Review: A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Published: Random House Publishing Group, 2011
Awards Nominated: Hugo and British Fantasy Society Awards
Awards Won: Locus Fantasy Award

If you haven’t read the first 4 books of the series, stop here because there will almost definitely be spoilers.  I will not give away plot points of A Dance With Dragons, but I am going to mention the viewpoint characters and make general comments about the content. 

The Book:

“In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.” ~barnesandnoble.com

I’ve been reading this series for roughly a decade, so I’d been looking forward to this next installment for many years.  I’ve read pretty much all of Martin’s published long fiction, so I would consider myself familiar with his style.  I enjoyed reading A Dance With Dragons, but I do think it left some things to be desired.

My Thoughts:

As all of you who have read the books know, A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons were originally intended to be one book.   When it grew out of control, it was split into two parallel novels, each telling the whole story from half of the viewpoint characters.  While A Feast  for Crows mostly focused on southern Westeros, A Dance With Dragons focuses mostly on northern Westeros and the Free Cities (kind of an ironic name, since they contain the world’s major hub for the slave trade).  However, as Martin explains in a foreword, A Dance With Dragons, is not just a parallel novel.  About 2/3 of the way through, it actually catches up to the end of A Feast for Crows and rejoins some of that novels viewpoint characters. 

As a result, the number of viewpoint characters explodes in this book.  Including the one-off prologue and epilogue characters, there are 18 different viewpoints represented in A Dance With Dragons. While many of them were the characters I’ve known and followed for a decade, Martin also adds some new characters into the mix.  The novel runs the risk of feeling like Martin has let his story diverge too much, but I think that this is the widest point of the narrative.  I fully expect that viewpoint characters will start dropping like flies in The Winds of Winter, as the story begins to focus towards the final resolution.

The chapters are not evenly distributed among the 18 viewpoints, and I’ve separated them into main characters (>=10 chapters), secondary characters (4-7 chapters) and minor characters (<= 3 chapters) for ease of discussion. While some of the characters occasionally overlap in the narrative, each viewpoint character essentially has their own plot.  Since many of the things I want to address are specific to certain viewpoints, I’m breaking the book up into the different viewpoints before giving my overall impressions of the work.

The main characters, which make up the largest part of the story of A Dance With Dragons, are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jon Snow.  Each of them had something climactic happen at the end of A Storm of Swords, and we get to see them deal with the aftermath here.  Daenerys and Jon are faced with the difficulty of ruling the realms they’ve effectively conquered (Meereen and the Wall), and Tyrion finds that the world is even less kind to dwarves when they don’t have rich and powerful fathers.  These were actually three of the most interesting characters, in my opinion, so I really enjoyed the attention they receive in this novel.  

Of the secondary characters, I think my favorite was the addition of Ser Barristan Selmy, an elderly knight-in-exile. I enjoyed reading about his memories almost as much as I appreciated his quiet competence in the face of all the youthful mistakes that have been made throughout the series.  Davos Seaworth makes another appearance here, though I was never particularly interested in his story.  Another new character is a Dornish prince, whose story seemed a little unnecessary, though entertaining.  The last secondary character is known as “Reek” and I found his viewpoint particularly disturbing. Martin has always included a lot of sex and violence in his fantasy series, but the level of physical and sexual degradation and torture crossed the line for me here.  I would recommend not reading these chapters while eating.  The only thing that really made it bearable was the fact that he never describes the acts themselves, only refers to them before or after.  Honestly, if this had been a larger part of the story, or described in more detail, I would probably have stopped reading the book.

As for the minor characters, a few of them were viewpoints from A Feast for Crows,  which joined A Dance With Dragons in the last third of the novel.  Others are surprise chapters from the viewpoint of characters that had been in the background up until now.  There’s a handful of Greyjoys, which I was not too thrilled about.  I’ve never really enjoyed reading about the Greyjoy family.  They’re a little too arrogant, self-absorbed, and pointlessly macho for me.  Also of note are the brief appearances of the Lannister twins, and of the two Stark children, Bran and Arya.  I was never really into Bran’s story, but it takes an interesting direction here.  Arya, well, I love Arya, so I was excited to see her show up again, even if only briefly.

