Finished it! Some toughts:
- This is AFFC part II, period. Yet another novel whose only purpouse is to bridge what originally was going to be two trilogies separated by one 5 year gap, and one does have to question if it wouldn't have been better to go with the original plan.
- Also, it confirms two things:
1) That the decision of separating westerosi and meerense POVs was one of the worst things ever. I will gladly pay more money for a properly "director's cut" version when said chapters are properly arranged.
2) The picking of which chapters goes into one book or another seems to be atrociously bad. Have the Cersei chapters would have been on AFFC, said book would have become one bajillion times more awesome (shame! shame on the sinnner!), while I cannot believe how they cut Ayra chapters ("had to restain myself in order to do not write more of these"... WTF Martin?) and the whole Winterfell siege resolution so we can have more of Meerense non - decision taking and Tyrion getting drunk. Jesus.
- That being said, it is true that the whole Meerense knot is a royal plot pain in the arse to resolve. In the end, Martin decided to solve it by adding more elements instead of trimming them. Also, it is kind of disappoining to see that even if he arranges every element necessary in to solve the Meerense knot (Dany taming her dragons, Victarion and the iron fleet conveniently arriving to slaver's bay, the pale mare creeping treatening both sides of the conflict, the historic precedence of the Nymeria mass migration, etc), he decides to postpone its final resolution.
- I cannot belive how the hell they introduce another Tagaryen heir on the 5th book. Is true that it was prophesized, that it is not a last minute deus ex machina, but damn son. So instead of a Targ (Dany) VS Targ (Jon R+L theory) final conflict we might have an Azor Azahi VS Dany VS Gryffyn? Still, that shows that for all the naysayers blabbling about soap operas and Lost comparations, Martin does have a plan. And seeing how the plot kickstarts once he solves the tedious "homework" of Meeren, it seems that glory awaits on the Winds of Winter.
The good:
- I found it pretty great how the two conflicts starts to merge. Albeit Westeros is the main star of the show here, to see how the free cities and Braavos will also joing the fry just adds more epicness to an already inmense scope.
- One does no simply walk out of slavery so eas... well I guess that Tyrion just did it, bitches.
Like a boss.
- The whole Royne backstory and exposition. It was incredibly poetic and evocative
- How Bran and Davos went from shunned characters to stars of the show. Their following chapters are going to be freaking awesome (and we might even see what the hell happened to Rickon and Osha).
- Arya being awesomesauce and outmaneovering the faceless men. I wonder which important figure of Westeros she will have to kill *wink* *wink*
- The whole alliance forging between wildling and northmen shows quite a lot of acumen.
- To see how hilariously brutal the Ironmen are. They are my most despised faction on the game of thrones and a bunch of utter Mary Sues, but I enjoyed the, hum, "clash of cultures" at the slaver bay quite a lot.
-Everything Manderly - related.
The bad:
- How they included a full Valyria map yet they told
nothing about the Valyrian doom other than what we already know (lots of fire 'n stuff n' shit). I thought that a great way to force a mass runaway towards westeros was to start seeing the signs of the Valyria doom appearing into Meeren, but now I am wonder if Martin even considere
- How Jon does every single thing right, while Dany screws every ruling decision, yet in the end is Jon the one who gets the end of the shaft.
- Only one character showing Dany's inhability to properly rule Meeren would have suficed, thank you very much.
- Even if the east is way more fleshed out, the Meerense culture is still painted as in no single virtue could be founded within, I expected more grey, to be honest.
- Penny is a great character, but man did I hate her. I was so, so glad when Tyrion literally slapped sense into her.
- No Howland Reed yet
The future
- It is kind of obvious that Jon is Azor Azai, and that he will probably be reborn, all things considered. But until then, the north is going to be badly fucked up and at the mercy of the Boltons.
- As much as they will try to avoid it, whoever gets in charge of the Night's Watch is going to be involved in Westerosi politics.
- I do think that the whole Quentin's plot existed in order to create enemity between Dany and the Martells, and that it will eventually lead to an split between the two Tagaryen factions instead of a marriage.
- I don't believe that Stannnis is dead, even if his army is destroyed. I find it hard that such a pivotal character would be killed off - screen.
- Braavos will surely be dragged into the fight thenk to the interests of the Iron Bank, while the free cities will get involved as well thanks to the multiple sellswords companies that will intervene on the wars.
- As much as Varys is interested in Cersei getting power so she weakens the kingdom even more, I think that in the end it will get it out of hand (shot of like the US giving support to the Talibans and then backfiring).
Wew, I think that it's all
