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Halfway through ADwD: why can't I finish this book?


Lord Kyle

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ASoIaF is my favorite book series ever. I read through the first three no problem. Heck ASoS is the longest one and I probably read that in like 3 weeks last summer. AFfC took me a little bit longer to finish but I managed. But ADWD, oh my . . .

I don't know what to do. I'm about halfway through the book, on the chapter where Jon is confronted by Ser Axell in the feasting hall. I still find the story interesting but for some reason cannot continue at the same pace as I did before.

Suggestons?

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Yeah... I'm with you. At a section right now with three non-Westeros setting chapters in a row and I'm like zzzzzzzz. Really trying to care, but I just don't. Taking Tyrion out of the mix back in Westeros has made him so boring. I also keep forgetting who people are. Someone says Hugor and forget that's Tyrion. Plus he's Yollo. I'm reading The Windblown Whatever chapter and I seriously can't remember in the middle of it who the heck it's about. I can't keep all the Harzqo mo Yizrrzqo names. Dany is irritating as hell. The only chapters that keep my interest are the Westeros ones, but even Jon's a little boring (but I've always found Jon kind of boring).

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And here I thought I was the only one who had a problem with it! I just thought my lack of interest stemmed from the time span between the previous book and the more recent! Though some of the chapters did drag a bit to me and I had to keep stopping for a second to remember who was who and what the hey was going on! Also, I occasionally find myself referring to the House listings in the back and the maps to make sure I dont have my information confused.

The format was very confusing. Not the traditional sequel, but Martin informing you what was happening to some lesser and prominent characters during what was happening in AFfC. Which I had to keep reminding myself of while I was reading and had to remember the time sequence. Ive finished ADwD (dont worry, no spoilers from me) and may go back and read through the entire series again. Or at least AFfC and see if I connect some dots a little better.

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I did finish ADwD. My husband did not, for the same reasons listed before. You have to push yourself thru the middle section. The last chapters are the most interesting and have good information leading to TWoW. Personally, I think there are way too many pages on Dany in the book, Meereen and the other cities were boring. I'm glad I finished and then re-read the more interesting parts.

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ASoIaF is my favorite book series ever. I read through the first three no problem. Heck ASoS is the longest one and I probably read that in like 3 weeks last summer. AFfC took me a little bit longer to finish but I managed. But ADWD, oh my . . .

I don't know what to do. I'm about halfway through the book, on the chapter where Jon is confronted by Ser Axell in the feasting hall. I still find the story interesting but for some reason cannot continue at the same pace as I did before.

Suggestons?

Push through to the end. Good stuff in last chapters!
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I agree with OP. I have like one last quarter left and I really need to push myself into it. Of course aSoS was easiest and fastest to read, and Feast did have much slower and more difficult pace to keep up with, but it was almost easier to read Feast than Dance for me. Mostly, Jon's chapters are quite interesting for me, and it surprised how much I "like" Theon's (I still think that was one of the worst things in the books, what they've done to him. F-U Ramsay.), and I loved the first Tyrion's chapters with all the Griff thing going on, but I am really superuninerested in Dany screwing a guy with golden tooth or how Tyrion is riding a pig. Asha's chapters are boring as hell and it's just scary what's happening to Arya.

I do push myself to continue reading though, cause it seems it builds up to some sort of epic climax, and I want to be able to read all the forums here without constant worrying. It goes slowly, though, I used to be able read 200 pages per night, and now it's just about two chapters a day, and not even daily.

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I found other books to be a bit tedious compared to this one, which is my favorite by far and away. There are 300 pages left to read, and I wish I was at the book's beginning all over again. I used to have trouble with Jon's chapters, which up until the last book I found to be rather boring. Maybe you are having trouble because different things attract different minds. Yes, please keep on with the book. What happens at Winterfell and with Theon is worth getting over!

(I know many people complained of Brienne's chapters ....)

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I read all 5 books in a heartbeat... Less than 3 months total I think. The boring part like you say was Mereen with all the Pizdar mo Loraq Shizdar Yunkai, etc... They are not that relevant to Westeros, yet they are neccesery for Danaerys and her dragons... they had to grow up somewhere, and you have to understand where she is coming from. From book 4, all those Cersei chapters were also a bit boring, but I read through expecting to reach the chapters for the other characters. All in all, I think even though a chapter may appear boring, it is put there for a reason, for us to grasp something, or to lay the foundations for some event... GRRM constantly re-reads, re-writes his chapters, so I do not see him as a person to waste time and space on irrelevant issues... Now you have Tyrion and Victarion there nearby, they needed to get there, they could not just fly over a continent. Their stories matter. Makes you wonder if Danaerys will ever reach Westeros at all? Maybe she`d go for freing all the slaves of Essos, who knows? Or recreate the Valyrian Empire. She IS Valyrian after all, and she is much closer to her roots than anyone thought she`d be.

