Welcome back to A Read of Ice and Fire! Please join me as I read and react, for the very first time, to George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire.
Today’s entry is Part 44 of A Dance With Dragons, in which I review the book, and to some extent the series, as a whole, and reflect on Things concerning it.
Previous entries are located in the Index. The only spoilers in the post itself will be for the actual chapters covered and for the chapters previous to them. As for the comments, please note that the Powers That Be have provided you a lovely spoiler thread here on Tor.com. Any spoileriffic discussion should go there, where I won’t see it. Non-spoiler comments go below, in the comments to the post itself.
And now, the post!
Well, I suppose that first, I should attempt to sum up my thoughts about the for-now-final book in the ASOIAF series, A Dance With Dragons, which it turns out I have been reading for almost exactly a year now.
I have become extremely talented, these past few years, at avoiding any ASOIAF-related discussion, both on and off the Internet, but even I have managed to be aware, mostly through comments to my own posts, that the general consensus on ADWD is mixed at best. Certainly it was clear that a lot of people were irritated by the split timeline thing with the preceding novel, A Feast for Crows, mostly because it was obviously something of a jury-rigged solution on Martin’s part to the fact that a fully-integrated story would have been a 2,000-page monster that probably still wouldn’t have even been published yet. Or so I imagine.
And I can see why that would be frustrating to people who read ADWD, and indeed the entire series, like normal people do—i.e. all at once, instead of, say, in two-chapter weekly chunks over the course of years—but for me it really ended up being all of a piece. The last two books may have been disjointed and weirdly constructed to the normal reader, but for me the entire series has felt disjointed and weirdly constructed, due to the way I consumed it, and so that very much lessened any impact the split timeline may have otherwise had on me, I think. That said, I did sense that ADWD, and to some extent AFFC before it, lacked a certain je ne sais quoi compared to the first three books in the series—a dissipation of focus, perhaps; a certain amount of failure to achieve the symmetrical leitmotif of the earlier novels. However, I’m not entirely convinced that is the fault of the author, so much as it is the nature of the beast.
The beast being, of course, the on-going, multi-part, world-spanning, cast-of-thousands behemoth epic fantasy series. Martin is far from the first author to have flung himself at this particular windmill and found that it actually was, in fact, a giant.
The thing is, I can’t think offhand of any similar book series (i.e. one which told one story stretched to five novels or more) which didn’t eventually morph from the usually gloriously round, tight thematic structure of the opening novel or two (or three) of a brave and wonderful new story, to the later novels’ often rather pear-shaped trudge of just getting the damn thing told already.
Granted, I’ve hardly read all of the grand epic fantasy series out there; maybe there are some that manage to avoid this phenomenon. But let’s just say, of those I have read, this progression of events feels pretty familiar. And I’m beginning to think that this is perhaps not down to flawed writing on any of these authors’ parts, so much as it may actually be impossible to maintain thematic roundness (which is a term I have totally just made up and decided that I love, nyah) beyond a certain point—especially if the story is being published as it is written.
*shrug* I dunno. Maybe this is why so many sf writers try to stop at trilogies. (Even if they fail to actually do so.)
This is not to say I think Martin can’t wrestle his beast back on track; in my considered opinion, if anyone could do it he could. All other considerations aside, he is an amazing writer who deserves every bit of the success he has achieved and the accolades he has received. So while I wouldn’t say I have faith that he will be able to eventually end this series in a satisfying fashion, I do feel the odds of doing so are in his favor. And I’ll read it when he does.
However, that said, unlike a lot of people who have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for ASOIAF to be finished (or even move forward, I suspect), I’m… kind of glad I’ll be getting to take a break from it. The writing in this series is, as I said, objectively amazing, but subjectively it’s become increasingly grueling for me to get through, emotionally. As anyone who’s been following this blog has probably noticed.
Now, don’t worry, there’s no need to start sending me therapist referrals or anything. As it happens, my tastes in entertainment tend to veer toward what a friend of mine refers to as “the grimdark genre” just as often as it does toward lighter, fluffier fare. I mean, one of my favorite TV shows of all time is The Wire, for God’s sake. Clearly I am not averse to a certain amount of grimness and nihilism if it’s done right.
But, you know, I’m not always in the mood for grimdark stuff. Sometimes I want to watch The Wire, and sometimes I want to reread Good Omens for the nth time. But unlike how I get to choose whether I’m in a The Wire place or in a Good Omens place in my leisure time, I was obliged to read my weekly chunk of ASOIAF whether I was in the mood for it or not.
