Book Review – George R. R. Martin’s “A Dance with Dragons”

Today I finally finished reading A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in George R. R. Martin‘s widely acclaimed series, A Song of Ice and Fire.

Although this is the fifth book (and so far the final one published) in the series, about the first 75% of it coincides with the events in the fourth book, A Feast for Crows.  The original version of A Feast for Crows was going to be too long to publish, so the book was split in half with each book focusing on some characters.

While A Feast for Crows focused on events in King’s Landing, central Westeros, the Iron Islands, Dorne and across the Narrow Sea in Braavos, A Dance with Dragons focuses on pretty much everywhere else from the Wall and northern Westeros to the Free Cities and Slaver’s Bay.

SEVEN KINGDOMS – THE FAR NORTH:

Bran Stark has continued his quest north to find the “Three-eyed Crow,” a mystical creature that he has been seeing in his dreams.  He’s joined by Hodor as well as Jojen and Meera Reed.  As the gang continues north they find it more and more difficult to find food, and soon they begin to starve.

When they take shelter in a secret cave they meet the last surviving Children of the Forest, the original inhabitants of Westeros.  The people take Bran to meet the “Three-eyed Crow,” a person that the Children of the Forest refer to as the “Last Greenseer.”  This “Last Greenseer: is really a former member of the Night’s Watch.  After he abandoned his post at the Wall, the “Last Greenseer” chose to sit on an underground weirwood throne.  He’s been sitting on the throne for so long that the roots have fused into his body, establishing that final connection between himself and nature.

The “Last Greenseer” tells Bran that he has been the person appearing in his dreams as the “Three-eyed Crow,” and he intended to lead Bran there so that he could teach him in greensight, an advanced level of his psychic ability.  It turns out that the sacred weirwood trees really are the eyes and ears of the Old Gods, and they are capable of seeing and hearing everything around them.  The trees are able to record those sights and sounds in their memories for centuries.  A greenseer is not only able to access these weirwood trees and view their history, but that person is also capable of communicating through the trees.

Bran learns about that first hand when he uses the greenseer ability to watch past events of his father at the weirwood trees.  He then views the present day and sees and talks to Theon Greyjoy at the godswood.

ACROSS THE NARROW SEA – THE FREE CITIES:

After murdering his father, Tywin Lannister, at the end of A Storm of Swords, Tyrion Lannister is smuggled across the Narrow Sea to Pentos and given shelter by Magister Illyrio.  This is just temporary and Tyrion is set south on a journey out of the city.  Tyrion is on a boat commanded by Jon Connington, and he realizes that Connington’s son is really Prince Aegon Targaryen, a person believed to have been killed years ago.  As it turns out, the prince was really smuggled out of Westeros and taken across the Narrow Sea for safety.

Aegon has heard the stories about Daenerys Targaryen and her three flying dragons.  He intends on marrying her and securing his claim to the Iron Throne.  With the help of her dragons, they should easily be able to crush the forces on Westeros and restore themselves to the throne in King’s Landing.

Tyrion convinces Aegon that Daenerys is not a woman who is impressed by aid.  It would be more impressive if he was to fight in some battles and begin his conquest in Westeros.  Aegon believes this logic and he launches an early invasion in the Seven Kingdoms, starting with the Stormlands.  It’s not clear if Tyrion was offering honest advice, or if he wanted Aegon out of the way for his own goal with Daenerys.

When traveling through Essos, Tyrion is kidnapped by Jorah Mormont, who intends on delivering him to Daenerys in appeasement for her banishing him, and hoping to spark their relationship.  On their way to Mereen they meet a female dwarf named Penny.  It turns out that Penny was one of the dwarf jousters at King Joffrey‘s wedding.  It’s also mentioned that Penny’s brother was killed and beheaded by people looking for Tyrion and trying to cash in on his bounty.  Although Penny hates Tyrion with a passion, they eventually bond and develop a relationship.

Later, Jorah, Tyrion and Penny are shipwrecked, captured by slavers, and sold at a slave auction.  They’re sold to a Yunkish merchant as part of a jousting act.  When they are outside of Meereen, the three of them are able to escape from slavery during the chaos from a plague decimating the local population.  The join the Second Sons mercenary group and support Daenerys.

