Invitation to the Dance

This weekend, I finished A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book of George R.R. Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I know many of you will not yet have finished the book. (It is a weighty tome.) I also know that some of you only know the books from the HBO series Game of Thrones, and thus know only events through the end of book one. I'm going to try to keep this spoiler free for both camps, so I apologize if this review comes off frustratingly vague.

It's been a long six years since book four (A Feast for Crows) was released, but in many ways, A Dance With Dragons is a book that we long-time fans have been waiting for for eleven years. That's because Martin decided to break up a ponderously long book into two pieces, and divided them geographically rather than chronologically. That is, he left some characters out of book four entirely, only bringing us the continuation of their stories now.

Put more simply, odds are that whoever your favorite character in the books is, you haven't read a new chapter about them in eleven years. Yikes.

By that standard, there's simply no way this book could measure up. No book, even written by Martin, could be "the book you waited a decade for!" But it is a good book. I'd nestle in right in the middle of them all in terms of quality; I found it to be better and more engaging than books two (A Clash of Kings) or four (A Feast for Crows), but not as riveting as books one (A Game of Thrones) or three (A Storm of Swords).

What pulled it away from the "top of the heap" is that for large stretches of the book, not much is happening to several of the characters. Most of the major characters of Dragons aren't on a mission, aren't even moving at all. Two in particular have become settled in one specific location, and the bulk of their stories in the book are all about them trying to negotiate the trials of leadership. Managing people, managing resources, trying to make changes for the better. It's realistic, but it frankly isn't always interesting -- particularly for these characters, who I think most readers want to see out mixing things up and booting some heads.

But on the up side, other main characters absent from book four are back and as entertaining as ever. One in particular is having to learn to deal with not being in control for the first time in a while, and watching the character adapt is great fun.

Around two-thirds of the way through the novel, the story "catches up" with book four. That is, the events meant to run concurrently between the two books finally align, and then the rest of book five moves forward with plots for characters from both novels. That's when things really start to heat up and get interesting for everybody, and that's what easily pulls the book off the bottom of the Ice and Fire pack. Things get exciting for even the stationary characters I mentioned. Also, a character who has been around for a while in the story becomes a "narrative character," with chapters told from his perspective. (And they're among the most compelling chapters in the book.)

Another pleasant surprise in reading the book was that there were two characters I had decidedly not enjoyed reading about in earlier books, who became quite compelling in this book. Martin has done it before, making you suddenly cheer for villains, or doubt heroes -- so that in and of itself is not the surprise. That I would ever look forward to a chapter around this character or that character is, though. It's not that I necessarily found either of these people to be vastly more sympathetic, but I still very much wanted to read what happened next to them.

I think I'd grade A Dance With Dragons a B+ overall. Maybe an A-, since what's "average" for A Song of Ice and Fire is still "really damn good" for most books.

And now, the wait for the next Martin book begins all over again.