And honestly, most of the time I was in the mood. But I wasn’t just often enough that eventually it started to get a little wearing.
So, I’m not done with the series by a long shot, and I’m sure that by the time Winds of Winter comes out, whenever that may be, I’ll probably be excited to jump back in and see what happens.
But for right now… yeah, I’m okay with having a breather.
I’m not quite at the breather stage, though, because we’ve got two more short stories to do!
Although, calling “The Princess and the Queen” a short story is something of a misnomer, seeing as I’m told it clocks in at about 35,000 words. The other story, “The Rogue Prince”, is much shorter, though. Ergo, I will be tackling “The Princess and the Queen” first, in three parts, and then I’ll probably do “The Rogue Prince” all in one post.
What happens after that is still up in the air at the moment. But don’t worry, I and TPTB at Tor.com will keep you informed.
So! Please join me next Thursday for Part I of my Read of “The Princess and the Queen”, from the anthology Dangerous Women, which is really something I should have owned long since, because HELLO. For those of you who want to read along with me, I have been told to stop at the sentence “The date he chose for the attack was the first full moon of the new year.”
Got it? Good! See you next week!
Leigh, now that you have caught up to the published books, will you watch the HBO series from the beginning?
— AndrewHB
I myself read the first book some years ago at the prompting of my older brother, and was so irritated that I didn’t learn more about the ice zombies by the end that I didn’t bother reading any more. I could have cared less about the rest of the story, I really just wanted to see direwolves and ice zombies.
That being said, I was delighted to see you doing this read so that I could see what I missed out on that everyone was raving about.
….and I’m still trying to figure that out. I don’t feel like I have any desire to read these now or even care what happens, the two most interesting ideas are still unexplored. I’m sure I’m in the minority.
Leigh, maybe next year, after you finish the last 4 ASoIaF posts and take a few weeks to enjoy the holidays, you could try a reread of David Eddings? It would certainly be lighter than ASoIaF or WoT, but still in the Epic Fantasy Genre. Or a Dune reread? I definitely love your read/reread/reread redux columns and would love to see you tackle more of my favorite works. Perhaps the Drizzt Do’Urden novels?
I love “thematic roundness” and will henceforth try to use it in any conversation I can. (“What do you want for dinner?” “I dunno, roast beef just doesn’t have that thematic roundness…”)
Leigh, it has been a glorious ride. Reading your reactions as well as other people’s comments in this section and the spoiler thread has deepened my appreciation for these books.
I have really enjoyed your reads and the discussion in the threads as well! The completest in me is glad you’re doing the two short stories (I actually haven’t even read the short stories yet, except for Dunk and Egg as published in Legends). At some point I’ll have to go and read them once I do!
I would stay away from the show for awhile. I don’t think it will cheer you up, at any rate. I can’t wait to join you in reading WoW, whenever that may be!
Leigh – others can confirm but I believe Rogue Prince chronologically and logically comes before Princess. So best to do that one first.
Second the nomination of Eddings. Ten books, but relatively light and enjoyable. Should be a change of pace for you.
That is a good description. A lot of stuff happened in A Storm of Swords, and it felt like the story was coming together with an end in sight. And then A Feast for Crows starts with new settings, new POV characters, and… hey, what happened to all of those characters I’ve been following, and who are these new people that I don’t care about?!
Thanks for the awesome write-ups so far!
Your thoughts on thematic “roundness” in long epics in general are really interesting. I definitely think books four and five are less round, but I think part of that is that their themes run intentionally run counterpoint to one another. In AFFC we see the horrible cost of three books of fighting and too many kings and conquerors. In ADWD, we see how hard peace is, how difficult alliances are to form and hold together, and then watch a new cast decide to go to war all over again. Cersei literally creates a new (old) army and wrecks her current alliance, Jon and Aegon choose war, Quentyn and Dany choose fire and blood, Jaime tries to do better but is sucked right back in by his own misdeeds and those of his father. The middle of an epic is often one step forward and two back, and in some senses I think we have gone back, but now with the benefit of seeing all the different reasons that drive people to conflicts that seem so unreasonable.
In this sense, I think they really do bring us full circle back to what Tyrion said in ASoS–“We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.”
Anyway, if you like Martin, but need a break from the grimness, have you ever read any Daniel Abraham? Very real characters, much less despair.
