A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

When I was many years younger, 'The Neverending Story' came out. I thought this was a marvellous idea - a story that never came to an end, where you could always return. How naive I was! I have now read the neverending story, otherwise known as 'A Dance with Dragons', and I can tell you that the novelty wore off very quickly.

It was not the length of the book that bugged me. It was simply that in 1000 pages, very little happened. I am really hoping that this is going to be a bridging book and that the next one will return to the pace of the first three books; that this was just showing us how the characters are learning the skills that they are going to need, and moving them closer to where they need to be. I feel a lot could have been chopped from this book without harming the story line (although as I am not GRRM, I suppose I am not an expert on that idea), and I feel that many chapters could have been summed up in a line or two from another character's perspective (really! do we need to meet even more people at this point in time!).

I was also starting to find the repetition in the book annoying. If I hear about breastplates with nipples again, or the line 'words are wind' I might actually throw a book. And what is it with all the food! Really! Meal after meal is described in infinite detail. Just got on with the bloody story! For Merlin's sake!

Overall, it was a very unsatisfying read. There were chapters that I enjoyed (the grand total of TWO that I got of Arya, and the chapters on Jon), but for the most of it, it was painful to have to pick this up every day. I am glad it is over.

I will be reading book 6 because I want to know how the story is going to end. But if it goes the way of this book, I will be watching the HBO version for the conclusion. I will be needing the HBO version to refresh my memory on who is who in this zoo before reading book 6 - whenever that comes out.