Six years is a long time. A lot has happened in that time. A lot of changes. And a lot that has stayed the same. Whether any of this is good, bad or indifferent is a matter for debate, one which I can't begin to answer here and will not attempt to do so. The short version is it's probably all of them, but I digress. It's certainly a long time to wait for the next instalment in a series, but that's the length of the wait for A Dance with Dragons, the latest chapter of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. There aren't many books I'll buy in hardback or on the day they are released, but this ticks both of those boxes, despite me telling myself I wasn't going to get it – who was I kidding?
Having been put onto the series a few years ago, loved it, and having recommended it to several others, who have all largely been sucked in as much as me, this always had a heavy weight of expectation. So was it worth it? Frankly it's hard to say. In terms of length, weighing in at just over a thousand pages, it certainly has quantity. And on the basis I went through it in a week, the writing is still good, the characters captivating, the story still full of twists and turns, I suppose the answer can only really be yes.
When juggling casts as huge as this – and the cast really is huge, check out the 50 odd pages of family trees and characters at the back – it took a little while to remember who some of them were after such an absence, but very quickly the newcomers were back in place alongside many old friends. If friend is the right word, for one of the series' strengths is the fact that not only is nobody in it black or white, good or bad, they change, evolve and feel real. Fitting alongside the previous volume in timeframe, but focusing on different characters and areas, I was interested to see how it would work, but I think it largely did. And also by the end of the book was introducing others back in and moving the timeline forward. Plus having some of my favourite characters back, particularly Jon and the irrepressible Tyrion, who is surely destined for a place in the pantheon of great fantasy characters.
With so many characters, it can sometimes feel like things are moving slowly, but at the same time, with so much action taking place off-stage and it all being told from so many perspectives, the unreliability of the narration helps keep the pace and suspense up. And Martin's ability to shock remains, with both minor and major surprises. Possibly nothing in here compared to the "But you can't do that!" moments of books 1 and 3, but one in particular stands out. I'm not great at working out what I think will happen in books, but I wouldn't know where to begin in guessing the outcome of the series. Or even who will survive it, for this is a brutal world where mortality is constantly on the minds of most. So a cracking good read then. Just hope the wait for the next one is not quite so long – I dread to think where I might be in another six years.
Book number: 55
Title: A Dance with Dragons
Author: George R.R. Martin
Category: Chris' choice
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