In Feast and Dance the chapters needed more editing, when you compare to previous books in almost every chapter something important happened or in hindsight your realized that important things were revealed. Additionally the character arcs feel unfitted, especially in Dance since GRRM was forced to cut many chapters form the end (many of which was been released so it would be nice if Leigh could do these, but I understand she wants a break and some people have been avoiding these anyway). So while Feast and Dance were not poor books I feel if an editor had been more involved they would have greatly improved as individual books.
So now that we’re here, is there anything you’d prefer that we still not discuss in the main posts, or is the spoiler post no longer needed?
Long time lurker, first-time poster.
I am not a fantasy buff (I think this is the first series I’ve read that really falls under that rubric), but I tend to think the expansion of the series into chaotically large scale as you get into later volumes is completely inevitable. If you keep with self-contained stories in the same universe I think you end up with something more along the lines of Dunk and Egg, where you keep getting different slices of life. But if you want one, cohesive narrative, then at some point you have to go vertical rather than constantly horizontal, otherwise there is no real progression. It also makes it infinitely more realistic.
Since this is (kind of) The End for now, can I comment on the recurring images that GRRM loves, just for amusement’s sake?
1. Grease dripping down someone’s chin as they eat
2. Hopping from one foot to the other
3. “Washing [food] down with [drink]”, phrased exactly like that.
I just found it striking how often these phrases were repeated…
No, Rob, publication order always. Publication order trumps all. Rogue Prince last.
Speaking of long-form works where publication order trumps all, put be down for Leigh’s next read/re-read (no idea if she’s read them before) being Brust’s Draghera books (with the Khavreen romances inserted in the obviously correct places.)
@14 – interesting perspective. Have you read Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga? Do you stick to publication order versus chron in that case?
@15: Have not yet, but probably will go with that order when I do. I’ll make an exception for an author whose writing skill improved dramatically early in the course of the series (I wouldn’t advise anyone start Discworld any earlier than Mort, and might push even one or two books earlier. If reliably informed Bujold developed similarly I’ll start with ‘where they start getting good’ similarly.) But in-world chronological is never going to be the right answer in any case.
@7: I would’ve preferred that, too. :-(
@13: Also eyeballs bursting and flowing down peoples’ cheeks. Ugh.
The “dissipation of focus” has more to do with how the books are published than anything else. Tolkien spent 15 years writing LOTR as one story (that got broken into three volumes). Granted that Tolkien had a day job and a World War to distract him, but given their relative sizes, it should take Martin far longer to do the same for ASOIF. No writer in today’s world would take on such an endeavor. How would you feed yourself and your family before the book was done? What publishing house would have the patience to wait or the commitment to publish them all?
Therefore, the author develops themes and ideas over the course of years (decades) as the series is being written. Things are made up as it goes. Great ideas pop up in mid stream and redirect the story. Without the discipline of having an ending firmly in sight (or a limit to the number of volumes), how could anyone control such a process?
You even see the same affect in TV series. Didn’t the Sopranos go through the same cycle? Were any of the later seasons even close to the first two?
Martin thinks he has only two books left, but like Jordan, he is far too optimistic.
If you are doing a re-read of David Eddings, do one of the Elenium rather than the Belgariad. I found the Elenium a better read. That said, all of David Eddings’ epic fantasy series follow the same basic plot (see his notes/Rivan Codex he published after writing the Belgariad and the Mallorean).
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
@14, 15, 16:
I, too, prefer publishing order. Always. I recently rewatched the MCU, and I did that in release date order as well. The easter eggs are better when you do it that way.
When I read the Vorkosigan Saga, I did it in published order. It was immensely satisfying and not a bit confusing.
Been reading this since the beginning, enjoyed it immensely, and looked forward to it every week. Bravo, Leigh.
Thanks Leigh, I caught up with your musings on a re-read a few weeks ago and they have all been brilliant to read.
Although I loved both AFFC and ADWD, I agree that they lost much of the focus of the first three, but that is only natural for books in the middle of a series of this scope. I’m pretty sure that when the characters start reassembling it will regain its thematic roundness, as was present before the dispersal.
If you a looking for a new series – and I know it is not strictly fantasy, although it has supernatural elements and is most certainly epic, I would recommend Christian Cameron’s Tyrant books. Or the Long War and Red Knight series (the latter as Miles Cameron) too, for that matter.