Overall, I was surprised how little presence the Stark family had in this novel.  Things have really changed since A Game of Thrones.  I was also surprised how many minor characters were included, which really slowed down the flow of the narrative.  The main focal points were around King Stannis, at the Wall, and Daenerys, the Dragon Queen.   While I do think the overarching plot moved forward, large segments of the novel were devoted to travelogue-like sequences or the everyday details leaders have to handle.  I think a lot of the travelogue-ing was useful, though, since Martin had not really fleshed out the geography, cultures and history of the Free Cities much before now.  I also noticed how much more into the forefront the supernatural elements of the story are moving.  As winter approaches, it seems that many creatures that were legends in A Game of Thrones are starting to emerge and wreak havoc. 

My major criticism of A Dance With Dragons would be that, despite the fact that the plot does move forward, it still feels like something of a transition and setup book.  It doesn’t really have a particularly satisfying narrative arc in itself, and many of the viewpoint characters’ stories end on awful cliffhangers.  I realize that I am already deeply invested in the adventures of these characters, so this weakness may be more forgivable to me than it would be to others. However, I think that The Winds of Winter is set up to be a really dramatic book, in the vein of Storm of Swords, and I’m looking forward to reading it… in another 5 years or so, I guess!

My Rating: 4/5

A Dance With Dragons continues Martin’s impressive saga, focusing on the difficult paths of Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Daenerys Targaryen, Dragon Queen, and Tyrion Lannister, the grief-stricken fugitive.  In addition to these three viewpoints, it contains 15 more viewpoint characters, resulting in a somewhat slow and diverging story.  The main focus is on the north of Westoros and the Free Cities.  Martin picks up the task of describing the geography, cultures, and history of the Free Cities in a prodigious amount of travelogue-like sequences.  While A Dance With Dragons sometimes feels a little too sprawling, and a little too much like a transitional book, it still delivers many interesting characters and exciting stories.  Furthermore, the supernatural elements are beginning to come more into the forefront as the world creeps closer to the deadly winter.  I expect the story to narrow as main characters die in The Winds of Winter, when the great winter finally arrives.       

Reveiw: The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

Published: Gollancz, 2010

Awards Nominated: British Fantasy Society Award, World Fantasy Award

The Book:

“In the French Pyrenees, a young married couple is buried under a flash avalanche while skiing. Miraculously, Jake and Zoe dig their way out from under the snow-only to discover the world they knew has been overtaken by an eerie and absolute silence. Their hotel is devoid of another living soul. Cell phones and land lines are cut off. An evacuation as sudden and thorough as this leaves Jake and Zoe to face a terrifying situation alone.

They are trapped by the storm, completely isolated, with another catastrophic avalanche threatening to bury them alive . . . again. And as the couple begin to witness unset­tling events neither one can ignore, they are forced to con­front a frightening truth about the silent land they now inhabit.” ~WWend.com

I had never read any Graham Joyce before, though I have heard his name come up from time to time.   When I saw that The Silent Land was up for two awards this year, I decided to read it.  I’m don’t know whether The Silent Land is a particularly good example of Joyce’s body of work or not.

My Thoughts:

I found the idea of the novel interesting, if a little bit familiar.  I felt like there were many directions it could have been taken, but the plot ended up moving along the most well-worn path.  About halfway through the book, it was fairly obvious how everything was going to pan out, and there were not really any more surprises along the way.  There’s a lot of discussion about materialism, living a worthwhile life, and valuing relationships, but I didn’t feel like it ever went anywhere beyond the usual platitudes.  I think it would be entertaining for anyone in the mood for a predictable, sentimental story. 