ACROSS THE NARROW SEA – BRAAVOS:

Last we heard of Arya Stark at the end of A Feast for Crows, she had consumed a potion during her training that made her blind.  As it turns out, this was just another challenge in her training to become an assassin with the guild known as the Faceless Men.  Arya discovers that she is a skinchanger (like her brother Bran, and her half-brother Jon Snow), and she has the ability to use the eyes of cats to help her while she’s blind.

After succeeding with the challenge of being blind, Arya’s eyesight is restored.  Afterwards, Arya is given the mission of killing a merchant, but doing it in a way that does not reveal her identity or make the killing an obvious one.  The merchant is a prominent business man in the port, and he always travels with an armed escort.  He is nearly always in the presence of others.  To help her with the mission, Arya’s teacher changes her face so that the girl will not be recognized.

Arya creates a plan that involves picking a random man’s pocket, but making it obvious while doing so.  She picks his pocket, gets caught in the act, and flees the scene with the man chasing her through the town.  Of course, Arya gets away after committing the crime.  Afterwards it’s announced that the merchant has been killed.

How did she do it?

It was with poison.

While picking the random person’s pocket, Arya switched one of the man’s coin with a coin that she poisoned.  This coin fell to the ground when he chased after her.  The merchant happened to be right there, and being a money grabbing cheapskate, the merchant picked up the fallen coin.  He bit into it to make sure it was real, and that’s how he sealed his fate and consumed the poison.

After successfully killing the greedy merchant and not leaving any traces back to herself of the guild, Arya continues with her advanced training.

ACROSS THE NARROW SEA – SLAVER’S BAY:

In the former slave city of Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, is still ruling as queen of the city.  While the experience is great preparation for when she finally claims the Iron Throne, Meereen is slowly drifting into chaos.  There’s the threat of war outside of the city’s gates, there’s a band of killers inside the city, and people in the region are suffering from a plague known as the bloody flux.

In addition to that, Daenerys’s dragons have been killing livestock, and in one case a human being, so they have been locked away in a dungeon deep inside of Meereen.  One of the dragons, Drogon, managed to evade capture, and he roams the nearby countryside.  Her two captured dragons continue to grow, and it becomes more and more apparent that the dungeon will no longer be able to contain the fierce creatures.

While she is ruling Meereen, Daenerys forms a relationship with a mercenary named Daario Naharis, and the two of them become strong lovers.  She is forced to break the relationship and accept a marriage vow with a noble named Hizdahr zo Loraq.  If she marries him, then he’ll stop the roaming band of killers in the city as well as prevent a planned attack by Yunkai and Volantis.  True to his word, peace returns to Meereen after their marriage ceremony.  Shortly after the marriage, despite the bloody flux killing people outside of the city, Daenerys is forced to re-open the city’s fighting pits.

The bloody battles in the fighting pits are interrupted when Drogon, attracted by the scent of blood, arrives and attacks the fighting pits and the city.  It’s reported that over 200 people were killed in the attack, from either the dragon or from being trampled by others trying to flee.  In an attempt to stop Drogon’s killing, Daenerys climbs onto the dragon’s back and tries to subdue him.  This works but the dragon flies away with Daenerys.  Some people think that Daenerys fell to her death, and others think that she was one of the victims of the attack.  The reality is that Daenerys accomplished her dream of finally being able to ride a dragon through the sky.  She is carried to Drogon’s new lair deep in the Dothraki Sea, on a hill that she later names Dragonstone.

After Drogon’s attack on the city, Hizdahr zo Loraq assumes control of Meereen as the city’s king.  However, Barristan Selmy, the Hand of Queen Daenerys, believes that Hizdahr is guilty of attempted murder.  First, it’s believed that Hizdahr is really the leader of the band of killers in the city.  Second, it’s believed that Hizdahr tried to poison Daenerys in her private box at the fighting pits.  The assassination attempt failed, but the evidence points back to Hizdahr.