Leigh, I don’t know if you watch online movie reviews, but there are movies like Birdman and Gravity that are technical achievement or that have a thematic nature to them, and critics like them but audiences are blah…
So, ya. Feast and Dance were supposed to be one book, but as you can see that was never going to happen, and it was split geographically in a way that makes almost no sense, mostly because GRRM had a problem with Meereen, and who would arrive and when, so it made sense, because he had not written those chapters, to split the book by region, but at the same time, the themes were lost, not that they would have made the book more enjoyable in my opinion, but look at these and tell me what you think, as what I’ve read has led me to believe that this was supposed to be:
1) A comparison Dany v. Cersei – women in power
2) Dany v. Jon – power to change a society stuck in the past
3) Brienne v. Tyrion – trips through the world, Westeros and the East, affected by war
4) Quentyn v. Jaime/Brienne or Davos- Quest based trips to accomplish a purpose
There are more, but I think those are the big ones.
Still, GRMM says there are two books left, and too much of this seemed to be filler, the Ironborn did not need to be expanded, but they were because it makes the world a more full place and so on, but there’s two books left.
I would really love to have you do a reread of the series, you probably have time, no hints from GRRM about completion of the next book. And since you caught up, maybe read the next book normally, and then do a reread instead of a read. You will know everything we know by that point and it would reduce your stress and our editorial in the comments section. Frankly, I’ve been afraid to make any comments because I’d not wish to spoil you, but heading off to the spoiler thread doesn’t do anything for me because I am already on Westeros.org (don’t go there), it’s you I want to chat with the book about, like the newsgroup days.
Generally I prefer publication order, but Rogue Prince and Princess and the Queen were published very close to one another, and the reading will make much more sense if Rogue Prince is read first. Things and people are mentioned in PatQ with no explanation, they are introduced properly in Rogue Prince. The publication order has more to do with which anthology they were included in than any preferred or thematic reason. I think he wrote them as one story and part 2 happened to come out first.
I also would be interested in seeing your reactions regarding the HBO show (the accuracies and deviations, the casting, the reveals of some things yet to be revealed in the books). Less grueling, hopefully, than reading long chapters at a time and something to do in the likely several more months leading to Winds of Winter.
@24: Yeah, I spent PatQ going “What? Who?” and RP going “Ohhh, I get it now.” Inasmuch as comprehension is possible with that bunch of people. Oh well.
@17 Oh yes, and also birds pecking out the eyes of the dead. It seemed like we needed a constant reminder of crows feasting on delectable ocular jelly.
Im with Rob: Please do the RP First!!! It,s an Info dump for the P&Q.
For anyone who was disappointed (to whatever degree) with the last two books, I was with you until I watched Preston Jacobs’ video series on the Dornish Master Plan on YouTube. The clues are all there, but Martin’s writing is both so dense and so expansive that it’s easy to miss the small details that would clue the reader to the meta plot.
Martin’s world is so detailed and he’s so meticulous in its presentation that he could write another 7-book series about any number of historical eras. Thus, while you might have thought the plot in the first three novels was of a more pleasing shape, think of the last two novels as something akin to the Silmarillion. There’s all this other backstory that was only peripheral to the telling of the stories of the main characters that we know and love. I read somewhere that Tolkien specifically wrote the Lord of the Rings because his lore was so developed that he needed a narrative vehicle to introduce it to an audience.
For Martin, you may not have know that there was all this stuff going on in Dorne and the Iron Isles and the Citadel, but he knew. These events weren’t peripheral and unimportant to him. Preston’s Dornish Master Plan videos piece all the clues together to help the reader understand that these new characters have been involved in events all along.
When you’re done with PatQ and TRP, don’t forget to read the World of Ice & Fire. It’s even got pictures!
I don’t advise you to watch the TV series. Every book reader I know has complained that it’s a bad adaption. Plus, when reading the books, you’ll picture the TV actors instead of your own imagination (i.e., picturing Tyrion as Peter Dinklage instead of a noseless ugly dwarf).
One re-read I would enjoy, especially from you Leigh, is The Lies of Locke Lamora and the Gentlemen Bastards series. Its refreshingly not grimdark, even though it has anti-hero rouges in the lead.
Longtime lurker here and seldom poster…I resonate with the comments Leigh makes about the nature of the beast. But there are so many ways to tackle that beast. I think of series like The Dagger and Coin by Daniel Abraham – 5 book series (4 of which are out) – and to my mind it stays “tight” the whole time (ironically Abraham worked with GRRM quite a bit earlier in his career and yet has quite a different storytelling style). The main way Abraham (and other writers) seem to achieve that, is to tell the story from only 4 to 5 perspectives rather than the point of view of 10 or 20 or more characters. Also you have ones like Stormlight Archive – again limited number of perspectives, but Sanderson gets around it by having the Interludes to give us more of the world without necessarily belaboring the story.
