A Dance With Dragons various comments and stuffage

[mariness]

Dance With Dragons

Ok, it's been almost a week, and I can't bear it any more. Plus, waiting for critical business call and need the distraction. So! Not a formal review, but, just notes:

Comments

[anaisis]

Just so you know, I did not read this post! Even though it is very difficult! You realize you are torturing me!(yes I know it is my fault) I will read this when I am done with the book, which won't be until after I am in NY. I am now on book 4.

[akashiver]

Just finished the book and OMG. PIES. Totally missed that.

[mariness]

OMG pies indeed. I think I would have missed it if not for the Pat's Fantasy Hotlist thing, but I've since checked and it's confirmed in other internet places, so it's not just my depraved imagination.

[anaisis]

I totally missed the pie thing also, but now looking back I can see it. Loooove Manderly.

[maystone]

Ack! I'm only 64 pages into it! Must. Not. Read. Post.

[mariness]

Just because I explain about the Cylon invasion and the robot armies :)

[maystone]

Ha! *reads faster*

[silviamg]

I really did not like this one :(

I was kind of pissed at the way Danny was handled. I felt her character was undermined. She seemed a very resolute girl (willing to put so many guys on a pike in the first three books) and suddenly seemed to misplace her guts, marry and fall in love with a certain character.

I thought so many Theon chapters were a waste of time.

I also thought other stuff (lets introduce a brand new contender for the throne! As if a bazillion POVs were not enough! And he's even cooler than Danny!), but I'll save myself the rant.

[mariness]

I thought the Theon chapters were gripping but seriously repulsive even for Martin - I really wish he'd left out the scene with Jeyne and Ramsey, even if it showed just how low all of those characters had fallen.

I figure Aegon will soon die so I'm not worrying about him.

Dany, though -- well, the hero's journey requires a setback, and I was expecting one for her, and certainly her rulership problems made sense. But her love life stuff...I'm still not entirely sure why she married the guy (yes, I know, peace in the city, but...you have dragons. An army. Other methods.) And Daario didn't do much for me.

[silviamg]

Agree on Theon. Waaaay too much masochistic interest in a minor character I don't really want to hear about.

Danny was having too much luck, but rather than giving her a silly marriage story I would have rather seen her solve her problems maybe by researching more about dragon lore and beginning a bit o' dragon taming and deciding that she needed more soldiers, thus seeking the Dotharki. It would also have made more sense if she met Tyrion at the end of the novel because Tyrion = useful dragon lore and political advice.

She acted seriously un-Danny in her chapters and I felt Martin was trying to deconstruct a powerful woman.

Talking about women, how about that rape-alicious scene with Asha? Yeah, I guess it's kinky but coupled with Jeyne and some other stuff I was seriously frowning at the way the stick was hitting the women.

[mariness]

I thought the scene with Asha was just roleplaying on her part and meant to show that she was pretty kinky, and I thought it also might have been meant to suggest again that the Greyjoys had some sexual child abuse in the not so distant past (both Aeron and Victarion seem to remember some issues with Euron.) I don't think I would have had any problem with it if the book hadn't also included the scene with Jeyne, Ramsey and Theon. We already had plenty of information that Ramsey was evil, Theon more or less mentally destroyed, and Jeyne...in trouble, and I don't think we needed more.

At least Dany mostly controlled her sexuality. I'm assuming her last chapter indicated that she was miscarrying, which I guess means that she's sorta fertile again and might be able to have kids after all. But yeah, she wasn't the Dany of the earlier books -- perhaps because one dragon had flown away, and the other dragons were chained, but, still.