A Dance with Dragons Is George R.R. Martin's Most Bloated Book (Book Review!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2024
- Original Upload Date: January 29, 2022
Released EXACTLY 13 YEARS AGO, today we take a look at the fifth and, as of this recording, most recently published book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Is George R.R. Martin's largest and most expansive work in the series yet where it all comes crashing down? Does this book, which covers a lot of geographical ground, cover some good plot groundwork as well? Watch on to find out!
A Dance with Dragons was published by George R.R. Martin on July 12, 2011.
0:00 Introduction
0:40 Publication History
1:15 Book Split
3:49 A Dance with Dragons Review
7:38 Spoiler Discussion - Full Series Spoilers!
22:29 Final Thoughts
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#GameOfThrones #ADanceWithDragons #DanceWithDragons #ASongOfIceAndFire #ASOIAF #GeorgeRRMartin - บันเทิง
The book has no climax because they cut it.
The book was considered too long so it was decided to keep those chapters (AFAIK the battle of Winterfell and the battle of Meereen) for the book.
For sure! I mention this later on in the video and why the publishers ended the book where they did 😁
@@booktubeadvocate yes, I commented too soon, before I finished your video. 😅
@@mori1bund haha no worries! Thank you for commenting regardless! All the best
My problem with this book is that it isn't feast part 2. for some reason it being a separate book just made it feel a bit underwhelming and bloated since feast was such a bomb
Yeah, I would have preferred had Feast and Dance be part of one continuous chronology as opposed to both books just being separate halves of the same chronology. But now that the timelines have come together, we can hope that The Winds of Winter (if that ever sees the light of day) will keep everything to one timeline
Dance and Feast are amazing when read together in an order like All Leather Must Be Boiled. I can't read them without it, the idea of splitting the story like that into two books is just crazy to me.
For a first time read, I would probably read both books apart. But on rereads, yes, Boiled Leather adds so much! It’s hilarious seeing a Cersei Feast chapter where she’s paranoid thinking that Tyrion is hiding in the walls waiting to kill her only to be followed up by a Tyrion Dance chapter where he’s laughing to himself thinking about how much Cersei must be paranoid as she’s probably thinking he’s going to kill her 😅
Tyrion's darkness has always been there since the beginning. Look at his reaction to seeing Masha Heddle is strung up when he returns from the Vale.
True he’s always had darkness inside him, but this is the book where it truly is revealed
I have that print of the book and it smudges so badly 😡
I feel you man. I’m hoping the revised cover editions that are being released later this year come with better page and ink quality. We’ll see though
I did wait 6 years to read this book and didnt had a problem with how he split the story. Some of the chapters around Meereen are amongst the worse he write. But we finally got Barristan Selmy as POV which is one of my favourite characters since book 1. His last chapter The Kingbreaker is great. Jon Connington story and his last chapter Griffin Reborn is also one of the best he ever written. And epilogue is on the same level as introduction of Lady Stoneheart at the end of The Storm of Swords.
Oh man, that epilogue definitely opens the floodgates for so many story arcs in the upcoming book. It’s a cliffhanger for sure, but a big dramatic great one for sure
Those Tyrion chapters were fucking agonizing.
The second half chapters were, yes. A lot of meandering and faffing about once he got split up from Griff and Young Griff
@@booktubeadvocate
I agree. Both the Illyrio and Griff stuff was good.
Tyrion and Daenerys chapters were agonizing for me, the Jon chapters were really good and the Theon chapters are some of the best fiction I’ve ever read
I like ADWD very much, especially Jon's chapters but not only. I was delighted to see Mel's chapter, alas only 1, but she appears a lot in Jon's chapters. Also, contrary to many who seems to put it in the lowest ranking, I love ACOC. The whole mood changes in that book. It is very atmospheric and intriguing and I love it. It is the book where we start seeing a lot of fantasy elements in it. I have ACOC in 2nd place, overall, after AGOT. I have AGOT first only because if I do not like the first book, I usually do not bother to continue with a series.
I also like AFFC, although I did find it a bit dragging with Brienne chapters. ASOS is my least favorite. Yes, it has pace and a lot of things happens, but it has more of a historical fiction feel to it and political intrigue, which is my least favorite aspect of the series.
So, my overall ranking would be in the following order: AGOT, ACOC, ADWD, AFFC, ASOS.
That’s interesting that the political intrigue and historical fiction is your least favourite aspect of the series given that is the hall mark for a lot of readers. I take it you’re not as big of a fan of the first A Game of Thrones book?
Great insights, keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to your analisis of winds of winter when wrinkles cover up our asses xd
You’re too kind, thank you!! And oh boy… I don’t even know if wrinkles begins to cover it by the time we even get another book haha 🥲
For me, aDwD had too many POV characters I didn't care about, and was a real slog to finish.
I can definitely see that. I take it Quentyn was one of the POV’s you weren’t a fan of?
@@booktubeadvocate That entire arc, imo, could've been cut to him meeting Daenerys. Cut a lot of the travelogues in aFfC & aDwD, and there's room for the battles GRRM pushed into tWoW instead of ending with multiple cliffhangers!
