George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire BOOK Discussion thread-Book 5 out July 12th

Yeah, pretty much no where sells books for cover price other than maybe some small mom & pop box stores--and most of those are long since out of business.

Borders etc. are usually still more expensive than Amazon, but they are still usually 25-40% off cover price on new and recent releases.
 
Almost done with A Clash of Kings. The way GRRM handles the war between the eyes of Davos and Tyrion is just simply amazing. Also, Arya gets more awesome with each passing chapter of hers.
 
I'm about 1/4 of the way through FoC. Pretty unlikely at this point that I'll power through by Monday, unless I spend all of tomorrow reading. I'm actually alright with that though, since I have a cross country flight coming up next Saturday and I won't mind having the book to read.

I'll just have to remember to avoid this thread for a week.. Everyone remember: Use spoiler tags! :D
 
Yes, please everyone use spoiler tags!

I doubt I'll start reading on Tuesday either as I have about a book and a quarter of another series to finish first.
 
That sounds awesome, too bad it's a Gawker link and I'm not willing to allow all scripts on Gawker pages just to see a link. Have an alternate link, perhaps to the original?
 
[quote name='dothog']That sounds awesome, too bad it's a Gawker link and I'm not willing to allow all scripts on Gawker pages just to see a link. Have an alternate link, perhaps to the original?[/QUOTE]Fair enough.

Here's the original page:
http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Gallery/Category/C48/

Other images at that link as well, though the original one that the io9.com article references doesn't appear to load due to a page issue. I uploaded it to Imageshack:

 
Thought it was good enough to share. ;)

The big image for Westeros looks good enough to print for a poster, which a number of people in the original article have asked the artist about.
 
Hmm, for some reason I'd gotten it in to my head that the book was out tomorrow. Glad I checked again before heading to the book store tomorrow.
 
[quote name='bvharris']Hmm, for some reason I'd gotten it in to my head that the book was out tomorrow. Glad I checked again before heading to the book store tomorrow.[/QUOTE]Tomorrow != 07/18/11.

You're good for another week.
 
Looking forward to starting it up--have about 300 pages of another book to finish first though, so it will be a couple more days for me.

I've been skimming over the chapter summaries of the first 4 books on www.towerofthehand.com to refresh my memory as well. Great site, especially if you haven't read the books in a while. I just read them this spring, but my memory sucks for anything but major plot points when it comes to fiction.
 
just got an email from amazon, my book shipped, expected to arrive tomorrow. i swear if it comes early ill drive home on my lunch break and get it.
 
Yeah, my Kindle pre order should download automatically at 3am EST.

I really pushed to finish the other series I was reading by tonight, but I didn't quite make make it. So it will probably be Wednesday or Thursday before I finish it (and skimming the chapter summaries for books 3 and 4 of this) and start this one up. At least I have some good reading to look forward to this weekend!
 
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I promised I would re-read the books before this one got here and I started in march but got busy with other stuff so I'm only about 15% of the way in a ASoS. This will auto-download to the kindle tomorrow and my wife will start reading immediately. We'll see how disciplined I am when I have to read the rest of ASoS along with AFFC.
 
Just got the amazon email that the book shipped and will be delivered tomorrow.

Can't wait to get out of work and start reading.

Just finished AFFC so i'm all caught up now.
 
Why hello there map of the Free Cities...

There was a fairly large group of nerds (myself included) waiting outside Barnes and Noble when it opened at 10.
 
I have DWD but don't have time to read it right now. It's killing me.

I peaked at the table of contents, though, and it looks like quite a party,
lots of Tyrion, Dany, and Jon chapters
.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']Oh crap...yeah don't even google Dacne of Dragons. There are spoilers in basic results. Just had a huge one.[/QUOTE]

Like the one where Hodor becomes King in the North? :D
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']Like the one where Hodor becomes King in the North? :D[/QUOTE]

No I mean where Ned is resurrected, sews his head back on and goes on a rampage of revenge until he finds Catelyn. At which point he says "Baby, you got REAL ugly", as the book ends.
 
spoilers, dont read unless youre past page 169 in Dance

Reek is Theon! I can't believe I feel bad for the guy, after all he's done. All the more reason to hate the Boltons. I wonder what task he's going to do now that he's broken. Obviously they are going to confront the fake Arya, very interested in where his POV goes.

spoilers, dont read unless youre past page 178 in Dance

oh shit, bran is with the children... bad ass dragon warg? i hope so!
 
I heard that
Snape
kills
Dumbledore
in the book. Can anyone confirm? I won't even bother reading if that's the case. He was one of my favorites.
 
