Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The George RR Martin Books have been great so far. Each book is close to 1000 pages. They're medieval fantasy, but there are no elves, dwarves, healing spells... etc. If someone dies, they're dead. Characters even die from infections in these books. The Chapters in the books are all named after Characters. Each Chapter is written in the Point of View of the named character. So, you'll see that there are two sides to every conflict. You also get to see what motivates the characters and why they behave the way that they do. The books are full of political intrigue and action. They're unique in their own way and usually pretty exciting. With that said, this book stays consistent with the story. The previous book, A Storm of Swords, ends with a lot of cliffhangers. This book answers none of the major cliffhangers and talks about the minor characters. It's 1000 pages devoted to the characters that aren't involved in the cliffhangers. It drags on and on and the whole time you're waiting to hear about the exciting stuff from the previous book. This book is like a Star Wars Movie about Greedo, Admiral Akbar, Sandperson #42, and that Blue Jedi Chick that got punked in the last movie. You'd be asking yourself where are Luke, Leia, Darth Anybody?! You'd even settle for some C3-PO. But you don't get any of that. At the end of the book, George RR Martin apologizes and says that he wrote too much. He says that the next book will deal with the cliffhangers. If the next book doesn't answer these, I'm done with the series. In 'A Storm of Swords', the major cliffhangers dealt with Jon Snow, Arya, Dani, and Tyrion. Jon, Tyrion, and Dani aren't even in this book and Arya makes a cameo appearance. Instead this book is about Jamie, Cersi, Brienne, Sansa, and George RR Martin introduces a bunch of new characters when it feels like he already has way too many. You can skim this book, or skip it if you want. I'd recommend waiting for the next book, A Dance with Dragons, to come out and see if the series is still worth reading.