Ultimately it all comes down to personal preference – for me I’ll take Dagger and Coin or Stormlight Archive any day over the trudging I did through this series.
I love your writing, Leah, and the perspective you bring. Might I suggest N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy for your next (re)read? It’s a much more female-oriented perspective, and might wash some of the rampant misogyny of Westeros away.
Whatever you read or reread, I will look forward to your writing!
First I just want to throw in another big thank you Leigh for doing the read. It’s been great.
I am glad to hear that you’re not in the camp of “really hate the last 2 books”. Partly because I’m also in that camp =P but mostly because I would hate to think that you were trudging along for years hating us for making you read it XD
Overall I agree with your views about the dissipation of focus, and lack of thematic roundness. I also was not really surprised — what was originally a trilogy has expanded into supposed 7 books, maybe more. And the middle is always a little fuzzy, even in tighter trilogies–they’re just shorter so you don’t notice as much.
Besides, I don’t really agree with those like @11 that “nothing happens” in so many chapters. Sure, there might not be ACTION happening, but I can’t think of a single chapter off the top of my head that wasn’t either a) to get somebody somewhere they needed to be or b) revealed important clues/stratagems/background that would be brought up later, or both. You might find either of those boring, but it doesn’t mean nothing happened.
And I appreciate the read through Leigh because you pointed out a lot of stuff I hadn’t noticed. I already thought 4 and 5 were pretty good as far as introspective novels go, but you did a great job of pulling out some of the themes and various plots that Martin was using that I hadn’t even seen. So another kudos to you, you even helped me appreciate the books more than I had.
In regards to the show–I had a lot written up here, but then I wasn’t sure how much would constitute spoiler territory, even if I’m only talking about it in regards to the adaptation quality and not content itself. To play it safe I’ll just say: I’m a book reader, and I like the show, so it definitely can’t be said to be terrible to all book readers. But it is of course an adaptation and as such has its own host of issues (which is a fact I accept, unlike many). But as far as a recommendation goes, I’m not sure if I would recommend you watching it. If you were already weary of the books, I think the show would just be worse.
@20 I think she should do the Belgariad, so that way she can read Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress, which were some of my favorites for a long time.
Congratulations! It’s been quite a trip, and I’ve enjoyed taking it with you.
I agree that you should read TRP before TPatQ, but after that I recommend a reread, or going on to TWoIaF. All of these are necessary to complete your initiation into the ASoIaF fandom, and a reread couldn’t hurt (Although I understand if you’d rather do that “offscreen” as it were).
I always was a bit annoyed by how you read the short stories, and the chapters in general, as the twists at the end of each “segment” wash out all the other minor things there, at least in the summary. Still, though, this was great fun to read, and I hope your posts on TPatQ and TRP, whichever order you decide to read them in, will be just as fun.
@naupathia I think the show’s main problem (Save for constricting itself to ten hours per season) is that it’s too hopeless.
I’ve been reading this blog for a couple years now and I am a huge fan of the series. I’m super disappointed that we got no recap of the final book, or a recap of the series. Am I missing something? Wasn’t the point of the read to talk about the books, the characters, the theories? Leigh, you’re a great writer and I have mostly enjoyed reading your reactions and thoughts. Unfortunately today’s post was a big let down.
Hi,
first time poster here… Thanks Leigh & folks a lot for all the posts and discussions, it felt great having a resource without spoilers to look up things while reading the books myself (somewhen last year).
Best,
Chris
Two weeks ago, I clicked on a link on Reddit. Since then I’ve been reliving almost 5 years of somebody else’s experience, groaning at the forgotten details and grinning at the reactions to every major event that so thrilled me during a 3 month period when I first read these books in 2011.
Congratulations on making it to the published end and joining the rest of us in our Long Night as we wait for TWoW. I’m almost tempted to call this my 4th reread of the books, and I greatly encourage you to reread them as well, only at a much faster pace so that you don’t forget things that aren’t meant to be forgotten when you need to know them. It’s really amazing all the little foreshadowing lines GRRM sprinkles about early on, so much so that you start second guessing EVERY word you read.
