Half Review of A Dance with Dragons

I’m halfway through A Dance with Dragons – the fifth book in George R. R. Martin’s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire. I bought the Kindle edition in June and I received it on my phone on the twelfth of July - the day it was finally released. I’ve been waiting five years for this book and normally, I’d have finished this in a day or two but I’ve only been reading it on the train on the way to and from work.

A Feast for Crows, the previous book, was not exactly a letdown but it did not match the pace of the first three books in the series. The first three books dealt with a war and the events that led up to it. The first three books felt like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering momentum and building mass. Feast is wast happens after the snowball hits a tree and smashes to pieces. In the series’ chronology, parts of Dance happen at the same time that the events in Feast occur. The first half of Dance continues that pace. The main characters are still picking up the pieces after the wars that ravaged their lands.

My favorite characters are back – Jon Snow, Bran Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister. So far, I like the development with Jon Snow and Bran Stark. Daenerys is administratively bogged down by the kingdom that she conquered. I liked Daenerys as the queen-general rather than the queen-administrator. Tyrion is either being pushed around or dragged around. He's gone from someone who was shaping the story to a more or less passive character. Arya Stark, another favorite, will supposedly make an appearance later in the book.

That's it for now for this half review. I'll post my over all impression after I finish the book.