I personally think she is yet to pass beneath the shadow in Ashai. To reach west, you must go east. I even believe she might reach that continent Brandon Stark was trying to reach centuries ago. She might even find some northmen there :)That is the beauty of the books, they present you with a new world, and it would not be complete without a tour to some exotic places.

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It isn't about the book being slow or not, we're use to it already, but how George Martin is spreading this novel, with such complexity and a million characters to follow.

I'm certain that, reading the 4th and half of the 5th book, we must have at least 10 more books 'till the end.

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It isn't about the book being slow or not, we're use to it already, but how George Martin is spreading this novel, with such complexity and a million characters to follow.

I'm certain that, reading the 4th and half of the 5th book, we must have at least 10 more books 'till the end.

that would b great except we would hav 2 wait 40 fu#*In yrs.
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I found it better on the re-read but I have no suggestions to help get you through.....cause I flew through it, then read it again cause I enjoyed it so much. I even enjoyed the drifting pace of the essos chapters. Its similar to a dickens book for me. I enjoyed myself reading but if you find it difficult I can only tell ya to suffer on through and finish it cause if your on here all the DwD talk will spoil your reading experience.

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  • 3 months later...

I, too, found it difficult to read, compared to the previous books. I finished ASoS in a week, and AFfC in about ten days, but it took me nearly a month to finish ADwD.

There were days where I didn't have the slightest desire to continue on reading and find out how far the situation in Mereen had advanced, or how the wildlings were settling in on 'The Wall.' However, Reek's chapters, while brutal, were amazing, and the saving grace for me. I fell in love with Theon Greyjoy in this book... and his sister too. Love Asha. And Davos. Infact, I would prefer to just read an entire book set in the North. <3

Yes, the middle chapters are mind-numbingly uneventful. Tyrion is a fun character, and I would gladly read from his PoV in any tale, but his venture with Penny and Jorah from Volantis to the slave camps was still very boring and anti climatic. I was eagerly anticipating the three of them getting to Dany... anybody to get to her, really. Instead, all we got was Prince Frog. Talk about a shaggy dog story. ;)

I didn't feel satisfyed with Arya and Bran either; not enough time spent there.

I really found myself pushing hard to get to the end,

but the last ~quarter/fifth of the book was great. I was reading so fast towards the end, to the point where I stayed awake all night, past the break of dawn, and was squinting and forcing my eyes open by holding my eyelids back, to read the thrilling epilogue.

It's a slow book; basically GRRM just arranging the pieces on the board, preparing for what should be a much more action-packed adventure in 'The Winds of Winter.'

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A Feast for Crows was the only one I had difficulty reading, through the first part. All the introductions to the new characters after having all the built up and well known characters from the first 3 books. At first I didn't know about the story taking place solely in the south as I was really interested in Tyrion after leaving KL.

After I got over that, I found myself liking Dorne and the new players as well as Doran Martell's plot. I also liked reading a lot of the history of Westros being explained during the book as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tell you how I go about this now:

First read i used to skip characters i wasn ' t interested in entirely. As this isn ' t really a good idea (missing out on important information) what i do is read the chapter summary in the wiki and come back to the chapter later, if necessary.

Also you can always skip it until the character is coming up the next time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm new to this group, however I've finished ADwD and I actually found it helpful to intersperse the book with AFfC - this is mainly due to the fact that AFfC was one of my favorites (granted I love each in their own way). Because AFfC and ADwD are intertwined it allowed me to feel more fully immersed. I found the need to due this mainly because I felt I was losing grasp of some of the characters. It helped to get a ways into ADwD and start in on AFfC again and pull the two together to create a fuller picture (at least in my particular mind). All of the advice in this discussion helps, and I completely understand the feelings regarding the chapters on Dany and on Tyrion. I also rather have a hard time with animal death...which is why a lot of my friends have stayed away from the books (which is truly unfortunate). I've offered to warn them regarding specific scenes, so hopefully they will feel safer reading the books because they truly are incredible.

On a separate note I have to say I've never read anything that felt so complete and so fully imagined that I felt like this was a world one could easily live in as I have with ASoIaF. I'd never had much luck with anything in the "fantasy" realm, mainly due to how I felt about the female characters. I give GRRM a ton of credit, the man knows how to write from any perspective, anywhere, anytime!

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