously this incredibly long time span raised significantly our expectations. If we had already to wait so long, it better be a masterpiece of A Storm of Swords caliber. Let us be honest, ADWD is to the Song of Ice and Fire what the Crossroads of Twilight were to the Wheel of Time. In other words a subpar lazy piece of writing which deserves 1 star because it is not possible to give less. As an aggravating circumstance comes that this piece of .... work was laboriously extruded during a full decade (AFFC+ADWD = 11 years). The Crossroads of Twilight has been very weak but at least R.Jordan didn't need 11 years to throw it at us. Readers and the series fans have speculated that George Martin has lost inspiration or interest. I submit that he lost both. First he obviously lost interest. ADWD has 959 pages prologue and epilogue included and contains 73 chapters. Let us be generous and consider that Martin mislead us and that actually only the half of this has been written in june 2005, so 480 pages and 37 chapters. That leaves us with 36 chapters and 480 pages to write. Obviously a writer committed to his work and as devoted as G.Martin says he is, will put some hard work in the writing. Nobody expects 8 hours a day but ... what do you think about his interest when the result is 480 pages in 6 years, 312 weeks? If one considers that Martin wrote more than 1 chapter a week for the first 3 volumes (and how GOOD those volumes were !), he'd have indeed needed about 1 year to finish ADWD as he said. The unavoidable conclusion by comparing the 37 weeks of work with the 312 weeks delay is that Martin spent about 10% of his available productive time on writing ADWD. Those glaring disparities tell a clear story : while Martin had been both inspired and interested during the first 3 volumes, he bungled AFFC and completely lost interest in ADWD. As this would be irrelevant we'll not speculate about the reasons but everybody who occasionaly read Martin's blog knows why he lost interest. A severe case of hypercephalitis (new Tolkien indeed !) has certainly played a role . Second he lost inspiration. Here we will go in some length and spoilers are unavoidable. Actually there is nothing surprising or unexpected that happens in ADWD to warrant a spoiler alert but it is a tradition that I respect. As I said, ADWD is composed of 73 chapters. They are structured as folllows: The Wall+ Stannis: 22 chapters and 30 % of ADWD =============================================== Jon : 14 Davos : 4 Asha : 3 Melissandre : 1 As you see this part which makes a whopping third of ADWD is all about Jon. What is so thrilling about him that Martin needs 14 chapters? Well Jon counts sausages. Cheese too. When he doesn't count sausages he receives wildlings south of the Wall. As they are many and more (mostly weak, wounded, crippled and otherwise impaired), he wonders what they will eat. And goes to count sausages. All this interspersed with "You know nothing" , "Corn,corn,corn"and "The night is dark and full of terror". It finishes with a REALLY ridiculous wannabe cliffhanger which will make you burst out laughing. The 4 Davos chapters are among the best and especially Lord Wyman Manderly, one of the few survivors of the excellent beginnings, is truly a character that still has 3 dimensions. Asha is useless drivel and Melissandre without interest. For those interested about Stannis like I am, his arc doesn't advance a single inch but you will be fed (another) ridiculous cliffhanger so that you may wait the next 5 or 10 years. Meeren + Daenerys : 33 chapters and 45% of ADWD =============================================== Tyrion : 13 Daenerys : 10 Barristan : 4 Quentyn : 4 Victarion : 2 I admit that I waited for this part with much interest. Most of us remember Martin's whining how he was struggling year after year with the "Meerenese knot". For the struggling part as I showed above he didn't struggle much. So what about the knot part? Tyrion "Wherever whores go" Lannister is actually on travels. You may leave him a message, he will call back in 5 years. Or 10. Is that all? Yes it is. Nothing knotted there. Daenerys transformed in a whining sex obsessed teenager with about as much intelligence as an oyster. We all know that her only purpose in the book is to tame her dragons, get to Westeros and kick Lanisters' a...s. Not that there are many Lannisters left because Martin has already exterminated everything that counted in the family anyway. Well in those 10 chapters Daenerys didn't make any progress towards this goal. She's stranded in Meeren surrounded by all kinds of Ahrrakz pffz Zgriks who do not like her and want the fighter pits opened. She doesn't. Then she opens them anyway. Everything is linear, boring and predictable. The slave and slavers can exterminate each other for all we care but they don't even do that. Not a trace of a knot here either. As Daenerys is temporarily absent, to get our dose of Ahrrakz pffz Zgriks we need Ser Barristan to give it. He kills some guy in a definitely non knotted way. Quentyn. