Book review: Dance With Dragons
Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
What is there to say here that I haven’t said of the previous books in the Song of Ice and Fire series? The plot continues to be fascinating and convoluted, with twists and turns and new revelations that keep me engaged. The existing characters continue to develop and grow. The doom of all continues to march steadily nearer while they bicker and refuse to unite. My imagination runs wild with how things might resolve even as I know it’s not going to turn out that way.
There are more characters dead and some of them come back from the dead in different ways. For some, they never died to start with - it was a near thing, or others only thought they were dead. For still others, dark magic restores them. Resurrection and rebirth is a consistent theme in many of the intricate religions we see in the world, so the durability of some of the key characters of destiny shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Still, others remain solidly dead. So when Dance of Dragons had an important character take mortal wounds near the end, and that was the last mention of that person, I still couldn’t tell if they’d died or not. Same for Brienne - if you’ve read the book before, her point of view ends with her hanging, yet in Dance of Dragons, she is reported alive. Is she alive? I don’t know. I wish I did, and curiosity about that and dozens of other points will propel me to reading the next book as soon as I can - even if that might be a few years from now.
It’s a great series. I recommend it strongly, though I’ll readily admit it has a lot of features some might not like - gritty and dark at times, fantastical and magical at others, gross, ribald, and explicit. But I love it anyway.
Having finished this, I went to look for new audiobook choices. I am very disappointed with the public library’s lack of selection. The following weren’t available as audiobook:
- Scarlet Pimpernel by Orczy
- Pillars of the Earth by Follett (although they did have World Without End, but why have book 2 in a series without book 1?!?)
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut
- The Left Hand of Darkness by LeGuin
- The Humans: A Novel by Haig
- Anything by Byron, Bach, or DeMulder, though to be fair, the last two are obscure
I ended up getting Treasure Island by Stevenson and being put on a waiting list (seriously?) for Pride and Prejudice. If anyone has some suggestions on classic or bestseller books I should check out, please let me know. My best luck is with things that are ridiculously popular. I’m #37 on the list for The Giver and I’ll check out The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo out of desperation.