Zombie thread! Wanted to specifically talk about the 5th book so I'm bumping this one.
Just finished this one and... meh. I tore through the other books (SOS maybe a bit slower) but I still read them eagerly. This one? Not so much. It eventually became work for me and I had to force myself to finish it.
First of all, is it just me or was this one a written a little more sloppy than the other ones. My least favorite thing in fantasy novels is when the writer just dumps in modern real world sayings, or just localizes a few words to suddenly make them authentic. Like "Scale of the dragon that bit you." Come on now, he couldn't think of a better hangover idiom than replacing "hair" with "scale" and "dog" with "dragon?" This kind of crap was all over this book. It just knocks me out of a fantasy world when they start talking about stuff like milk mustaches on characters. Speak more than two languages and you'll find that most countries don't actually have the same sayings just in their own language.
Ok, so even aside from that nitpicking, I just didn't enjoy myself. I remember actually saying outloud "seriously!?" when another Dany chapter came up again so soon after the previous one because I was really over the story in Mereen. Dany was so awesome in the previous books, but in this one she spends most of her time fucking up or thinking about things for her vagina to do. Blegh, why should I care so much about how wet she is for Daario? Can a female character have an actual romance in this series that isn't stupid or wrong?
There were points when I started actually speed reading through without thinking about it just to burn through the pointless histories or artless details. Oh they're doing lineage again? I'll gloss over it. Food descriptions? Gloss over it. Re-describing what already happened in a previous book? Gloss over it. ect. ect.
This book should really have been called "A cashing of paychecks" because really it felt half assed to me. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty to like in it. I actually enjoyed the Victarion parts in this book and I thought Theon was interesting for a change. But the overall package was a failure for me.
In contrast I just finished the three short stories that take place 100 years before these books... and they're just amazing. So given limitations GRRM can actually still write well paced and entertaining books. If I had a choice between finishing the asoiaf books or finishing the Tales of Dunk & Egg, I would actually rather read more about Dunk & Egg.
