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There’s only one problem with this book, and that’s the point of view characters. As a reader I’ve grown somewhat used to things like this:







So, when I'm just given things like this instead it’s bound to disappoint:







There are massive pacing issues with the most recent (ha! that’s a joke) two books of the series, and I mean massive. There’s a whole lot of nothing in this one. Cersei’s chapters are excruciating to read. That’s not surprising considering she is probably the least likable of characters within this series. This doesn’t make the book bad because of this. I think she needed some point of view chapters, but what she didn’t need was a never-ending amount of them; it was just too many. By doing this it meant that there were very few chapters that were enjoyable to read; there was no Tyrion, Dany, Jon Snow or Bran in the book.

I think George. R. R Martin made a massive mistake when he decided to have this and A Dance with Dragons occur at the same time. The story clearly got away from him and became a little convoluted. The pacing is terrible; there is no real payoff in either book (unlike its predecessors). The book comes to an end at a random point of the story, which just didn’t feel quite right. Personally, I think he should have continued the trend he set with his the previous books in the series. It just needed one straightforward time arc. We don’t need events happening at the same time across books; it didn’t need to become that complex; it’s already perfectly complex. He’s clearly wrote himself into a corner with it. Hence the time it’s taken him to get the next book out.

Well, that being said, there is still a lot to take from this book. The story does, of course, develop and become even more engaging. If anything this book made me count down the days to the release of A Dance with Dragons. But, that’s not really a good thing. I think most people tend to forgive Martin for his slip into convolutedness because the previous books were so damn good. I just hope he has tamed the amount of new point of view characters in the much anticipated six book. I think it’s far too late to add so many point of views into the series. One or two is understandable in a book of this type, but when it’s like six or seven it becomes a little bit of a joke. It takes away from the central stories. I’m moaning again here. I began to lay down the positives which just developed into another rant!

Redeeming features



This books not all bad, far from it. Arya’s story takes a most interesting turn, and Jaime begins to search for his lost honour. These are amongst interesting characters of the entire series, so there points of view saved the book. And then Sam gets his moment in the light. Things do develop and go forward; we see the politics from a different angle. But, I still think it should have been all along one time arc; it would have been a lot easier. See what I mean? I just can’t focus on the positives, so I’m going to leave it here.

I may complain about this book, but in reality it’s only because I love this series so much. There are obvious problems with it, though it doesn’t stop me from reading on or re-reading previous books. I may grit my teeth and cringe when I read certain chapters, but I’ll read them again and complain about them again. This series is what got me into reading in the first place, so I do owe a lot to it even if this book fell below the benchmark Martin set himself.

A Song of Ice and Fire
1. A Game of Thrones- A life chnaging five stars
2.A Clash of Kings- An Impish five stars
3. A Storm of Swords - A Lannister loving five stars
4. A Feast for Crows - A flat 3.5 stars