[ADwD Spoilers] Well That Was Disappointing

[Sega AM2]

All the incessant whining sets my teeth on edge, especially when its pretty obvious the author had an incredibly tough time writing this, why bemoan it?

George R R Martin is in the midst of an epic piece of writing and the (so called) fans are slating his work, missing soooooo many points clearly illustrated in this book.

I wonder why he bothers after reading some of the posts here.

The reasons why people here are criticizing ADWD are the exact same reasons why people like GRRM criticized the TV show LOST. GRRM doesn't want to "pull a LOST". It is not whining to point out that his story is meandering on the same level that LOST did in its middle seasons. Hopefully his series doesn't end the same way that LOST does and he can rebound and pull everything together. Did you piss your pants when GRRM called out LOST for having a terrible ending? Should GRRM have been silent with his disdain for that series? Should people only say nice things about each other?

A true fan recognizes when something isn't as good as it could be. They recognize when a team or product or individual is struggling. You think a "true fan" of a sports team lies to himself that a team with a 20-40 record is as good as a team with a 40-20 record? You think if a team wins the championship one year then tanks under .500 the next year that the fans should never criticize the team and pretend that the current product is as good as the years before?

To many people on this board, ADWD is not as good as GRRM's other ASOIAF books. Are their opinions less valid than yours? Are you always right about everything? At least they justify their opinions with rational conversations rather than blindly attacking everyone on the board for having the 'wrong opinion'. Most of the "I was disappointed by ADWD" posts on this board have been well thought out and rational. You seemed to have deliberately ignored all of them so you could drop your immature rant and derail the legitimate critiques of the book and devolve the conversation into a shouting match.

Not everyone thinks this book is good. We expect more of GRRM. We want him to put out the best product that he can. To wow us with every chapter, every page, every word. I wanted ADWD to be as good as ASOS and AGOT. I wanted the words to leap off of the page. I wanted this book to have been impossible to set down. It was not for me and I felt it could have been so much more. I find it more insulting to say that "ADWD is all that GRRM is capable of" rather than "GRRM has the potential to create an even better work". If the quality of ADWD is indicative of what the next two books will be I cannot say I see this series finishing as strongly as it started. But as a fan of the series I hope that the series lives up the promise of its beginnings with the first three books.

[Lannister_Lion]

Please, just for the sake of this thread and others:

It never leads to anything good to complain about whiners. Never. Some people enjoyed the novels more than others. As long as they can reasonably express why their disappointment exists, that's a reasonable discussion. Shouting them down because they don't agree with you makes a whole lot of unpleasantness overall.

There are plenty of threads to discuss why you enjoyed it. Heck, make a thread complaining about the whiners. But don't derail folks who genuinely have criticisms that (largely) GRRM agreed with.

you are right, and rather than a thread about other posters I started one saying I liked it :)

sorry, its 330am and i was tired on posting originally.

I should also realise that reading is subjective and we all get different things from the knowledge we gain, but you know what it means when we recognize an effort we ourselves cant undertake?

Much and more

;)

[Raksha the Demon]

ADWD was most definitely an above average reading experience. The problem was, it falls well below, in my opinion, of the standard GRRM set in the first three books of the series. I admire the realism, the details, the texture of the many characters in ADWD; but I wish he had condensed the story a bit more, trimmed the fat (and I don't mean Lord Manderly's, he was a joy to read about), tightened the plot, skipped Quentyn altogether and had some Harpy agent accidentally free the dragons.

What I enjoyed:

the dragons being big and dangerous now, and Dany's interaction with Drogo

Ser Barristan - official Grandpa Badass! He was credible, tough, and still honorable

The badass banker

Theon's metamorphosis from pathetic whinging torture victim to girl-saving hero

Cersei's walk of shame and subsequent indication that she is not cowed at all

Tyrion seeing the giant turtle - one of the few parts of his travels I liked

Arya's arc was effective, but sad to read

What I did not enjoy:

Melisandre's burning people alive - can we not be treated to that spectacle for awhile please? Maybe Melisandre will sacrifice Stannis; so he'll see how it feels.

Victarion's journey - the guy isn't happy unless he's killing people, usually innocent people. He should hook up with Melisandre. Maybe they well. Hopefully they'll kill each other.