And let me join in the chorus suggesting Rogue Prince before The Princess and the Queen since published order is meaningless for them. However, I do think that reading TWOIAF is a little like reading a school text book. Lots of interesting stuff in there for the uber fans, but it is rather dry and probably won’t make for good bloggery like the stories themselves do.
I don’t care about the order because I haven’t read them. Nor will I, so this read should be interesting to check what I missed.
I understand why you’d need a break. The story can become taxing at times. I don’t know how GRRM plans to finish it, but so far it’s been a very depressing tale. I can’t remember any “feel good” moments that didn’t involve revenge in some way. It’s sad. I don’t know what to suggest, since this style of gritty realism (or cynicism) seems to be really popular now. Probably something older, and something that doesn’t go on forever. I’ll have to think about it.
I read all books in quick succession, and I could tell a huge difference in tone between ASOS and AFFC. I’ve heard the usual excuses, but to me it felt like Martin got lost in his own world. I had the same feeling when I read the WOT books, and Jordan did that too. I only hope Martin remembers to finish the story eventually. He can always go back with these novellas anyway.
Well, at least the TV show will give me some closure. And for the record, I like the differences. I get to enjoy two versions of the same interesting story.
” I can’t remember any “feel good” moments that didn’t involve revenge in some way”
I can. For instance, the first thing I think of, since I’ve recently finished my re-read of ASOS, are some of the Arya chapters dealing with the Brotherhood without Banners. An entire chapter or two there struck me as full of hope and romanticism, not in the sense of romantic relationships, but in the sense of seeing a bunch of people managing to find some kind of a freedom, human solidarity and nice life, in the midst of terrible war, butchery and chaos in the Riverlands. The Brotherhood under Beric were not perfect shiny heroes, but they are still heroes and good guys who are genuinely protecting the smallfolk from the terrible assholes, be they Bloody Mummers, Mountain’s men, Roose’s or Karstark’s men, and the people of the Riverlands – both smallfolk and nobles like Lady Smallwood – are protecting them in turn, giving them shelter and food. We also see people making their home in the leaves or under ground, we see a whole subculture of sorts going on, hidden from the likes of Tywin or Roose, we see Tom of Seventreams entertaining people with songs, we see genuinely nice people like Lady Smallwood, we see her being nice to Arya. There is also genuine friendship between Arya and her companions, especially Gendry but also Hot Pie. We see Arya and Gendry’s playful banter, we hear Tom’s song about the forest lass who’d rather live in the leaves and grass than in a castle, and it feels also like an ode to the lifestyle of that Robin Hood-like group and some of the people Arya meets on the way, in addition to Arya herself. It’s a really lovely reprieve before things do darker both for Arya and for the Brotherhood, due to the Red Wedding. All of that is absent from the show, where (spoilers for the show) the Brotherhood are just assholes who sell Gendry to someone who is presumably going to do awful things to him, and we don’t see them even really protecting the smallfolk or fighting against bad guys, let alone the people of the Riverlands and their relationship with them./end spoiler
Off the top of my head, Arya’s time in Braavos shows her making genuine friendships with a number of people, from Brusco and his daughters to the prostitutes from the brothels. Sansa has a friendship with Mya Stone and Myranda Royce, and has her own “shippy” hopes for Mya and Lothor. The wildlings are far more interesting and relatable than in the show. We get a lot of humorous moments from Tormund, who has a nice friendship with Jon, and from Dolorous Edd. The wedding between Alys and Sigorn is both a great move to bring the wildlings and the northmen closer, a happy event, and an example of a girl managing to make her own destiny and circumvent her asshole relatives who wanted to force her into marriage, take her inheritance and possibly murder her (basically the Lannister/Bolton Sansa/fArya plan). Brienne is not obsessed with revenge in the books, she is more interested in saving and protecting children, not just Catelyn’s daughters but also the children from the inn.
Moments of humanity, hope and/or idealism are entirely missing on the show, whose message basically seems to be: “Everything is terrible, good people die, honor gets you killed, and we’re now going to shock you with more rapes, torture and murder.” Except it’s not even shocking anymore.
Good summary.
So I just saw something a couple of days ago that says the first book in ASoIaF was published twenty years ago! I have been waiting and waiting for the next one (or two!) to come out but what happened GRRM? This is like 2/3rds of my lifespan you have had to write this and then you go and get all distracted by the HBO series and forget to finish TWoW. Come on now! Quit writing these little side stories and novellas and give us the next installment! Please? Pretty please?