Barristan is able to form a small band of loyal soldiers, and they infiltrate Hizdahr’s compound and remove him from power.  He’s placed under arrest and taken to a dungeon.  Barristan then assumes control of the city as he was the Hand of Queen Daenerys and next in line for power.  After removing Hizdahr from power, Barristan has the city prepare for an immediate attack from the enemies just outside of the city’s walls.

Also in Meereen is Quentyn Martell, Prince of Dorne.  He had travelled all the way to Meereen to seek Daenerys’s hand in marriage, but he arrived in the city shortly after Daenerys married Hizdahr.  After Daenerys disappeared from the city with Drogon, Quentyn hatches a desperate plan to steal one of the two contained dragons.  He’ll take a dragon back to Westeros and use it to fight for the Iron Throne.

Unfortunately, Quentyn’s plan backfires.  When he goes into the cell to try to take a dragon, he’s terribly burned by the dragon and later dies from his horrific injuries.  To make matters worse, both dragons are unleashed upon the city.

Out in the Dothraki Sea, Daenerys is slowly starving.  She makes the decision to return to Meereen, even if it means walking the entire way, which she sets out doing.  As she’s walking, Daenerys starves and becomes very ill.  Just as her end is drawing near, Daenerys encounters the khalasar of Khal Jhaqo, the former Bloodrider of Khal Drogo.

Meanwhile, Victarion Greyjoy and his Iron Fleet are nearing their destination of Meereen in Slaver’s Bay.  Victarion is also on a mission to claim the hand of Daenerys Targaryen in marriage.  Victarion is aware of the military siege outside of Meereen, and he hopes to smash the siege and win Daenerys’s love and gratitude.  With the help of Daenerys and her dragons, he aims to overthrow his brother King Euron of the Iron Islands and get his revenge.

SEVEN KINGDOMS – THE WALL:

Jon Snow had been elected as the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.  It’s a position that he intends on serving honorably until the end of his days.

Snow initially has problems with Janos Slynt, a person who lost in the election to become the Lord Commander.  Janos pushes his luck and and finally pushes Snow too far.  Tired of his insubordination and refusal to follow orders, Jon Snow orders the execution of Janos.  Like his father did before him, since Jon Snow ordered the execution, it is him who lifts his sword to chop the head off the victim.  This cements Snow’s place as Lord Commander, and it earns him the respect of Stannis Baratheon.

Later, Jon Snow sends Val, the sister-in-law to Mance Ryder, north of the Wall to find Tormund, the leader of the wildlings.  Jon knows that winter is coming and with it the Others.  The ranks of the Others has grown with all of the fallen wildlings, and those wildlings who are still north of the Wall will just be slaughtered when the Others finally advance south.

Tormund accepts the truce offering, and a huge number of wildlings are allowed south of the Wall.  Many of them remain at the Wall and take up arms, adding their numbers to the depleted number of soldiers of the Night’s Watch, and help stand guard against the Others.  Allowing the wildlings south of the Wall causes tension between the people, but so far everything is still calm.

After Stannis has made his march south, a representative from the Iron Bank of Braavos arrives at the Wall, looking for Stannis.  He’s there to inform him that since the Lannisters are so far behind on re-paying their debts, the Iron Bank is thereby switching their allegiance to Stannis.  The bank intends on offering Stannis loans so that he can hire a large army and crush the Lannisters.  While the representative is at the Wall, Jon Snow makes a deal so that he can purchase food and help his soldiers of the Night’s Watch survive the approaching winter.

Stannis Baratheon has taken his army and marched south to begin his conquest, but he left his wife and daughter along with Melisandre, the Red Priestess, behind at the Wall.  Melisandre tries to form a relationship with Jon Snow, but he refuses her advances.  She constantly looks into her flames, and Melisandre warns Jon that he has enemies at the Wall, people who are going to kill him.  She also informs him that she has seen visions of a girl on a dying horse riding for the Wall.