Tyrion's experience as a slave - aside from his trying to sell himself at the auction, which was kind of funny, it dragged. He should have met Dany in this book. And the poor guy didn't even get to see Drogon flying over the arena...

Dany juggling Mereenese politics and not doing too well at it. Boring.

Quentyn Martell's appearances. Tepid. Then grilled, poor guy.

Bran finds the remnants of The Children and they want to attach him to a tree?

[Lannister_Lion]

C'mon, dude. Ever criticized a professional athlete, in any sport? A professional musician or actor or artist of any kind? A politician? Given the overwhelming odds that you do none of those things professionally, by your logic there you'd have to refrain from critiquing them in any way. Doesn't seem like life works that way, fortunately for conversation and the ability of all to have opinions.

Um ya got me there.

In fairness I am tired and have apologised, I had to respond to this as your argument is flawless.

Nice.

To a poster above though; GRRM complained about the ending of LOST? Wow he waited that long, hey.

I wrote a letter of complaint to the channel airing it after the 2nd episode due to its utter banality, wooden acting and drivel for script.

[Raksha the Demon]

The reasons why people here are criticizing ADWD are the exact same reasons why people like GRRM criticized the TV show LOST. GRRM doesn't want to "pull a LOST". It is not whining to point out that his story is meandering on the same level that LOST did in its middle seasons. Hopefully his series doesn't end the same way that LOST does and he can rebound and pull everything together. Did you piss your pants when GRRM called out LOST for having a terrible ending? Should GRRM have been silent with his disdain for that series? Should people only say nice things about each other?

A true fan recognizes when something isn't as good as it could be. They recognize when a team or product or individual is struggling. You think a "true fan" of a sports team lies to himself that a team with a 20-40 record is as good as a team with a 40-20 record? You think if a team wins the championship one year then tanks under .500 the next year that the fans should never criticize the team and pretend that the current product is as good as the years before?

To many people on this board, ADWD is not as good as GRRM's other ASOIAF books. Are their opinions less valid than yours? Are you always right about everything? At least they justify their opinions with rational conversations rather than blindly attacking everyone on the board for having the 'wrong opinion'. Most of the "I was disappointed by ADWD" posts on this board have been well thought out and rational. You seemed to have deliberately ignored all of them so you could drop your immature rant and derail the legitimate critiques of the book and devolve the conversation into a shouting match.

Not everyone thinks this book is good. We expect more of GRRM. We want him to put out the best product that he can. To wow us with every chapter, every page, every word. I wanted ADWD to be as good as ASOS and AGOT. I wanted the words to leap off of the page. I wanted this book to have been impossible to set down. It was not for me and I felt it could have been so much more. I find it more insulting to say that "ADWD is all that GRRM is capable of" rather than "GRRM has the potential to create an even better work". If the quality of ADWD is indicative of what the next two books will be I cannot say I see this series finishing as strongly as it started. But as a fan of the series I hope that the series lives up the promise of its beginnings with the first three books.

Exactly! Especially the comparisons to Lost, which started out as a bang-up adventure with some weird fringe elements, and the writers kept expanding the cast and convoluting the plot until I honestly couldn't follow it; and the last season made very little sense to me. I can only hope that GRRM, who is a magnificently talented writer, can find the mojo again and pack it into the next few books.

[Reggie]

All the incessant whining sets my teeth on edge, especially when its pretty obvious the author had an incredibly tough time writing this, why bemoan it?

George R R Martin is in the midst of an epic piece of writing and the (so called) fans are slating his work, missing soooooo many points clearly illustrated in this book.

I wonder why he bothers after reading some of the posts here.

and some of us had a tough time reading it.

GRRM standard for fan expectations with the first three books. the last two have failed to meet that standard. after feast, many fans were expecting a return to the page turning story we had come to love. dragons was better, but not even close to the first three.

[Lannister_Lion]

and some of us had a tough time reading it.

GRRM standard for fan expectations with the first three books. the last two have failed to meet that standard. after feast, many fans were expecting a return to the page turning story we had come to love. dragons was better, but not even close to the first three.

Agreed. It really wasnt an easy read - although I found a lot to like within the pages throughout all the chapters.

And one last sorry to anyone that felt any offence at my original post.

