An excellent book as long as you take the time to realize that this book and the previous book happen are roughly the same time. ( )

In the time between my attempt to read this book and eventually giving up because the library was going to fine me for having it too long, I read an entire 13-book series completely unrelated to ASOIAF rather than continue (Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" books, try them, they're amazing).

There are a lot of problems with Martin's books. The sexism, the racism, the sexual assault, the misogyny, the male centricism, the supposedly historically accurate but actually not aspects versus the makes up for it by being fantasy and really sucking at that, the sheer BLOAT of the writing, the slut-shaming, the very, very, bad writing...

This book is often attacked by coincidence of being largely "about" the female characters because they get lots of perspective chapters. It's one of the more hated books in the series even among die-hard fans, from what I understand, probably because a lot of fans are probably sexists. I don't mind it being from Cersei, Brienne, Sansa, Arya's or Dani's perspectives. In fact I LOVE that idea. I care a lot more about the story's female characters than I do about Sam, Jamie, Bran, Davos or really most of the male cast. It's hard to find any of them who actually consider women to be people rather than things to screw, cry, or birth babies and frankly seeing a purportedly "epic fantasy" series (is it though?) from the perspective of some female fantasy stereotypes is far more creative than from some dudebros. But it's Martin. Who can't write women.

I should love Brienne. She's badass and smart and passionate. Except almost EVERY SINGLE page of her perspective involves her reminding us that she is THE UGLIEST THING IN THE WORLD. Forget whatever you thought was the UGLIEST THING and replace it with Brienne LEST YOU FORGET when Martin reminded you just a few paragraphs ago that she is the UGLIEST THING IN THE WORLD. Because of COURSE women only become warriors when they are so TERRIBLY UGLY that no one wants to marry them. That is the ONLY alternative for ugly women. Was it when Brienne was told by her supervising officer whom we're apparently supposed to respect that Brienne deserved to be raped to show her her place that served as the last straw? Was it when Martin convinced people that he could make the term "wench" one of endearment? Was it when Jaimie invaded Brienne's privacy and personal space and explained that she shouldn't care because HE doesn't care, insulting her on multiple levels (lest we forget that Brienne is the UGLIEST creature in existence), throwing the concept of consent under the bus and reminding us that this series is about male centricism and male entitlement and we do or don't do things BECAUSE OF DUDES. I'm all for some enemies to lovers and hatesex, but good grief I saw no reason for Brienne to ever give Jamie the time of day between all his patronizing shite, let alone fall in love with him.

But it was the pagely "I'm so ugly" things that really did it. I have self-image issues. A lot of them. But women have been able to get by since before and after the purported period of time Martin is supposed to be writing about without getting married and without men - not that it was easy, mind you, but they got by - and wanting to be with a guy who cares about you and finds you pretty isn't a sin, I hope you find someone who is WORTHY of you, dear. And we don't think we're so ugly 30 times an hour, let alone a day. If there were more female warriors in the Manliest Rapefestoros to give us a range of characters and diversity because women have been warriors for VARIOUS reasons throughout history then maybe Brienne's CONSTANT self-image issue reminder wouldn't be as completely stupid as it is. But this is Martin and he can't write women so of course there aren't.

And then there's Gilly. The wildling survivor and recently mother from the Incestception family, yet another of Martin's truly brilliant ideas. She's with Sam on his sea voyage with her new baby and guess what, it's not her baby! She left hers behind, to probably get executed. Think about this for a second. This poor woman who has grown up in an abusive household where she doubtless has no comprehension of sex ed, consent, love, friendship, education, human decency or really family, has no usable skills save maybe cooking and cleaning with little to do that with, and has one thing in this world she cares about that makes her happy, which she loses. She's lost her home, any semblance of a family she once had, the life she knew, has no hope for what could happen to her and no idea how to feed herself or her baby without aid and she's stuck on a boat for the first time in a STORM no less with SOMEONE ELSE'S child who's apparently a little monster, knowing her child will die and she can't stop it. Plus everyone she meets probably thinks she's the scum of the Rapefesteros because not only is she the product of incestception, but the father of her child is also probably her father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, great-uncle, and so on. Yet she has the SHEER AUDACITY to CRY about it. Not blab to anyone. Not attack people. CRY. This young woman who has less blood on her hands than any cast member, whose greatest "crime" is leaving behind her own child to die because people she trusted, who knew she lacked education and ability to fight back, told her it was for the greater good.

