[DrRyan]

Originally Posted by Hawk

I hear you, and those aren't even the examples that most annoyed me. The chapter that irritated me the most was the one Jaime chapter in ADWD where the whole chapter is pretty meaningless until the last few paragraphs, and then there's nothing else after that about Jaime in the rest of the book. And the show is no help on this one since it totally changed Jaime's arc. And no Sam chapter annoyed me too, I'm dying to know what is happening at the Citadel since that is so different than the show also.

That being said, like most GRRM's books, ADWD picks up and gets better in the last 1/3 of the book. Part of the problem is that you have also seen the show and so are not really turning the pages with any anticipation of learning what is going to happen next. For books 4 and 5, that is hard because they are longer and can be tedious in spots even if you don't know what's coming next. That is one reason why I'm so disappointed we won't get book 6 before the next season starts on HBO. These books work so much better to me if read first, then watched. Much less of a grind that way.

Hopefully book 6 will be more like book 3 though since all the set up was in Books 4 and 5, so Book 6 is primed to kick off with a ton of action (battle in Mereen, battle in winterfell, all hell breaking loose at castle black, Jaime, Brienne..., Dani and the Dothraki, Cersei trial by battle, night king and white walkers, Arya as a full fledged assassin, etc.) Probably would have been better to eliminate some of the hiking in snow chapters in favor of pushing some of that action into book 5, but at this point, Book 6 sould be a real barn-burner (and hopefully this season of the show as well).

In addition to those story-lines above, we have Jaqen H'agar in disguise at the Citadel as Pate and with a key to every door in the place, while also have Sarella Sand (one of sand snakes) there in disguise as Alleras the Sphinx, plus Marwyn left to go find Dany, and Sam is clueless in the middle of it all. Can't wait to see what is happeneing there. Plus what will Dorne do, they have their fingers in everything at this point once book 5 ends.

To GRRM: Write you bastard, write!!!

...

Just finished the Arya chapter that ends with her waking with her eyesight back. That was the most entertaining chapter in a very long time.

Edit: Done with the last Jon chapter. What. A Disappointment. Especially after having watched the Hardhome episode. No night's king or white walker battle make (almost) finishing the book a let down. If GRRM even does release the next book it certainly is set up to be a good read but I don't have a great deal of faith in that not being a letdown at this point. I'd love to be wrong.