"How do I play the turncloak without becoming one?"

— Jon Snow, A Storm of Swords (2001) , George R.R. Martin 

"Explain to me why it is more noble to kill ten thousand men in battle than a dozen at dinner."

— Tywin Lannister, A Storm of Swords (2001), GRRM 

"If there are gods to listen, they are monstrous gods who torment us for their sport. Who else would make a world like this, so full of bondage, blood and pain? Who else would shape us as they have?"

— Tyrion, A Dance With Dragons (2011), GRRM

"Sometimes there is no happy choice, Sam, only one less grievous than the others."

— Jon Snow, A Storm of Swords (2000), GRRM

"My birth is as low as a man’s can get, no septon’s ever smeared my head with oils, I don’t own any castles, and my queen wears furs and amber, not silk and sapphires. I am my own champion, my own fool, and my own harpist."

— Mance Rayder: A Storm of Swords by GRRM (via noldolante)

"It was never wise for a ruler to eschew the trappings of power, for power itself flows in no small measure from such trappings."

— Melisandre of Asshai, A Dance With Dragons, 2011

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one."

— Jojen Reed, A Dance With Dragons, 2011

Or as one fan called it: ‘Crouching Lion, Hidden Dragon’…

Long Post Alert!

Finally posting some general notes on aDwD which was a novel that arrived with high expectations. It is tough for fans to wait for 6 years for the next part, especially when most fantasy and urban fantasy books arrive every or every other year. (I jumped in later so I cannot say I’ve waited 6 years but still had some high expectations for heavy dragon action!). Still, GRRM delivered here, the polished writing style and the suspenseful techniques he utilized in previous books have become even more sophisticated. However, the fragmentation of the plot lines that began in A Feast for Crows deepens. Characters that appeared to truly matter are given either: no resolution or a quick and heavily contrived resolution, while secondary characters and plot lines receive a great amount of attention. At the finish line this all amounts to GRRM’s failure to leave the corner he wrote himself into. Prepare yourselves for more of the ‘miraculous resurrections’ that he already utilized in A Feast for Crows.  I would rate the novel 4 out of 5 stars but mostly because of the excellent suspenseful style and solid character building.

**Warning: heavy spoilerage included in the following review**

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"Kill the boy and let the man be born"

— Aemon Targaryen, A Dance With Dragons, 2011

"The more you give a king, the more he wants. We are walking on a bridge of ice with an abyss on either side. Pleasing one king is difficult enough. Pleasing two is hardly possible."

— Lord Snow, A Dance With Dragons, 2011