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Nobody remembers this guy and nobody cares. But that's all right because Martin kills him after the 4 chapters anyway. Pure waste of time and space. Useless to add that there is no knot even with the wildest imagination. Victarion is a real badass, one of the few that are left. I admit that I enjoyed his 2 chapters even if Martin succeeded in the very hard task consisting in avoiding any action or character development at any price . In any case Victarion is a very straightforward guy with nothing knotted about him. So definitely this part which makes about half of the book is happening in places we don't care about, indulges in endless travelling (Tyrion) and descriptions, contains no plot at all and is generally irrelevant to anything that was important for the series. It is especially this part which demonstrates how uninspired and boring Martin became - the Quentyn chapters are an embarrassment and an insult to the intelligence of all readers. If there was any "knot" than it was only in Martin's imagination because with the best will you won't find anything that would be more complex or more knotted than a highway through Nevada . Westeros : 10 Chapters and 15 % of ADWD ======================================== Theon : 7 Cersei : 2 Jaime : 1 Theon belongs with Davos to the best. We are in the thick of the contest for the North. The Boltons and the Freys are still their old selfs. We get a glimpse on what's seething in this cauldron and there are even moments which show that Westeros could still be interesting if Martin was not lazy and uncaring. Cersei was downgraded from a strong, beautiful and vicious woman in Storm to a wilful totally paranoid bundle of nerves in AFFC. Martin finishes her off in ADWD. She is broken and exits the scene. Oh, I almost forgot, the last Lannister who still had some strength and personality gets killed too. Jaime's chapter is just a manner of Martin to taunt us "I served you a cliffhanger in AFFC and you thought to get the result in ADWD? Well I won't give it just to show you how little I care. Perhaps in 6 years. RAFO ! Hehehe ! " Trash (for lack of better word) : 8 chapters and 10% of ADWD ============================================================= Bran : 3 Arya : 2 Griff : 2 Areo : 1 Bran's chapters consist of Bran watching roots grow. Literally. Unfortunately he's necessary to the plot because he will deal with The Others when the time comes. Probably in many and more years if Martin and we live so long. So we had to suffer through those bleak chapters just to avoid forgetting who he was. I can understand that some readers were so desperate that even watching roots grow was an improvement to many other chapters so that they semi-liked the Bran's part. Arya's chapters are totally and utterly irrelevant to everything and anything. She has been training for assassin for the last 11 years and still does so. Griff introduces us to another resurrection. Not that we didn't expect this one. Areo. Who ? So what can be salvaged from this literary train wreck called ADWD preceded by another train wreck in the making, AFFC ? Theon (7 chapters) , Davos (4 chapters) , Victarion (2 chapters) , Griff (1 chapter) , Daenerys (1 or 2 chapters) and Jon (1 or 2 chapters) . Maximum 17 chapters out of 73. 1 star . I am very pessimistic for the continuation . Martin has clearly lost it and the story will now just follow the gravity forces with much and more copy and paste. The strong and powerful characters, we cared for are dead and those who stay are either broken (Cersei,Daenerys,Jon) or irrelevant (Bran, Arya, Stannis). Oh perhaps Wyman Manderly will be the only shining moment left. The plot grew stale , drawn out and predictable . We'll see in 10 years if Martin can recover but I won't hold my breath and do not recommend you to do so either.