The main (and just about only) characters, the young upper-middle-class couple Jake and Zoe, seemed very blank to me.  They both had incredibly generic personalities, possibly a deliberate choice to help many readers see themselves in the characters.  I felt like Jake and Zoe would best be described by the majority opinions from a poll of fairly young (late 20s/early 30s) upper-middle-class, childless, western couples on their opinions and relationship problems.  However, what interests me in characters aren’t the opinions they have in common with the majority of their demographic, it's the things, bad or good, that set them apart. 

Information about Jake and Zoe is given through explicit statements or stories, but even these facts don’t always seem to have any affect on their personality or behavior. For instance, Jake states that he’s a veterinarian.  Past his initial statement, this fact is almost never referenced again.  I have a friend who is studying veterinary medicine, and I can think of a handful of quirks he has that are a result (or cause) of his chosen specialty.  Here, the fact that Jake is a vet seems completely irrelevant, as it has no impact on his general characterization.  Most of the book is focused around Jake, Zoe, and their relationship, so my disappointment with their characterization seriously affected how much interest I had in the story.

The writing itself was also not particularly to my taste.  It was very spare in some places, but it tended towards fanciful comparisons in descriptions. As an example, Zoe describes the moon:

“It seemed supernaturally large; like an inflated berry of mistletoe, or a pearly bauble hanging on a Christmas tree.  She gasped. Its light looked milky, liquid, sticky even.  She could easily see the crater shadows on the moon.  It was almost like an unblinking eye, gazing in at her from the clear night sky, remote yet interested.” (p. 111, e-book version)

The number of different comparisons in such a short description makes it seem a little overwrought, to me.  There was a lot of dialogue between Jake and Zoe, but I often felt that their words were very stilted and awkward.  As an example of what I mean, at one point they have the following exchange:

Zoe: “I didn’t hear anything.”

Jake: “I wasn’t imagining it.”

Zoe: “I‘m not saying you did.”

Jake: “I know you’re not saying I did. When I say I’m not imagining things, I’m talking to myself.” (p. 72, e-book version)

That’s pretty representative of the usual way they interact.  It reminded me of how I speak when I’m learning a foreign language, repeating phrases unnecessarily.  I also felt like there was a lot of telling over showing, particularly where Zoe’s and Jake’s emotions were concerned.  The novel was very short, but it still felt a little stretched out to me. I feel like the content of the story might have been better fitted to a shorter fiction format.  

My Rating: 2.5/5

The Silent Land has an interesting premise, but the story ends up following a very well-worn path.  The lead characters, Jake and Zoe, seem such a generic representation of their demographic that it was hard for me to care about them as individuals.   I felt like there was a lot more telling than showing going on in the narrative, and the frequent dialogue between Jake and Zoe seemed strangely stilted.  Overall, I think The Silent Land is a story fitted to specific tastes that just happen to not be mine.  If you feel like reading a bittersweet, sentimental story that offers all of the usual commonplaces about love, relationships, and what really matters in life, then you might find this book to be exactly what you’re looking for.

Review: Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

Published: Grafton, 1993

Awards Won: James Tiptree Jr Award, Lambda Award

Awards Nominated: British Science Fiction Association Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award

The Book:

“Change or die. These are the only options available on the planet Jeep. Centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. Now, generations after the colony has lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit Jeep–and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives. Terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives.

In the face of this crisis, anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrives to test a new vaccine. As she risks death to uncover the women’s biological secret, she finds that she, too, is changing–and realizes that not only has she found a home on Jeep, but that she alone carries the seeds of its destruction. . . .” ~barnesandnoble.com

Ammonite is the August book for the Alphabet Soup Challenge at the Calico Reaction blog.  This is the first book I’ve read by Nicola Griffith, and it is her first novel.  I assumed, from the description and the awards it had won, that Ammonite would explore gender and LGBT themes.  It certainly does that, through the all-female planet of Jeep.  The goal of Ammonite on this count seemed to be to portray women as individuals, and lesbian relationships as simply relationships.

