Unapologetic Reviews

The only reason why I managed to finish this monster book of monsters is because I went over to the audiobook version. I'm not sure if I should recommend it though. While the man does the male voices well, the female voices are a horror to listen to. The rest of the text is read as if the man was half drunk. This is the last published book in the series. Obviously, it's hard to keep it spoiler-free. I'll try my best though. Most of it is taken up by characters that were not in the previous book. Therefore, the people who were in that book are not in this one, at least, the first half. Most notably, Sansa is not in it at all, and Brienne just makes a sudden appearance. Most importantly, Daenerys features a lot in the book. The story moves along the usual pace, at the envy of a snail. I love the world, and I love reading about intrigue, but this is the book where you skip a lot. I don't care which four men went to the meet with Jon Snow. Nor do I care what men were at the...

This book is the natural progression from the previous ones. It's a bit different in that we don't get to read about all the characters, just a few that are connected to each other. We also get to briefly see Dorne, which I found interesting. It dragged for me a bit, but that could be because my two favourite characters Tyrion and Dani aren't in it. I missed them. Some of the characters that I was sort of on the fence about, like Jamie and Sansa I grew to like by the end. Brienne I just can't care about. I almost wanted to skip over her parts, and frankly, she didn't add much to the story in this book. Maybe in the grand scheme of things she'll be important, but if she gets killed off, I'm not going to be sad. We also get to get to know the people on the Iron Islands more, but frankly, I don't like anyone there and if one of Dani's dragons torched them all, more power to them. Roasted ironmen! Cercei is pretty much THE villain at this point, so readi...

The second establishment of the series didn't disappoint. It was exciting and full of twists and turns. In the previous book there weren't that many supernatural elements, that are usually part of a fantasy. Towards the end there were more, but most of the characters didn't come across anything especially strange. In this book, those elements become more and more. What I loved about the book was partly that. The supernatural just popped up, and came about unexpectedly most of the time. There were several mysteries, and story lines that kept me turning the page. What I didn't like was that sometimes the action started to lag. There are people who like all those little details that some writers, especially those who can't write a book under 600 pages, put into their narratives. However, to me, these were sometimes too many. I remember two instances, where I just couldn't take it anymore, and started to skip a few pages. Probably the most unnecessary part was when ...

I confess, I started the book because of the hype. I also wanted to read a big fantasy series. It also helped that I could get all five books at a discount. The fact that it's the first part of a series can be felt from the very beginning. The pace is often agonizingly slow. However, every little detail feels important, so even I, who tends to skip a few paragraphs, read every word. The way the story is told is very interesting as well, as it's third person limited. It would limit the scope a lot, if it wasn't told through the eyes of several people. It also shows a lot of planning as the author would have had to pick the main characters well ahead. The characters are very interesting. They are all grand personalities, not a dull person around. They are, however, not alike. They are different. You may not like them all. They are also not on the same side, which makes things even more interesting. I personally didn't like Sansa, but in the end I could still feel sorry fo...