Yeah, on both counts. The "title" instead of "name" POV chapters work for one-offs, and using a different title for a same character twice is kinda iffy (Like Feast did), but still cool. But then a different title three times for one character who has another "named" title before those three chapters and a different "named" title after those three chapters is a little fucking odd. I mean, Davos back in book two just had three chapters, and he wasn't called the Onion Knight in one and then something different in the next two. I suppose it works thematically (Like Alayne's in Feast) because of identity and stuff, but eh.

You get used to it. I mean, I know I'm too busy being distracted by the awesomeness.

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Aegon! Theon! Dany! Fun fun fun!

EDIT:

Yeah I like that. I dodged the chapter list this time to avoid that though, lol.

 

One good reason for the chapter names is that if something bad happens to a character but it's left hanging as to if it's their end or not, if you've got another chapter later on with their name on then it kinda spoils the cliffhanger. Whereas with ambiguously named chapters, you don't know.

 

I'm about 30% in and loving it so far.

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I also find the fact that it's become some sort of medieval Bachelorette with Dany in the center highly amusing. And yeah, all that bitching about her can stop now, she's having her turn in the GRRM grinder.

 

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It's not that far out of left field. It was mentioned how Aegon died - smashed his head against a wall - no less than twenty times over the course of the first four books. It was constantly mentioned enough for it to be a theory that Aegon was still alive simply because it was being mentioned so much, and so he was, as Dance has told us.

As for his sister? Martin confirmed her dead in an interview, while saying nothing of Aegon, some years back. I'm taking that as gospel - sucky as it sounds, the prince is more important than the princess, and it's easier to swap a baby prince for some other baby to be killed by Gregor Clegane. As for the three heads thing? Doesn't mean that they're all Targaryen riders... I mean, I never thought so, and even with the Aegon reveal, I still don't think a third Targ will come out of nowhere and claim the dragon.

 

Well the problem I have is that my imagination no longer creates the original images of the characters that have been used since the 1st books, they have now been replaced with the actors on the TV show. Damn that awesome show to hell.

 

Just picked it up this afternoon after work - I'm only up to The Wayward Bride at this point. It's been good, but I've noticed a little lack of polish compared to the previous books. A couple of colloquialisms that don't quite fit ("Lets do this!" and "Swords would be sweet." were the ones that stood out the most), and a few inconsistencies with the characterizations from previous books. These are probably a consequence of the book being rushed out at the end.

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Namely Dany. I know I'm still pretty early on in the book, but she seems way different than in the previous books. It's hard to imagine that Drogon killing the girl could cause such a reversal in her, but that seems to be the only real catalyst. It's hard to put my finger on what exactly bugs me about her, but mostly she just seems softer - like she lost the strength that she gained with the Dothraki. She's also acting a lot more like a teenage girl. I'm not sure if this was an intentional character development or GRRM realizing that he's writing a teenage girl and trying to make it more accurate than before. Because she had a lot fewer teen girl traits in the previous books.

Tyrion is about normal, though his fixation on Tysha is a tad out of the blue. I get that he's been sort of holding a torch for her, but to have it come out so strongly seems odd.

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He's slightly older. Given the time that's passed since we met Dany, yeah, he's about 15-16. Dany was born on Dragonstone after Kings Landing fell. Aegon was a few months old when he was "killed."

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Agreed. The sudden change from affable, easy-going kid to kingly douchebag was a little jarring. Just because someone points out that you're a king doesn't mean you have to turn into an ass.

Haven't gotten to the part that focuses on him yet, but the little bit of backstory that Illyrio gave on him was interesting.

Me neither

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but I kinda feel sorry for him...no one deserves what he got. GRRM should have just killed him off. It definitely looked like he was planning to in the sack of Winterfell.

 

Just Finished my first run through of the book.

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Apparently Jon is dead. At least, that is what the end of Jon's last chapter indicates. I know some have referred to him as a bit of a Marty Stu (although I don't know what DLP's opinion on him is), but he has always been my favorite character. I doubt he will stay dead, considering that Catelyn came back to life earlier (if I remember the end of AFFC correctly), but it annoys me greatly. Plus, zombies always lose most of their underlying personality. More reason to never play favorites in a book, I suppose.

Now I'm all depressed...

 

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There's actually a theory that Jon will be reborn as Azor Ahai. The prophecy states that "When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt." Jon was stabbed under Ser Patrek's bleeding body whose signal is blue stars. Jon's wounds smoke, and Bowen Marsh cries (which would be be salt). If you look at Melisandre's visions in this book it becomes pretty obvious. Especially this quote from Melisandre: "Yet now she could not even seem to find her king. I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow."

