On the day of Hurricane Irene was here, I finished reading, “A Dance With Dragons”, the fifth book of “The Song of Ice and Fire” series by George R.R. Martin, here is my review.

This book is centered around the characters of Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen, which are the three most popular characters in the series. Since these characters weren’t in the last book, “A Feast for Crows”, George decided to make it up for the fans by putting the three characters in this book to keep his readers happy.

The War of the Five Kings in Westeros is almost over. Jon Snow has been elected, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, but he still has enemies on the Watch and beyond the wall. Tyrion has been found guilty of murder and he is kidnapped by Jorah Mormont to be sent off to Queen Daenerys. Queen Daenerys now rules the conquered city of Mereen with her three dragons. The character Arya Stark is still in this novel but she is not a point of view character, I don’t want to give out spoilers but what happens to her is pretty disturbing and sad.

Enough with the plot, on with the review.

I thought this was the best book of the whole series so far. Again, it was a pretty thrilling read and hard to put down. I love how Tyrion meets a new midget friend which is very entertaining. In defense of this book, Tyrion had a hard time making actual friends. He never really had any friends through the first 4 novels. He finally met another midget female, who’s name is Penny, a new character introduced in this novel.  Penny wasn’t really his lover in the book, but it seemed that Tyrion enjoyed being with her.

The story of Arya Stark, what happens to her in this book is very sad and heartbreaking. I think that’s the story line you should pay more attention to. She wants to reunite with her brothers and sisters that are still alive, but of course, she’ll have to wait a lot longer for that to happen because horrible things happen to her.

Now lets talk about the character Cersei. Cersei seemed to be evil and to be the most hated character in the first four books. You really wanted to hate her before. Well, in this book you actually felt sorry for her and she really showed that she can be someone in this book. She was still being held captive because she was caught sleeping with two other men when she wasn’t supposed to. In this book, George wants you to look at Cersei in a more positive direction this time and he does a good job at it.

What I liked about this book is that George gets deeper into the main characters. He makes it feels like that you actually know the characters, as if you knew them in real life. George is a masterful storyteller. I love his writing so much. They’re so realistic and insightful. I’m already looking forward to Book No. 6, so hopefully he don’t make us wait too long for the next one. I didn’t want “A Dance With Dragons” to end.

The question is, will Tyrion and Daenerys ever meet for the first time? I enjoyed the read. The series keep getting better and better.

Kev