Chezmerelda Springfield, IL, USA

While I love this particular series, my love of it doesn't contribute to my attitude that this is a very good read. George R.R. Martin garners all that on his own, simply through his ability to write phenomenal fiction. I guess what makes this book good and an adequate addition to the series is also what aggravated me a little while reading it. The characters who tell the story in this installment are, for the most part, Martin's "B-Team", the less riveting/memorable folks who still mean just as much in terms of pushing the plot along, but don't hold the reader's attention quite so well. Martin has an amazing way of creating very human, flawed players in his tale, and this is something else that exasperated me at points while reading this book. While it's great and definitely necessary, the realism in each character's development and experiences is painful--Brienne's naivety, Cersei's narcissism, Sansa's empty-headed sense of duty, Asha's arrogance, the list goes on. At the same time that each character obviously displays individual weaknesses, it seems that the only truly strong female character he leaves at this point is Dany, who didn't even appear in this book. One might argue that Arianne Martell rivals the Mother of Dragons, but she seems too hot-headed--and perhaps hot-blooded--to fill those shoes. In a sense, it is almost her very womanliness that is her weakness--despite her ambition, she lets her sexiness and others' expectations of her as a high-born, attractive woman get in her way. Despite my slightly negative musings, this is a great book overall and it served one particular purpose better than all others--whetting my appetite for GRRM's next installment.