[LAJN]

The reasons why people here are criticizing ADWD are the exact same reasons why people like GRRM criticized the TV show LOST. GRRM doesn't want to "pull a LOST". It is not whining to point out that his story is meandering on the same level that LOST did in its middle seasons. Hopefully his series doesn't end the same way that LOST does and he can rebound and pull everything together. Did you piss your pants when GRRM called out LOST for having a terrible ending? Should GRRM have been silent with his disdain for that series? Should people only say nice things about each other?

A true fan recognizes when something isn't as good as it could be. They recognize when a team or product or individual is struggling. You think a "true fan" of a sports team lies to himself that a team with a 20-40 record is as good as a team with a 40-20 record? You think if a team wins the championship one year then tanks under .500 the next year that the fans should never criticize the team and pretend that the current product is as good as the years before?

To many people on this board, ADWD is not as good as GRRM's other ASOIAF books. Are their opinions less valid than yours? Are you always right about everything? At least they justify their opinions with rational conversations rather than blindly attacking everyone on the board for having the 'wrong opinion'. Most of the "I was disappointed by ADWD" posts on this board have been well thought out and rational. You seemed to have deliberately ignored all of them so you could drop your immature rant and derail the legitimate critiques of the book and devolve the conversation into a shouting match.

Not everyone thinks this book is good. We expect more of GRRM. We want him to put out the best product that he can. To wow us with every chapter, every page, every word. I wanted ADWD to be as good as ASOS and AGOT. I wanted the words to leap off of the page. I wanted this book to have been impossible to set down. It was not for me and I felt it could have been so much more. I find it more insulting to say that "ADWD is all that GRRM is capable of" rather than "GRRM has the potential to create an even better work". If the quality of ADWD is indicative of what the next two books will be I cannot say I see this series finishing as strongly as it started. But as a fan of the series I hope that the series lives up the promise of its beginnings with the first three books.

I think the main problem with the last two books are not the quality of the writing, the characters or the story itself.

The problem is the flow, pacing and organization of the story. The delays were caused by Martin having too much story, too many characters to deal with and figuring out how to arrange the chapters in the optimal way.

The story has taken a mind of its own for some time now, since the beginning actually. The first book in the series became three, and so on from there. Perhaps a variety of chapter arrangements from Feast and Dance would please everyone depending on which part of the story they were most interested in. Unfortunately there's only one book and unless you like every character equally then you'll probably be less interested in some chapters than others. In fact even if you do, the story is still harsh to read because characters are being steadily killed off.

So really, I agree the problem does begin to look similar to what happened with LOST. The difference is that GRRM simply has so much material that it appears that way. I don't doubt for a second that he knows exactly where the story's going.

[Original Ned's Bones]

I'm in the minority who actually loved this book. My one complaint is similar to everyone else's, where AFFC felt like 2/3 of a book, ADWD felt like 3/4 or 7/8.

Here's what I liked:

The North Remembers - Not everyone has forgot the Starks, and if you read the writing on the wall, the Boltons are doomed. I don't buy Reek's letter for a minute (another discussion thread). So all the complaints of Stannis or even the main battle being off screne, I don't believe are valid. Everyone hating on Lady Dustin should read her chapters more closely. She may harbor some anger towards Ned, but most of it is all bullshit. She was in those crypts to varify Wat and Manderly's proclamation that the Stark boys are still alive. After all the bleakness of the Red Wedding, this is the book that shows the North is still alive, and the Wolves will return, and the great houses of the North and clans are ready.

The Settings - The Sisters, White Harbor, Blood Raven's "tree-house", Tyrion's river (forgot the name) and all the ruins, Volantis, Griffin's Roost, the weirwood of Blackwood.

Jon - I've been pretty anti-Jon (biggest benefactor of plot device) and generally bored with any wildling chapters, but Jon is a badass as Lord Commander, I liked watching him in action. He seems to have a lot of Ned's honor, but he also seems less afraid to make decisions that could be a little less honorable, but for the greater good. I cheered during the Slynt chapter. I'm not sure if Jon's decision to head south seemed out of character or not, having his sister (or who he thought was his sister) die alone in the snow seemed to be the straw that broke the cammel's back, and even though it was foolish to take Ramsay's bait, I thought it was kind of badass for him to want to take him on.