I'm doubtful he'll become a main POV character again, though. I'm glad he's not dead but I did not see him as Azor Ahai :facepalm

 

What? No. I was just exclaiming their awesomeness, not that I think they're the dragon heads. Only one of those three is a dragon head, and that's Dany.

Finished up last night, and had the morning to process. Lot to process, but overall, I loved it, bastard cliffhangers and all. Killer ending, and some tortured guys and gals left to stew until the next book. George isn't the master of killing characters off like everybody and their mother claims, but he's damn good at torturing them. Good show. I mean, let's just look at the smorgasbord of pain...

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Theon: Gelded, lost three fingers and four toes. Forced into servitude to the biggest monster in the series. Quentyn: Took three days for the poor bugger to die. I liked him, too, and I truly think he was close to getting Viserion before Rhaegal roasted him. Jon: Stabbed in the back (And the neck, the belly and the back again). Dany: May have the Flux (Drank the water, kept shitting) or may be miscarrying or whatever, but damn, she's gone through the ringer. Griff: Walking dead man and his prince may just get himself killed in his Targaryan madness. Cersei: Forced to walk naked through KL like that, and still might just die if Zombie!Gregor fails, and then there's still Maggy's prophecy on the other side. Jaime: Running off to his death, most like, and Brienne has to betray her oath in the process...

Yeesh. Still love it, but who's coming out on top here? I liked Kevan Lannister, but he died because he was too sane and would've fixed things. Arya's losing her sense of self, Bran's becoming a tree, Tyrion's still not in a good position, Davos is heading to the island of cannibals to rescue the crazy child Stark, betraying his King as he does and not to mention that Barristan's probably going to go the way of Ned... As much as I missed her, I'm almost glad that Sansa didn't show up just to be raped by Littlefinger and the Hound at the same time or whatever is coming for her.

Now... To the waiting.

 

Barristan was a complete bawse in Dance. Probably my favorite POV in Dance.

Jon

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I saw coming. What with all the foreshadowing with Melisandrei (sp?) and her 'dagger' comments. I don't think he is dead though. He has too big a role to play and I doubt even Martin would kill him off suddenly after being the main character for almost the whole series. Too much left to do on his side of the plot; I believe he will be back in some way, shape or form.

Arya is a bawse. Definitely want to see moar of her now that

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she's learning how to change her face and become one of the faceless men. Will she go back to Westeros, or will she find her fate in the free cities?

Theon

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Probably deserved what he got, although that didn't stop me from feeling sorry for him. It's one thing to die, but quite another to have your humanity stripped away and treated worse than a dog. Ramsay Bolton better fucking die a painful death in the next book.

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Tyrion as always was fun to read. His arc didn't really progress enough though IMO. Pretty much just

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traveling and getting beset and delayed by new problems the whole book

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Melisandrei's POV was actually one of my favorites. Very interesting to read, and I hope she's a POV character in the next one.

Too many thoughts in my head right now. I need more time to process this shit; and perhaps a reread or two. The biggest criticism I have of Dance is that the plot just doesn't seem to progress all that much. Nearly 1000 pages but it just didn't seem like all that much happened. On another forum I saw a link posted that said Martin might finish the series in 8 books...not 7 like it was supposed to be. Just judging from the pace of the last 2 books, color me unsurprised. There is just so much stuff going on and so many side plots that I don't see how this can be wrapped up in 2 more books without leaving a lot of things left unfinished.

 

Reek, Reek, my name is Reek. It rhymes with leek.

Just finished the book, some thoughts...

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Overall: this is very much the OotP of SoIaF. Full of interesting stuff, some frustrating, some awesome, but at the end of the book we're left wondering why it even exists. Just like the end of OotP announces the start of the war - when we thought that was what happened at the end of GoF - Dance culminates with many conclusions that seem to be repeats of the end of Storm of Swords.

Daenerys: Was there any progress to this storyline at all? At the end of Dance, we're pretty much where we thought we were at the end of Swords, if a bit behind. Immensely frustrating. It's very much two steps back one forward, and there isn't much to show for the journey either. We have a violent struggle for slavers bay on the horizon involving Dany controlling her dragons. Isn't that what we thought was going to take place this book? Instead we got a load of weak character stuff with dalliances with Dany which are pointless anyway, because Martin seems to undo it all at the end anyway, when she "remembers who she is" (hello Lion King).

