Perfect train/bath/Saturday afternoon book. Takes some dedication to get into initially, like the rest of the series. And then it gets you in trouble when you don’t want to do anything else but read it and you are officially engulfed.

I would still be working on it, had some stupid university student not broken the unwritten law of being a decent human being and NOT RECALLING BOOKS THAT ARE OBVIOUSLY FOR PLEASURE READING AND NOT RESEARCH FOR A PAPER. So now I need to pick up a cheap second-hand copy of this, but I can only find it in large print and that just won’t do as a dweller in my purse.

For those who have finished this and are still waiting for the fifth, like George R. R. Martin did, I’d suggest taking a look at Robin Hobb (BEWARE! slight spoiler summaries, if you scroll down). I devoured her trilogy of trilogies when I was in high school and college.

A little dissapointing when compared to the first three books. It doesn’t seem as polished, and could have used a little bit more rigorous editing. And there seem to be some jumps and odd twists or sudden endings in the story-lines. It unfortunate, since the first three were such great books. Makes be a little nervous about the final chapter?

I just hate the occasional “R”-rated junk in the book. It almost seens that Martin forces it into the narrative in order to become a Don Imus of the fantasy world.

The storyline stands by itself. It has no need of the junk that prevent me from recommending it to others.

Just finished this and despite the poor reviews, I enjoyed it. While I enjoyed the character development and secrets unearthed the book lacked an overarching plot. No driving force, no conclusion. If you are into the series, it is a must. If you haven’t read the previous books, or didn’t like them then pass this one by.

Even though the story is still dragging on a bit, I applaud the author’s decision to tell “all” of the story for half of the characters rather than “half” of the story for all the characters. The rest of the characters are going to be covered in the next book. By “all” of the story, in this case, he means a full season (i.e. autumn) rather than just half a season.

I think this is a great idea (Robert Jordan could take a hint from this guy!) since covering too many characters simultaneously simply tends to confuse me. I still think he could have pared down the number of characters even further, but it could have been much, much worse. Otherwise, I am really loving the story, and can’t wait for the next book. (And the one beyond that, which will finally continue some of these characters’ stories!)

It took me forever to consume this, in terms of my usual reading speed!

I think the problem was that the story is often lost in favour of expanding the world view. Thus, character chapters skip over half a dozen plot points, perhaps, and then you have 10 pages of (damn good, but still) scene setting.

As ever, I found my enthusiasm from the end of the last book disappointed by a slow creep through the story, only to be gripped nearer the end. Although I wasn’t entirely sure about Martin’s tendancy to bring in new characters – the Kraken’s daughter, etc – to tell other bits of the wider story, when so much of the current story wasn’t any nearer conclusion.

Also, several characters are ‘lost’ – and it wasn’t until the end that I read the author’s explanation that this is in fact one half of a book, and he’s chosen to tell all of some character’s stories (and by ‘all’ I mean nothing of the sort!) rather than half and half. Roll on A Dance of Dragons!!