Dany - Dany's Mary-Sue persona finally gets stripped. I actually like Dany, although I don't necessarily want her to win the Iron Throne. She has been through a lot, so I'll pull for her to have a good fate. However, I like the fact she is shown to be human, and her actions from ASOS (which I loved) had real consequences. She basically started a world war. I didn't want a book of her trying to tame Mereen, but we got one. I do like that it didn't come easy, in fact she has pretty much failed. You want her to spend time training dragons? How? She has no clue how to. She shouldn't have chained them up? Maybe not, but would it have been better for her if more burnt bodies of children kept getting delivered to her? She's in a no-win situation and needs help. This isn't a statement against the female ruler, all players for the throne need help through counsel, alliances, and marriages. I hate Dario with a passion, but I feel like everyone being pissed at her for faughning over him, is exactly what you're supposed to feel. Personally, I'm hoping the 6 trebuchets launched the 6 hostages, Dario included.

Tyrion - I actually liked his chapters on the river. Great revelations (more on that in the Griff section), typical Tyrion interaction and wit. I didn't enjoy his Penny chapters so much. As said by others, I think we needed to see him hit bottom, and start to come out of it. Still interested to see if he will have any decent motivations, or is he completely lost to revenge. So I guess Tyrion is going to convince the Second Sons to go over to Dany. I didn't like that we didn't get to see him make it to Dany, but I'm also glad that it won't be as easy as him walking into her pyramid and saying "I'm a clever dwarf, and I know a shit-load about Dragons, convenient eh?"

Bran - Absolutely loved the revelation of Bloodraven being the 3-eyed crow. This might be a little less satisfactory for people who haven't read the Dunk and Egg stories. Bran's fate is a bit scary now, if he's going to live his life hardwired to the weirwoods. Loved seeing the children of the forest, and liked the explanation of the weirwoods.

Theon - I've always been a fan of Theon chapters so I was looking forward to these. First off, it was never implied that he was dead...moving on - His life as Reek is absolutely horifying. I'm looking forward to him confessing to Bran and Rickon's fate, and interested to see if he'll gain the iron islands with Asha backing him. Seems a pretty difficult task. After killing the miller boys, he still deserves to die, but maybe he can do a little good first.

Davos - Great chapters that confirmed Manderly's alegiance to the Starks. His new smugglers mission gave me the chills. Here's hoping it doesn't take a full book to accomplish it, I would rather he arrives in someone else's POV, with Rickon in tow (in fact I was hoping for it by the end of ADWD).

Quentyn - Maybe I got suckered, but I liked this guy. I thought we had an honorable character in the making, and I like how we're never given a real description of him, so when he arrives, Dany is disappointed. I was rooting for this poor dude, and when he tried to get the dragon, I was really hoping it was going to work. So yes, I was suckered, and I found it to be a nice twist that Dorn's mission failed and he died. I can understand why a lot complain that it was a waste, but I like having to guess what plans will work, and what won't.

Cersei - I liked her walk of shame, and I'm glad we get to see "Robert Strong". This chapter could have been in AFFC though, despite the news Kevan shared with her.

Victirion - Probably could have been wrapped up cleaner, but I liked his chapters, and dig his new charred, smoking hand of badassness.

Asha - I was bugged by her chapters in Feast but liked them in Dance. I liked her little revelation that she can challenge the results of the moot, since Theon wasn't there.

Jaime - Probably wasn't necessary, but I liked the setting, and I would have been pissed if we still didn't know Brienne's fate. I guess we know she said "sword!".

Griff - Jon Connington, his exile, and possible whereabouts has been talked about numerous times in the first 3 books, so saying this was out of the blue is not accurate. The surprise for me was that he has Aegon, as opposed to another Blackfyre descendent hiding in the Golden Company. People have been predicting this for quite awhile, and Martin layed the foundation for this. I don't know if Young Griff is the real Aegon or not, but I like what he's all about. I was excited to read about this and was pulling for a confrontation with Dany, thus "A Dance With Dragons". It was still a dance, but we were dancing with them and they weren't dancing together. I liked the Westeros landing chapters as well.

What I didn't like:

Both Dance and Feast needed to be edited more. He is starting to repeat a lot of things. The phrase that stuck out to me the most was "Words are wind". Things could be tightened up to move the plot along. As much as I loved this book, it was refreshing when a character could get from point A to point B in 1 chapter. For me, it was the last third that dragged, especially with the Dany, Tryion, and Jon chapters.

