shape
carat
color
clarity

Dancing with Dragons

aviastar

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
1,190
OK, I finally picked up Dancing with Dragons and I am about 90% of the way through. I am...having a bit of trouble with this installment. I am up for keeping spoilers out of the thread unless a few people want to open up the conversation, in which case we'll put up a warning, but I am just finding this book to be slower than the first four. I only have a few storylines I am really invested in at this point and they have gotten little attention this round, or seem to be quite stalled. Also- something happened a chapter ago that made me really mad :angryfire: !

Anyone else reading/read this one? Your thoughts, comments?
 

AGBF

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 26, 2003
Messages
22,082
I just returned to The Library after months away and opened this thread (as well as others). When you first referred to other books, I thought you meant other books read by the Pricescope book club and since I only read two for the book club (you referred to four), I went looking to see if everyone had been reading books during my absence!

Then I realized that when you said that this was the most disappointing book of five you meant that it was part of a quintet of books written by one author, not one of five books read by our book club!

I do not know the other books that form the rest of the quintet to which this book belongs, aviastar. I am sure that everyone else does. I just do not keep up with books. If I didn't read the threads on Pricescope, I probably wouldn't know even as much as I do about popular fiction! Please tell me more!

Deb/AGBF
:read:
 

aviastar

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
1,190
Hi Deb!

This one was the 5th installment of the Song of Ice and Fire (or is it Fire and Ice?- I always mix them up!) by Grahm R.R. Martin. The first book is now an HBO series "The Game of Thrones". The books are very long, have lots of characters and storylines across several continents and has an ardent fan following.

I just picked the series up after seeing the first promos for the show, it seemed like my kind of story, so I thought I'd give it a try. I really enjoyed the first 3, the fourth slowed down for me and then the 5th was a huge disapointment. These books are not really for the faint of heart...many characters don't survive very long and it's graphic in it's description of...everything. I usually avoid that kind of serious violence and sex, but it was well written and not overwhelming, to me, in the first few books and degenerated into shock writing, I thought, in the last two.

This author takes a looooooooong time to write his books, so I think it will be years before the next ones come out. I'll read them cause there are a few characters I am heavily invested in, but I don't actually have high hopes for the conclusions.
 

cadarn

Rough_Rock
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
19
I heard George RR Martin recently mention that he would be pushing out the next book slightly faster due to the HBO show catching up to where the series is at. Basically, he said maybe three years instead of 5 or 6.
 

aviastar

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
1,190
Ya know, honestly, a break is fine with me. If another comes out, I'll read it, but if it doesn't I won't miss it. The last book was so frustrating for me- from a character development, plot development, and simply a craft point of view, it just felt so sloppy to me.

I'm more than happy to discuss and would be open to changing my mind if someone could present a good argument in favor!
 

ladidalola

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
108
I did get a bit underwhelmed with A Dance with Dragons especially since I loved the first three books so much! A Feast for Crows was the dullest for me and I don't understand why he changed some of the characters per chapter in that book. I do love George RR Martin's writing style though. He's such a great writer.. I've also read some of his other books and I highly recommend Tuf Voyaging which is a compilation of short stories about Haviland Tuf, an exceptionally tall, bald, very pale, overweight, phlegmatic, vegetarian, cat-loving but otherwise solitary space trader.
 

aviastar

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
1,190
We're watching season 2 of the HBO series right now and I am reminded of the fabulous beginning of the series. But I am going to blaspheme and say that I prefer the shows to the books ( :shock: ). Especially in the last two books, I just got really tired of reading about Tyrion's bathroom habits all.the.freakin.time. Out of necessity in the shows, most of that descriptive minutia is left out and we can just get on with the characters and the plot.

And I think that's what bothered me the most about DWD- no or minimal plot advancement.

On the other hand, however, when you read some of the fan sites or reviews there are all sorts of theories out there about how things are going to play out- I am not inclined to try and 'solve' books, so this stuff never occurs to me!- but it is intriguing and I will probably read the next one cause I do still want to follow Dani, John, and Arya.
 

ladidalola

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
108
When I watch the HBO series, I just think of it as an alternate reality from the books :razz: Lol!
 
Be a part of the community Get 3 HCA Results
Top