I spent much of the book raging at Daenerys to man the fuck up and just burn the fuck out of everyone with her dragons lol. But really, Dany does not deserve my ire. It's Martin's fault for giving her character a complete turnaround for no apparent reason. I think he lost touch with his own character, to be honest. That and he was clearly wanting to build some sort of tension around her refusal to use the dragons, the threat of the Yunkai, etc. But it felt like an author shoehorning his characters into a plot that he desired. The plot didn't feel right for what we knew of the characters. People didn't behave as they should have behaved, and that can be put firmly at the feet of the author directing their actions towards a certain plot goal, rather than having them act naturally.

Jon: deserved what he got. He had the right idea with the Wildlings, but was an idiot about his own people. He should have either removed his advisers from their positions and left them powerless, or appeased them. Keeping them powerful and pissed off was the stupidest thing he could have done - especially when he knew that he was going to be stabbed in the back.

Also annoying is the fact that we still know little of The Others. Sure, we know their weaknesses, but we don't really know what they are, why they exist, what their purpose is, how they are organised, etc.

Bran - I dislike this storyline the most. Martin has really missed the mark on this, I think. The children of the forest are pretty much elves out of every high fantasy novel since LotR. And wtf, unicorns? The premise of SoIaF was always that the fantastical elements were in the fringes at the start, and then would come out as the books went on.

But I had always thought that when they came out Martin would still have put some unique twist on them, some quasi-believability that makes them fit into his gritty world. Instead he's just taken a load of high fantasy tropes and imported them. Making elves short is not enough. I was expecting something more along the lines of the genius of Rothfuss, who took dragons and made them believable animals - rare animals the breathe fire, but just animals all the same, and herbivores at that.

Arya: Loved this stuff. Pity there were only 2 chapters.

Reek: Very well written chapters.

Melisandre: a big character turnaround. I used to dislike her - most likely because of the manner of her introduction - but upon reflection I couldn't think why I disliked her lol. This is one of the strength's of Game of Thrones and the multiple PoV format. You have to constantly re-evaluate your opinions of the characters, because it's very easy to take one viewpoint character's opinions as your own - as one normally does in a novel - but then you realise that you the reader have no real reason to hold them. E.g. I the reader have no devotion to the Seven, why should I dislike Melisandre for burning them?

Davos: thought we would have seen more of him, before the end.

Tyrion: storyline was a bit meh. It was okay, but lacked the normal Tyrion spark. And I think the "where do whores go?" thing was a pretty clumsy attempt at attempting to show that Tyrion was damaged goods.

Aegon: I like him. I would have disliked him for stealing Dany's thunder, but she seemed so keen to give her thunder away this book, and another Targaryen is the best person to take it. /Targaryen loyalist.

You have to remember your name.

Edit:

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Also annoying is what I've come to think of as Martin's "writing cowardice". So many of the story's main events are heard about second or third hand, even when the characters involved are PoV characters, or close to PoV characters. And when we do see the big events first hand, it's always through a side character. The only time I can think of a significant event happening first hand through the point of view of the principal character involved in that event was the birth of the dragons. It's a running theme throughout the series, but I think it was especially noticeable in this one. Aegon raising his banners - we didn't see any of it, even though Connington is a PoV character. Stannis' defeat? Also came by crow, even though Asha and apparently Theon were both present.

 

I'm only halfway through, but fuck its awesome.

 

I will probably get killed for asking this but I have too.

Is a Dance with Dragons really that good? I have read the other 4 books and while I found the first two good the later two were not that great in my opinion. The world building is nice and all, but am i the only who thinks that Westeros was enough? The thing with the long seasons was ok when it was a small island but it got unrealistic as world got bigger not to mention that a long summer can be deathly too. (As currently shown in Somalia).There are to many plots with no end in sight , not one likeable character in the whole series that survives for more than one day, and the author can´t write female characters/perspectives. There are many other things that irritate me but that should get my point across.
What I want to know is that: Does he end some of his plots? Did he learn to write a believable female character? And is there an end in sight?

 

Small island? Westeros is meant to be roughly the size of Europe.

 

Can´t really believe that. Always thought that i was maybe twice the size of England. And it would be still small compared to whatever continent Dany is on. Which makes the whole drama about the wall a little unbelievable.

 

If you didn't like how books three and four turned out, you won't like Dance, especially if you have a problem with the setpieces across the sea or the fact that they're still the same characters from earlier books that you deemed "unlikeable". Skip it. Nothing else to it.