3/4 completed, cliffhangers. I get annoyed by cliffhangers too, especially when you have to wait 3-6 years for the next book. I think the poster that talked about the completion of character arcs has a valid point though. Still, it kind of sucks to have 2 books in a row where the plot arcs aren't tied up. Jon's in particular seemed like he's playing with the readers. The AA theory sounds pretty solid, so I guess I can understand the cut there. I just hope he isn't stuck in Ghost, or becomes some sort of zombie. Blah.

The Mereenese plot is a mess. Turns upon turns upon turns. Not sure how this going to be resolved, other than leaving it in complete chaos.

[Raksha the Demon]

I forgot to mention that the reunion of Brienne and Jaime seemed totally bloodless and underwhelming. Of course, she's leading him to his death, or trying to, to fulfill the promise she evidently had to make to Lady Stoneheart. I do wonder whether Brienne looked so bad because she was unhappy, or had been vivified after being hung....Will we ever know what word she shouted?

[modehead]

Count me in the "this book kinda sucked" camp.

I loved loved reading about Jon beheading Janos Slynth

I loved Arya's first chapter

The rest... meh. Dany is not a likable character at all.

"Winter is coming", "the north remembers", and then this? Not impressed.

[Sword of the Morning]

George Martin has gone on record that plot advancement is merely one of the things he hopes to achieve with his writing. It is important yes but just as important is the goal of drawing in the reader, of giving the reader an experience that is unforgettable, of creating an atmosphere that makes you feel you are living that world.

He has gone on record stating that he wants people not to remember reading a book but experiencing an adventure.

And that's all to the well and good.

The problem here is that there needs to be a BALANCE and I think that Feast and Dance are too heavy on the "atmosphere" and "experiencing" side and not quite enough on the plot progression side. Sure you've drawn me into your world George, but 11 years and 1000 pages later are we still sipping tea in Meereen? After I wake up from that experience, I'm going to remember we haven't moved any and that's a bitter pill to swallow.

I'm really hoping the last two books he can "draw us in" by giving us some kick ass climaxes and solid exposition that tells us what the fuck is going on with the Others so we can see some sort of resolution in the decade ahead . . .

[siyrean]

my thoughts on finishing the book: Martin needs to fire his editor.

[The Stranger]

truth be told, I think that Feast is a better 'mood' book than Dance, just because it picks up immediately from where the third book ends, and gives us an uncompromising look at the underbelly of Rob and Tywin's cut lil' war. moreover, it doesn't pull any punches through distractions of exoticism like Dance does. the Wall is a big, familiar world that commands our attention--it's at the root of the horror-element of the series, and needs to be cultivated along those lines. Slaver's Bay...well, who really fucking cares what happens in a place like that? the only possible benefit of such an area would be interacting with the physical ruins of Valyria, but no. not where the story has gone. Sad Panda.

[Ser Pistus]

Slaver's Bay...well, who really fucking cares what happens in a place like that?

I do not agree here. I am not a big fan of Meereen, but there are quite a few people there I do care about. I'm much more interested in Dany, Barristan, Missandei, Grey Worm and Strong Belwas than in Cersei, Orton Merryweather, Harys Swift and Gyles Rosby. For me, Feast's Cersei chapters were the low part of the series. Plus the Jaime chapters plus the Brienne chapters. In my eyes, Feast was much worse than Dance.

[MattTaz]

having a few days to think about it i still think the book was disappointing and have to agree that the editor needs

a good kick up the bum

perhaps george is going through a 'george lucas phase' where all the people around him say 'yeah that sounds good'

even though its crap, and just because the first 3 books were great.

But I think reading his blog through the years and knowing he started this series 17 years ago I have to say that the

guy is fed up doing this job and would rather be doing something else. And i dont actually blame him for this.

17 years is a long time doing the same thing.

As GRRM said he wont start the next book for another 6 months seems to say a lot.

[iamthedave]

I think part of the reason people are annoyed is that so much just wasn't revealed when there's no good reason. I appreciated that Martin addressed some of those huge cliffhangers, but the way he did it wasn't very helpful. The Brienne cliffhanger was addressed in such a way that it answered almost none of the actual questions people had about her 'ending'. What was her word? What did she agree to do? WHY did she agree? Did she decide her oath is binding after all, or is she just trying to save Pod? And most importantly, is it likely the brotherhood will just kill her anyway?

We know she's alive, but most of us figured that much already. Though now we know Jaime's in their hands too.