@@KyloRenRadio I mention that throughout the video. I agree with you that Dance in particular has a fair amount of bloat that could have been removed to allow for some of the good stuff that got pushed into Winds. Instead, Dance ends right before the climax and we’ve been waiting 13+ years since for follow up
Yes, I know I pronounced Aegon as “Eye-gone”. I am still working on reprogramming my brain to correctly pronounce this name.
Also, happy 13th birthday, A Dance with Dragons…
It's Aegon like Aegean sea. In fact, the Targaryen name almost certainly comes from the Greek God of storms. I personally am am the one to have proposed this:
"AIGAION (Aegaeon) was the god of the storms of the Aegean Sea and an ally of the Titanes in their war against the gods. He was named Aigaion after the Aegean Sea (Pontos Aigaios in Greek) but his name also means "Stormy One" and "Goatish" from the Greek word aigis."
The meaning of Aegon adds extra depth to the story, because the entire Iron Born religion is about the Drowned God fighting the Storm God, and Aegon's name is essentially "Storm God" while Dany is "Storm Born." I have argued that it sets up that one of the main conflicts of the Winds of Winter will be a book-long war between Euron Greyjoy and Aegon Targaryen.
Originally, George was going to have Aegon come to Slavers Bay and Dany and Aegon cross together to fight Euron. But now, Dany is spending the whole of Winds still in Essos, battling the khals in the Dothraki Sea, then fighting a war against Volantis and Qarth to end slavery on the continent, while the second Dance of Dragons is fought in Westeros between Euron (who marries Cersei) and Aegon (whom Arya joins as a faceless woman, taking Arianne Martell's face, and becoming Queen Nymeria reborn as foreshadowed by her direwolf's name).
@@jclaburn did you create this theory? I’ve not heard this theory before but it sounds freaking amazing!
There is a poetic beauty in having the Ironborn fight Aegon through this Greek symbolism. Although, Euron really is the last person I would say is a devout follower of anything Drowned God related. Unless he truly does seem himself as the Drowned God.
Arya wearing the face of Arianne Martell I take it means she killed Arianne. Which would be depressing given I like Arianne’s character, but then does that mean that Young Griff will marry Arya? Or maybe the Arianne/Young Griff betrothement doesn’t even happen
Thank you for your insightful comment by the by, I really do appreciate it!
@@booktubeadvocate Yes, I have created three separate theories that do intersect: (1) Euron is trying to become a God, while Young Griff was raised by a septon to be devout, so Euron is going to take Old Town while Young Griff becomes the champion of the faith and launches a crusade to retake Old Town (like Jerusalem) for the faith, as well as an inquisition against the new followers of the Lord of Light in the Riverlands. This will tear apart Westeros--and result in the persecution of the followers of the Lord of LIght--eventually requiring Dany to come West to intervene to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of this new Dance of the Dragons.
(2) Arya is destined to replace Aria-nne Martell, whom I also like. It's right there in Arianne's name, as a hidden clue, and the need for it is caused by Braavos and the faceless men being enemies of Illyrio and his financing of slavery, who is behind Young Griff. It was foreshadowed for Arya to become queen of Dorne when she named her direwolf Nymeria and by Ned telling her in A Game of Thrones that she is destined to marry a king and give birth to princes (which surprisingly, he does tell her in the book). This will cause her to be married to Aegon VI, yes!
(3) Jaqen is also destined to one day replace Young Griff and become Aegon VI himself--and Arya's husband thereby. In fact, I have a whole theory that Jaqen has been the real Aegon VI all along, and that's why he is back in Westeros in the first place. By my account, Arthur Dayne didn't miss Robert's Rebellion hanging out at the Tower of Joy. He only got back there after the war ahead of Ned. In the meantime, Rhaegar sent him to King's Landing to secretly switch babies and take the real Aegon VI to Braavos and make a deal for the Faceless Men to raise him as one of their own (basically the same deal the Waif's father tells Arya her Dad made for the Waif). It basically explains all Jaqen's behavior such as why he's in the Red Keep to start and why he offers to Arya to kill Joffrey, Tywin, and Cersei out of the blue. He does this because those three are already on his own kill list himself. Jaqen's there to take down the Lannister's and Baratheon's and bide his time until he can retake his throne for the War for the Dawn
I love these three theories all three, and I am really proud of them! :)
Wait…I thought Aegon son of Rhaegar is Jon Snow and he’s at the Wall.
That’s only in the show version. Although at this point, Jon being Rhaegar’s son is as close to being fact without being officially being confirmed in the books
It was a slow slog a dull boring bloated book it was so hard to read I found it mind-numbing seriously one of the worst books I've ever read in my life
How can you review literature, yet keep getting the most important name in all of ice and fire wrong, just who is iron it's Aaegon
Bear in mind, I read the books before I watched the show so I was pronouncing a lot of names differently before learning how the show pronounces them
I don't compare the show to the books ever,the show was great until it ran out of book.
I have enjoyed your videos. I didn't mean to sound off
@@18pablo88 no worries man, I appreciate your comment. Thanks for your support!