And the one person she trusts. The one person who has been kind to her (Jon stole her baby, that's hardly a kindness), the one person who she is familiar with in this insane situation, who himself has dealt with various fears and terrors of his own for most of the series and knows what it is to be victimized and in the middle of a horrible situation, thinks she's annoying. And we, thus, find her annoying because Sam is a Good Character. He's this chapter's LOTR reference. He's going to be Great Things is Sam. Gilly should just GET OVER IT and move on, after all, it's for the best. How DARE she be so whiny?

Great job on that one, Martin.

Thinking about Cersei's storyline just gives me a headache. I still care about Sansa. I want good things for her. Her crime is being the same thing as fans of this series: a believer in dragons and princes(ses) and fairy tales and the hope that she could be in the middle of a story one day. Unfortunately her greater crime is being female and a teenage female at that, so unlike other audience stand-ins, she gets screwed in every sense of the term.

Asha's story is disappointing. I love the idea of her - a warrior woman raised to essentially be a bedslave who throws that in the faces of her peers and becomes one of the most badass people to ever badass. I like that her people, unlike the others of her peers, are actually loyal to her because she's fierce and badass and loyal and she's notably LOADS smarter and better as a leader than her pompous brother, but she's a woman so of course her life is shit and she is the only woman among her group to be a fighter and she'll probably get killed off or assaulted and married off to someone before this story ends.

And lastly, the length. The sheer BLOAT of these books. I've read and enjoyed longer books. But those authors made GOOD USE of their length. They packed it with character interactions and interesting politics and good descriptions and plot developments. Not the same repetitive sexual assault, misogyny, pseudo historical accuracy and lack of imagination fantasy. I hear the excuse that "well, he's being historically accurate". No, he's not. The time period he's referencing was not a wall-to-wall rapefest. Women have done everything under the sun and there have been female warriors in all of history. We didn't just spend our time birthing babies, cooking and sleeping between satisfying male partners. Healers, artists, archaeologists, scholars, landowners, nobles... Not just prostitutes and bethrotheds. And at the end of the day WHAT is imaginative about this story that would make it "fantasy" rather than simply fiction? The dragons who seldom if ever appear except as status symbols? The snow zombies who also seldom if ever appear without explanation? The animal possession that is seldom used but also bad? I just don't care. It's a waste of time. There's a point where you realize that when there isn't at least one reference to sexual assault PER PAGE that you're just waiting for it to happen and you wince whenever a man and a woman step into a scene together and you realize that no. Like Sophia McDougall said, I can usually cope with sexual assault, but not as wallpaper. This series is terrible. Goodbye and good riddance. ( )

The plot remains strong and unpredictable. Because you never know when it will be over for a beloved character I keep being afraid when they find themselves in real danger and even when things seem calm I have this sense of looming death. I love these books!



On the ff-leesclub I wrote:

De plot is en blijft ijzersterk. Doordat je nooit weet wanneer het voor iemand is afgelopen blijf je ook echt bang voor geliefde personages als ze weer eens in gevaarlijke situaties komen en zelfs als het rustig lijkt, is het nog spannend want je weet het gewoon nooit!

Ik vind het intrigerend dat aan het begin van het boek het verhaal wordt verteld van Pate. Hij wordt vermoord, maar daarna komt Samwell aan bij the Citadel en daar komt hij een jongen tegen die Pate heet. Dat voelde erg creepy aan. Ik hoop zo dat Samwell er aan het eind van de serie nog is. Het is gewoon een goeie jongen.
( )

Good, not as good as the previous three but still entertaining. Most of the characters chapters were good but Arya's take the cake, as always. Unfortunately there are too few of her and too many of Cersei... ( )

I didn't love the fact that many of my favorite characters were omitted but it was a good read nonetheless. ( )