[quote name='munch']I heard that
Snape
kills
Dumbledore
in the book. Can anyone confirm? I won't even bother reading if that's the case. He was one of my favorites.[/QUOTE]

It's true. You should find something else to do.
 
[quote name='Hell Monkey']No I mean where Ned is resurrected, sews his head back on and goes on a rampage of revenge until he finds Catelyn. At which point he says "Baby, you got REAL ugly", as the book ends.[/QUOTE]

Pah,
the guy who died at the Baelor was a faceless man, the real Ned is alive and well.
 
Reading book 2 now. Getting interesting, after reading the description of Melisandre I can't wait to see her in the show. Really loving the book anyway, I haven't been this engrossed in a series in a while.
 
I finished up AFFC the other night and finally started on the new one, I'm about 100 pages in so far. Considering I'm on vacation I expect I'll blaze through it pretty fast.
 
I'm about 30% through A Dance with Dragons so far and really loving it thus far.

Definitely an improvement from AFFC to be back with more of our favorite characters and not with the boring sections in Dorne and the Iron Islands.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I'm about 30% through A Dance with Dragons so far and really loving it thus far.

Definitely an improvement from AFFC to be back with more of our favorite characters and not with the boring sections in Dorne and the Iron Islands.[/QUOTE]

I'm a little under half way through. Definitely enjoying it. Are you starting to
hate Dany as much as me? She's a fool, chaining up her dragons, sticking it out in Meereen. I am starting to get really annoyed with her tactics, or lack there of.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']I'm a little under half way through. Definitely enjoying it. Are you starting to
hate Dany as much as me? She's a fool, chaining up her dragons, sticking it out in Meereen. I am starting to get really annoyed with her tactics, or lack there of.
[/QUOTE]

Not really. With the dragons she politically didn't have much of an option. As as for staying in Meereen hard to fault her for being Nobel and not leaving the freed slaves to fall and be enslaved again.

Though really it's all just a way for Martin to keep her there since he has both Tyrion and the Targaryen Prince on their way to her, as well as Prince Doran's son.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']
Definitely an improvement from AFFC to be back with more of our favorite characters and not with the boring sections in Dorne and the Iron Islands.[/QUOTE]

I didn't dislike the idea of those sections in AFFC nearly as much as I disliked how poorly fleshed out they were. It felt like he was trying to tell these whole parallel stories which certainly seemed interesting but there just wasn't any meat to them. If I have one complaint with the series as a whole (and it's a tiny one) it's that at times it has gotten too big for its own good, and it's hard to fully realize all the side plots.

It's definitely nice to be back with Tyrion, Jon, and Dany, though even then it still kind of feels like we're in "moving the chess pieces" mode, which I guess is true for the early parts of most of the books. I've really enjoyed Bran's chapters so far, though Davos has - as always - bored me to tears.

I'm hoping things pick up in the latter half of the book, though I expect they will. Can't wait until Arya shows up again.

My favorite part so far:
Jon going all "he who passes the sentence should swing the sword" on Janos Slynt's head. About damned time. :D
 
[quote name='bvharris']
My favorite part so far:
Jon going all "he who passes the sentence should swing the sword" on Janos Slynt's head. About damned time. :D
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that part was great.
It was really well written to with him reflecting early in the chapter about how Maester Aemon had told him he needed to "kill the boy" within him if he was going to be a leader.
 
My copy of ADWD showed up today in the mail from Borders. Nice to see I'm getting my money's worth with 1000+ pages of book.

Now I just have 3 and 2/3rds of the other books to get through first.
 
Just finished Davos' 3rd chapter:
Ending where he's taken away to be executed. I'm still hoping that's not the case.. As much as I find his character tedious, it's going to be a bit disappointing if his story has played out exactly the same way it was already described third-hand in AFFC. When they said he'd been killed in AFFC, I was like "can't wait to see what sort of trickery this entails!" So I'm still hoping he slips the net somehow.. Though seeing as he's a mostly good/honest character I have low hopes, given how well they tend to fare in this series.
 
I really liked the book the cliff hangers are a bit annoying where who knows how long until the next one. I have to hope it goes a bit faster because I imagine HBO won't want insanely long breaks between the seasons when they catch up.

Also after watching the show I feel like you lost out so much on Ned Stark's character and background by not getting to hear about Lyanna and all his memories he thought aboout.


Also I have to agree with the earlier poster getting tired of Dany.
 