My Thoughts:

I was first impressed with the setting of Ammonite, Grenchstom’s Planet (a.k.a. GP, Jeep). Jeep is a fully realized alien world, though most of its current sentient inhabitants are human.  Griffith’s descriptions of the sights and smells of Jeep, the alien weather, and the strange creatures are so vivid that you can almost close your eyes and imagine yourself there. Aside from the alien setting, the main science fiction elements involved with the story are extreme biofeedback (controlling one’s body on a cellular level) and genetic memory.  I thought it was kind of interesting to see a story based around these concepts, since they don't seem to be particularly popular in fiction these days. Biofeedback abilities and genetic memory are also tied into the Jeep virus, though the science behind the virus comes off as pretty mystical.  Altogether, I found the Jeep “virus” a little frustrating from a hard science point of view, but I eventually just accepted the mysticism and went along for the ride.

The human communities on Jeep are portrayed with just as much attention to detail.  The idea of an all-female society is not a new one to science fiction, but the usual representations of these societies lean heavily on stereotypical ideas of female behavior. In an essay at the end of the novel, Griffith states that she intended to show that an all-female society would still be a society formed of people who cover ‘the entire spectrum of human behavior’.  Jeep has its violent, insular, culture-bound raiding tribes, but it also has peaceful societies based around herding, farming, and/or trade.  The many characters, from the violently delusional Uaithne, to the peaceful traveler Thenike, to the hunter Leifin, show a broad variety of personalities and behavior.

Out of all of the many characters, it struck me as a little odd that there was no discussion of the absence of men. I can accept that the colonists of Jeep would, at this point, not really be able to even conceptualize any discontent with the situation.  After all, there have been no men on Jeep for hundreds of years—they have no idea what men even are, at this point.  However, the abandoned Company representatives, Hannah Danner and her soldiers, were only expecting to be on Jeep for several years.  Being faced with the possibility of spending the rest of their life on Jeep, I would imagine that at least some of the young women would be positively devastated.  The absence of any distress on this count, from anyone, struck me as a little unrealistic.

While I enjoyed reading about many of the characters, I felt like the protagonist, anthropologist Marghe, had a rather bland personality. She didn’t really seem to have any strong convictions or motivations, and seemed to pick up whatever motivation was convenient for the scene at hand.  Since a great deal of the plot concerned Marghe’s journey of self-discovery on Jeep, my lack of a sense of her fundamental character lowered my level of interest in much of the plot.  I preferred reading the brief segments about Danner, the abandoned Company leader who was trying to cope with the possibility of never leaving Jeep.  However, the simplicity of Danner's faceless Company grated on me a little bit.  We’ve all seen this ‘Company’ before, in movies like Fern Gully or Avatar.  Its one principle is profit, and it will predictably follow the path to the most money, even if that path includes genocide. Even with the simplistic dynamics between Company and their abandoned personnel, I found Danner's difficult situation to be much more compelling than Marghe's wanderings.

My Rating: 3/5

Ammonite contains an incredibly detailed alien world described in vivid detail.  The wide varieties of all-female communities on the planet Jeep are complex and mostly believable, though I was a little surprised that no problems arising from the absence of men were addressed.  The future science elements – biofeedback and genetic memory—are not really treated in a scientifically rigorous way, and the reader is expected to accept quite a lot of mysticism.  Though many of the characters were quite compelling, I thought that the main character, Marghe, seemed rather bland and wishy-washy.  Since much of the book focused on her self-discovery, this did seriously affect my enjoyment of the novel.  I was most intrigued by the plight of the abandoned Company personnel, headed by Danner, but a frustratingly small amount of time was spent featuring these characters.  Overall, if you’re willing to accept the premises, Ammonite delivers an interesting story.