The second wave of reviews are in for George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons and the early verdict is that it's really, really good. Waiting these last few days until the release may literally kill me.
Can't Wait For A Dance With Dragons? Here Are a Few Spoilers
First A Dance with Dragons Review Looks Promising
More Game of Thrones News
But enough about my cold, lifeless carcass! Jace Lacob of The Daily Beast calls ADWD a "masterpiece" that "might also be Martin’s finest work yet." He goes on to say other stuff that you might not want to hear unless you're prepared for a mild sip of spoilerage.
****Now entering mild spoiler territory****
Lacob lays out what to expect in the fifth entry in the A Song of Ice and Fire series: "Within these pages, wars are being fought on numerous fronts: In the north, Jon Snow brokers a deal between the Night’s Watch and the so-called wildlings, hoping to save as many people from the evil of the Others, an ancient race that has awakened after millennia of slumber; Daenerys, having seized several cities and attempted to end the slave trade, is beset by numerous enemies; rebel king Stannis Baratheon, who sees himself as the only legitimate claimant to the Iron Throne, continues his campaign to usurp the crown from the child-king Tommen, the product of an incestuous relationship between golden-haired Cersei and her twin brother Jaime Lannister; and the battle for men’s souls, as well it seems."
Those of you who've read (or reread) the books recently or seen the HBO series may also find another way to appreciate A Dance with Dragons as Lacob says there's a clear and delibrate echo to A Game of Thrones.
"[T]here’s a real sense of coming full circle back to the first novel (A Game of Thrones), with many moments either paying off or paying homage to sequences within the earliest volume in the series, echoing a prophetic line that the prescient and mysterious Quaithe shares with Daenerys. ('To go forward you must go back.') Whether this is intentional on the part of Martin or subconscious—given how fresh HBO’s Game of Thrones is in everyone’s mind, after all—remains to be seen, but it also underscores now impossible it has become to separate the television show’s actors from the characters they play, perhaps even within the mind of the author."
The other review that went online today is from Time's Lev Grossman who writes that in ADWD, George R.R. Martin reaffirms his place as "the American Tolkien." He says that Martin's masterful control of his tale's many plots are the true mark of the book's greatness.
"A Dance with Dragons follows, by my count, eleven major storylines, as well as assorted minor ones, each with its own rhythm, written in its own voice, and each playing off all the others," writes Grossman. "Martin will never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award, but his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today."
There's always been some concern that A Dance with Dragons, the fifth of a planned seven books, would struggle to get the series far enough along that the final two books can carry the many story arcs home. Tor's Jo Walton says that shouldn't be a concern any longer.
"There’s ice here," she writes. "Fire, too. There’s lots of really cool stuff. And there’s evidence that the series is heading towards some kind of actual closure — I was worried that things were opening out and out and nothing was coming back together, but I can see hints of the shape of how it will be coming together."
How are you handling the wait until July 12?
Follow Matt Marquez on Twitter: @mattmarquez
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!