A Feast for Crows

It's always kind of sad when books like this one are done. My problem with them is that I always want to hurry through to see what happens but then am sad when there's no more. Mr. Martin's books are like the Harry Potter series in that way. Has Mr. Martin gone too far with his proliferation of story lines and characters, as Professor Bainbridge believes? Maybe. I can at least get where he's coming from. In this book, without spoiling anything, I have difficulty seeing the point of the Brienne thread. To be honest, though, I don't really care. I like his characters and the setting so much that I don't mind the occasional slog. This is also one downside of killing off characters so freely: the new ones you introduce may not be as relevant as the old ones were. My only quibble was with how Mr. Martin split up the book. He chose to tell all the story for half the characters in this book, rather than half the story for all the characters. I would prefer the latter, because I really want to know what's going to happen next, and I'm basically going to have to wait two books to find out. I'll be approaching 40 by that point, given Mr. Martin's schedule. Yikes. On that scary thought, I will conclude by saying that the demise of George R. R. Martin's skills as a storyteller was greatly exaggerated.