Barristan somehow manages to reveal nothing interesting about Dany's family.

Tyrion never meets Dany, so one of the most interesting potential conflicts just doesn't happen.

Despite Jon being so central to the plot, his parentage is not addressed in a definitive way, even though again it should have been. Barristan is with Dany (and Dany said she wanted to know about her father and Rhaegar before this book).

Dany never has to come to terms with the fact her father was a madman and the war of the seven kingdoms was all her family's fault.

Dany's chapters are also very much 'your mileage may vary', and even the people who liked the book overall have admitted they were slow and/or a little boring. I've not seen anyone say they absolutely loved the Dany plot arc.

I think it's this which makes it disappointing. Given its position in the series, ADWD was constrained from resolving -too- much. But it had the potential for lots of character drama and personal revelations, and it shies away from almost all of the ones it teases.

On the bright side it has Theon, so it's not all a loss :D

[Happy Ent]

truth be told, I think that Feast is a better 'mood' book than Dance, […]

To expand on that: I think this has to do with verisimilitude.

When Martin writes about his faux-medieval knightly Westeros, or the surrounding cultures (North, Iron Islands, Dorne), his setting oozes. It’s richly textured, exciting. I really care about whose second uncles’s bastard daughter may have kissed some singer at a tourney 200 leagues away. Names, history, customs, heraldry. It all clicks.

But the East? It never worked for me. Not in Game, not now. It’s fake, with fake economies, fake cultures, fake eeevil cardboard characters that only act as foils for the Real People (i.e., those from Westeros). I simply don’t care.

Why? Does GRRM write the East less well? Or is it my own cultural heritage of having been exposed to faux-medieval storytelling for so long? (Because GRRM’s Westeros doesn’t really work either – economies, politics, seasons: it’s all fake. But it works for me.)

And now we have a book with hundreds of pages set in this unappealing setting. The Essosi characters have not much improved in depth, either, or maybe I just have my Hizkoor’s confused. And don’t know why I feel this. Ramsay is a caricature, too.

But whenever GRRM is “back” on Westeros in Dance, everything works again, for me. This is one reason why I think I liked Feast more: more chapters in Westeros. The other is that Feast had the Brienne chapters, which I think are the thematically most ambitious, and emotionally most punchy in the series so far. There’s nothing like that in Dance, except maybe Quentin’s arc.

—

What I liked a lot: Dany and Jon have become much more interesting.

The biggest negative consequence of the POV split (which I otherwise think is a good idea, seeing not both books) is that we would have seen two queens (Cersei and Dany) losing control. They have interesting differences (Dany being kind, for example), but also similarities (Aurane Waters and Daario).

[tarantella]

Tyrion never meets Dany, so one of the most interesting potential conflicts just doesn't happen.

This was a big disappointment. I was really expecting a Tyrion/Dany meeting, wondering how that would go down.

Dany never has to come to terms with the fact her father was a madman and the war of the seven kingdoms was all her family's fault.

This is what made me sour partly on Dany's chapters. Yeah, she's maybe gotten a little more mature. She knows how to act regal, how to play the judge and deal with difficult situations in the scenes where she's holding court. But we already more or less knew that stuff. Dany still hasn't accepted that her father was insane and that it was probably his fault he got overthrown. Her reaction to Ned Stark's death was especially rageworthy - "he died a traitor's death". Yeah, the fact that your insane father burned his father and brother alive had nothing to do with his rebelling. No, Aerys was the true king by blood and I'm his heir blah blah blah etc.

I don't think Dany will ever be fit to rule. I'd back Aegon over her, fake or no. If he's not a true Targaryen it might be even better, because then he won't have the batshit crazy gene at least half of the Targs seem to have - possibly including Dany.

[dreamcatcher]

I think what George failed to do is interact his main characters. We were all waiting for Tyrion to meet Dany, and that went down the drain. His chapters (although few) with Aegon and Jon C. were better than his chapters with Penny and brooding Mormont.

For example, 300 pages of Dany/Jon/Tyrion/Aegon/Theon sailing somewhere and chatting with Dany/Jon/Tyrion/Aegon/Theon would be far more interesting (for me, at least) than 300 pages of descriptions of the situation in Meereen, or Dany interacting with people most of us don't really care about.

But I still loved the book, however tedious the Meereen chapters were. Waited too long for it, so it was nice to just read.

Just my tuppence. :)