Jon believes that the girl in Melisandre’s visions is that of his half-sister, Arya Stark.  Melisandre used her magic to fake the execution of Mance Ryder (when he was held captive when Stannis was still at the Wall).  Ryder was to be executed for abandoning his post at the Night’s Watch, an offense punishable by death.  Jon sends a disguised mance Ryder south to find the girl on a dying horse and deliver her safely to the Wall.

At the end of A Dance with Dragons, Jon Snow receives a letter from Ramsay Bolton at Winterfell.  The letter states that Stannis Baratheon and his army are dead, and Ramsay wants Jon to hand over a listing of people at the Wall as well as wildling hostages.  Failure to comply will result in Jon Snow’s death along with the destruction of the Night’s Watch.  The letter is a bit peculiar though as Ramsay Bolton mentions the names of people who are not at the Wall.

Jon Snow realizes that he cannot defend the Wall from the Others as well as stay neutral in the civil war just south of him.  He announces that he’s going to take the fight to Ramsay Bolton, and he’ll be needing volunteers to join him.  Suddenly Jon Snow is stabbed by Bowen Marsh and other members of the Night’s Watch.  It’s not clear if Jon Snow is killed or left unconscious from the bloody attack.

SEVEN KINGDOMS – THE NORTH:

King Stannis Baratheon seeks to gain the support of the northerners as he begins his conquest south to King’s Landing.  His first objective is to attack and liberate Deepwood Motte, a fortress that was recently captured by Asha Greyjoy.  Asha’s forces are overrun and Asha herself is later captured in the woods by Stannis’s men.  She becomes his prisoner.

The liberation of Deepwood Motte allies Stannis with more supporters, and his army quickly grows.  Stannis marches his army to Winterfell and liberate it from Ramsay Bolton, the Warden of the North, but during the march a fierce winter storm drastically slows his army.  They’re slowed to a crawl and eventually forced to seek refuge just a few miles away from Winterfell.  As they’re buried under the snow, the army slowly starves to death.  After eating their dead horses and anything else they can find, some of the soldiers turn to cannibalism.

It turns out that Davos Seaworth was not killed (nobody in these books is ever “dead” until you see a mutilated corpse, and even then there are some tricks that keep certain characters “alive”).  He was sent to White Harbor to speak with Lord Manderly and seek his support for Stannis Baratheon.  After faking Davos’s imprisonment and “death” in front of representatives of House Frey (this was done to free Manderly’s last son from the Lannisters), Manderly tells Davos that he intends on seeking revenge against the Boltons, Freys and Lannisters.

While he is at White Harbor, Davos learns that the wildling Osha had secretly taken Rickon Stark to hide on the remote island of Skagos.  Once the northerners see that a male Stark is still alive, then they’ll flock to their cause and rally against the Lannisters.  But to retrieve Rickon from the island, they’re going to need a good smuggler to do so.

Meanwhile, it’s also revealed that Theon Greyjoy is still alive, and he’s been held hostage and brutally tortured in Ramsay Bolton’s dungeon.  The torture has driven Theon mad and he goes by the name of “Reek.”  Reek is ultimately released from the dungeon to help Ramsay and his father Roose Bolton conquer Moat Cailin and then take control of Winterfell.

At Winterfell, it’s mentioned that Ramsay Bolton’s bride is going to be Arya Stark. A marriage bond between her (the last known survivor of the Stark family) and Bolton will solidify Bolton’s claim of the north and his position of Warden of the North.  The only problem is that when Arya arrives at Winterfell, Theon recognizes the girl to really be a girl named Jeyna Poole, certainly not Arya Stark.  The Boltons know that she’s a fake, but that doesn’t matter.  It’s just supposed to look real enough to convince the people of the north.

The wedding proceeds and Ramsay marries “Arya.”  To help make “Arya” seem more legitimate, Reek is forced to resume his old identity of Theon Greyjoy and give away the bride as the former lord of Winterfell.

Later, after a major snowfall and a series of murders take place at Winterfell, a disguised Mance Ryder arrives with his fierce spearwives to free “Arya” and return her to the Wall.  It was a mission assigned to him by Jon Snow and through the visions of Melisandre.  Even though Theon knows that “Arya” is really Jeyna, he sees it as a way to freedom.

