Alexandra Leaving

The third part of the book was the best , most likely because all the characters are back !



( My thoughts, on the third part of a Dance with Dragons )

"They'll prune you when you least expect it."


I am finally getting somewhere with the proper read of ADWD. I have done a spoilery read-though already but this is not the same. Actually, I cheated bit. I found my several attempts to get through the first 1/10 of the book to be a bit hard going, so I acquired an audio version for my Scotland travels and the audio version worked very well (now I know how all the names are supposed to be pronounced!). I am through the first 1/3!!!! Woo-hoo!

First, the unspoilery part:
I think Martin needs a strict editor or someone else to tell him “NO”. In the first third only, we had so much unnecessary stuff. I have roughly counted how many times chamber pots and people relieving themselves were mentioned, and the number is over 20. Martin seems to be drawn to certain things again and again, like already mentioned toilet habits of various people (especially Tyrion), and the same phrases seem to pop up again and again. But this is not the main problem. Martin seems to like to list things and people, to the point of new information overload. We are given lists of everyone: wildlings, people in White Harbor (Wyman Manderly court), people asking for Dany’s counsel at the court in Meereen (exacerbated by strange names) , etc, etc. The problem is that there are two options here: either Martin is going to provide future storylines for all these people (please, no!), or why do we have to be given the names and descriptions of people we will never meet again?

But, this all said, A Dance with Dragons might even become one of my favourite books in A Song of Ice and Fire series, because there is so much mind-blowing good things there too.



( The spoilery part,combined by POV chapters: )