[quote name='Dokstarr']
Also I have to agree with the earlier poster getting tired of Dany.[/QUOTE]

This might just be me, but I've never been overly fond of Dany. Her story, while always far removed from everything else, has at least been interesting in its own right, but I've never found her to be that easy to relate to. Certainly I don't like her as much as Jon or Tyrion, ostensibly the other "main" characters.

But at the same time, the reasons I find her annoying are part of what makes the books so good - none of the characters act like two-dimensional cutouts or always do the things we would do or would expect them to do. More often than not they make idiotic decisions which make no sense even at the time, but you can at least understand in the context of the character and the story why they do those things. If these books were full of people making good decisions they'd be a lot shorter - and a lot more dull.
 
Dany, first half-
I had this impression in my head of Dany being a great leader/general from the ending of ASOS (reading it seven years ago) But during my reread of the first three before ADWD arrived, I was reminded how lucky and childish she was throughout the victories.

I'm glad GRRM is showing her ineptitude in the early parts of ADWD. I was a little pissed about her infatuation with Daario, because it's incredibly stupid, but she's a teenage girl. He's the Justin Bieber of sellswords.
 
[quote name='Quillion']Dany, first half-
I had this impression in my head of Dany being a great leader/general from the ending of ASOS (reading it seven years ago) But during my reread of the first three before ADWD arrived, I was reminded how lucky and childish she was throughout the victories.

I'm glad GRRM is showing her ineptitude in the early parts of ADWD. I was a little pissed about her infatuation with Daario, because it's incredibly stupid, but she's a teenage girl. He's the Justin Bieber of sellswords.
[/QUOTE]

She's definitely showing some nedstarkian levels of naivety so far in the book. :D
 
[quote name='bvharris']
She's definitely showing some nedstarkian levels of naivety so far in the book. :D
[/QUOTE]

I'd say that they're more Robb-Starkian levels of naivety, falling to passions and not listening to good counsel. But I'm 75% of the way through, and her storyline is getting really awesome. I think she'll come around.
 
[quote name='bvharris']Just finished Davos' 3rd chapter:
Ending where he's taken away to be executed. I'm still hoping that's not the case.. As much as I find his character tedious, it's going to be a bit disappointing if his story has played out exactly the same way it was already described third-hand in AFFC. When they said he'd been killed in AFFC, I was like "can't wait to see what sort of trickery this entails!" So I'm still hoping he slips the net somehow.. Though seeing as he's a mostly good/honest character I have low hopes, given how well they tend to fare in this series.
[/QUOTE]

I'm glad my concerns turned out to be unfounded. The chapter where they reveal that he is not dead was not only far better than the average Davos chapter, but also probably my favorite in the book up to that point. I love the political intrigue stuff, and I'm particular pleased that 3 books later someone is finally going to start looking for Bran and Rickon.
 
Maybe it's juts because of the mood I'm in, but reading these books can be kind of depressing. I don't think I've ever read anything where so much horrible stuff happens to so many of the characters.
 
Finished! And Oh My God....

Jon Dies at the End? No. I he's still alive. In fact he's Azor Ahai. Gotta be. Melisandre searched for AA in the flame, but couldn't find Stannis, only saw Snow, it was capitalized for a reason.

Also, Azor Ahai will be reborn amidst a bleeding star, smoke and salt. When Jon was stabbed, Bowen Marsh was crying (salt), his stab wounds were "smoking" in the cold air (odd to say smoking instead of steaming), and the knight that Wun Wun was swinging about like a bloody "morning star", had blue stars on his surcoat as his standard.

It fits too well.
 
finished the book last night.

fuck you george.

[quote name='Quillion']Finished! And Oh My God....

Jon Dies at the End? No. I he's still alive. In fact he's Azor Ahai. Gotta be. Melisandre searched for AA in the flame, but couldn't find Stannis, only saw Snow, it was capitalized for a reason.

Also, Azor Ahai will be reborn amidst a bleeding star, smoke and salt. When Jon was stabbed, Bowen Marsh was crying (salt), his stab wounds were "smoking" in the cold air (odd to say smoking instead of steaming), and the knight that Wun Wun was swinging about like a bloody "morning star", had blue stars on his surcoat as his standard.

It fits too well.
[/QUOTE]

yeah ive already read this online, and i hope its true, otherwise i'll be so mad.

as surprising as that was, how about at the end of the book when
no seriously, this is like the last couple of pages
when Varys murders Kevan Lannister and Maester Pycelle. He said he doesn't want them fixing Cersei's work, which I assume he means fragmenting the kingdom even further. Seems more and more that Varys is working specifically towards restoring the Targaryens to the throne. Until now we've never seen him take such direct methods towards manipulating the kingdom, it was almost sloppy for the spider.
 
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