Theon helps Jeyna escape, but an alarm is raised and Mance and his spearwives are unable to escape from Winterfell.  Theon and Jeyna press north until they’re captured by Stannis’s army.  When Theon is reunited with his sister Asha, she doesn’t recognize him at first because he’s so disfigured after his torture and mutilation.

At the end of the book, it’s still implied that Stannis Baratheon’s army is still waiting in the snow a few miles away from Winterfell.

SEVEN KINGDOMS – THE SOUTH:

In A Feast for Crows, Cersei Lannister was imprisoned by the Faith of the Seven.  She has grown tired of her imprisonment, and it’s apparent that her brother, Jaime Lannister, is not coming to her aid.  Cersei finally admits to the crimes she’s accused of doing.Cersei is allowed to return to the castle and her son, King Tommen Baratheon, but first she must do the walk of shame.  The woman is shaved from head to toe, not leaving a single hair on her entire body.  She’s then forced to walk naked through the city so that everybody can see her as a whore instead of a person of power.  It’s a humiliating task, but Cersei makes it to the Red Keep and the safety of her own guards.

However, Cersei still must stand trial for the crimes that she did not acknowledge.  She chooses to do a combat by trial, and her champion is a mysterious knight known as “Ser Robert Strong.”  Nobody knows much about this knight except that he is of incredible size and strength, a very tough opponent in combat.

In the Riverlands, Jaime Lannister arrives at the siege of Raventree Hall.  Raventree Hall is the last castle who had supported Rob Stark and had not yet surrendered to the Lannisters.  Jaime’s negotiations go smoothly and offers Raventree Hall peace on generous terms.Jaime is about to depart and wipe out the last of the renegade bands of soldiers still causing trouble in the area when he’s suddenly visited by Brienne of Tarth.  As we remember from A Storm of Swords, Brienne was last seen being tortured by the resurrected Catelyn Stark.  Brienne informs Jaime that she has located Sansa Stark, but she’s in danger of Sandor Clegane.  But is she telling the truth, or is this really a trap set by Cate Stark and the Brotherhood Without Banners?  We’ll have to wait until the next book to learn more.

EPILOGUE:

The epilogue for A Dance with Dragons involves Kevin Lannister and the planning of the future of King’s Landing with the Tyrells.  When he enters Pycelle‘s chambers to learn of a raven arriving, he sees that it is a white raven.  The white raven is one that travels without a written message.  The bird is sent by the Citadel and it symbolizes that winter has officially arrived.Kevin also discovers that Pycelle has been murdered.  The Lannister is then shot with a crossbow by Varys, who had been hiding in King’s Landing since helping Tyrion Lannister escape at the ending of A Storm of Swords.

Varys reveals that he is in support of Prince Aegon Targaryen.  Since Kevin was starting to undo all of Cersei’s damage that she did while ruling King’s Landing and Westeros, Kevin had to be eliminated.  Varys believes that Cersei and King Tommen will blame the wrong people for Kevin’s murder, and this will plunge King’s Landing into chaos.  As the region is fighting itself again, this will give Aegon a prime opportunity to lead his army into the city and capture the Iron Throne, his rightful seat.

Varys then brings half a dozen children into the room, and the kids use daggers to finish killing Kevin Lannister.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Is George R. R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons a good book?

Mostly yes.

Although A Dance with Dragons is a very long book, parts of it tend to drag on and on,  and it still leaves many questions unanswered, the story does a good job of continuing with the overall tale of A Song of Ice and Fire.  This book was much better than A Feast for Crows, but it wasn’t as good as the first three books in the series.

A Dance of Dragons‘ greatest strength is its attention to details and intricate plots and characters, but this easily backfires against the readers if you don’t pay close attention, or if you get lost in the seemingly endless number of characters.  There’s a reason why the appendix and list of characters at the back of the book is 60 pages long.

If you liked the previous books, then you’ll be just fine in A Dance with Dragons.  Just make sure that you read the previous four books and understand them, or it’s going to be a pain reading book number five.

Now it’s a waiting game until book number six, The Winds of Winter, is published.