Last night I finally finished George R. R. Martin's fifth book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance With Dragons. Having been denied the story lines of some major characters in the fourth book, namely Tyrion and Daenerys, I was really excited for the fifth book, but somewhat disappointed upon completion. The entire book was very serious, which is what I appreciate so much about the series. However, I felt like there was so much confrontation and anguish between characters that the material seemed entirely too dense.
The female characters are the strongest and most compelling in the series. I had the highest regards for Daenerys and Cersei and Arya because of how strong and entirely fearless they were. But when a book is full of only strong characters, none of them can be considered strong. It took me until I was almost finished with the novel to figure this out, when a new character was introduced: Penny the dwarf. Her cautiousness and naivety broke up the intensely serious material and reintroduced the element of fear (rightfully needed in such an angry, corrupt world). She was not lusting for power or revenge like the other characters. Her only concern was making people laugh. In the previous novels that element of innocence was embodied by Sansa Stark, who was sorely missed in A Dance with Dragons. Although Penny's character was refreshing she was introduced very late into the novel, giving it enough time for the material to become dense and a little boring.
Many chapters seemed to blur together, many lacking any new developments. Tyrion's chapters were by and large about his reflection on murdering his father while he was on the toilet and silently making jokes about it in his head. It felt like he was aboard some sort of boat for the majority of his chapters, and doing little else but talking and thinking about his father. I felt similarly about Daenerys who sat upon her ebony bench in Mereen for the first half of her chaters, listening to the pleas of a man who was to be her future husband saying, "Open the fighting pits?" and Daenerys replying, "No, go away (summarization)." That being said, I can't deny that I loved reading about them. Their chapters were the ones I wanted to read the most. I just wish there had been more substance.
I was pleasantly surprised with the re-introduction of Theon Greyjoy, once a self proclaimed prince of Winterfell, and now the tortured, personal slave of Ramsay Bolton, heir to the Dreadfort. I love Theon Greyjoy. I feel like I'm not supposed to, but somehow I just can't stay away. Theon was unloved and misguided and was only trying to fit in. But even though he tried fitting in with the popular kids (the Starks) and then the emo outcasts (the Greyjoys) Theon never fit in in high school. We all know a Theon. The reason why I love him so much is because he is such a tragic character. His remaining family resents him, he betrayed his foster family to gain the respect that his biological family convinces him he had been denied (though he never actually gained it), slept with countless women to fill the gap inside, only to be tortured and disfigured by a murderer and a rapist. But does any of that ruin Theon's life? No! Since Theon is so hated he has zero obligation to anyone and escapes, taking Ramsay's new bride with him! Rock on, my new favorite character. Rock on.
Forever the honest,
Stephanie Lato
Okay, I promise not to make a habit of commenting on your posts. But this one is obviously one I can talk about.
ReplyDeleteI thought this book was the worst of the five, mainly for the points you already mention. Nothing happens. The Daenerys story has always been the most elusive; it always seems like something important is going to happen with her and then it never does. We keep reading and thinking "okay, maybe by the end of this book she'll finally get to Westeros and shit will happen." But no, there's always some reason why she never gets any closer. And now in the fifth book you have other important characters in Essos looking for Dani and teasing us with possible confrontations. We read about them for the entire book hoping that they will meet up with Dani or at least each other. But again and again, excuses are made to keep them apart.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it certainly builds the tension. But after 1000 pages of no one getting any closer to anything, it gets very frustrating.
Meanwhile, in the north, the whole second half of the book alludes to the looming battle between Stannis' and Bolton. But they never actually get to it.
What I think is most exciting is the story of the Stark children. Arya is becoming a faceless man, Bran is a greenseer, and they are all skinchangers. Their futures better end up being important to the story if it is to have any literary merit. It seems the pace of the series comes and goes. The plot slowed down more and more for the first two and a half books, and then sped up. And it has been slowing down again ever since. Hopefully that means book six will get these moving again.
I felt most cheated about the character of Quentyn Martell. I thought he was the best possible contender for Daenerys's suitor, but she rejects him because he shows up too late, and for no other reason. And then my hopes got up when he went to steal a dragon. I already made up the rest of his story in my head: Quentyn tames a dragon, Daenerys sees this and changes her mind about him, Daenerys wins Dorne, pummels the seven kingdoms, and the two carry out just law together. But then...he dies, without accomplishing a single thing. Which makes me wonder why his character was introduced in the first place. I will be a little let down if she marries Victarion Greyjoy, only because he is an iron islander. Don't get me wrong, the Kraken is totally awesome. But iron islanders are notoriously a**holes. Of course I do feel sympathy towards Victarion because his brother took his wife and then got cheated out of ruling the iron islands because that same brother was crowned instead. I do want Victarion to claim revenge in some way, but at the same time I don't want he and Daenerys to get married. That poor girl. She needs to find a good Tyrell boy to hunker down with. A polite, adorable, semi-awkward Tyrell.
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