Doing a Massive Re-Read

... of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Unfortunately it's turning out rather ass-backwards, since I started with A Feast For Crows and then jumped into the middle of A Clash of Kings to look something up and got sidetracked with that. At this rate, who knows when I'll get to Book 1?

I spent some time browsing various forums to see what thoughts people were having (and to see if there's any new word of when A Dance With Dragons will be out-- there's not-- rats!) I find it interesting that the POVs I like best don't seem to be the popular ones.

For instance the most popular POVs are Jon and Tyrion. While Jon has grown on me, I didn't like how dark Tyrion became in the last book. But I have to say Jaime has become my favorite POV, which came as a surprise in the third book (he took the "Kingslayer," this evil character, and made me like him) and is an example of how good writing trumps all. I could have done without getting inside Cersei's crazy head, though. I loved Dany in the first book, but she has gotten rather arrogant of late. I really enjoyed the Brienne chapters in the latest book. I am a fan of both Arya and Sansa (so naive, but I can't help thinking she's going to go somewhere, and I hope it's somewhere great), whereas most readers appear to only like one of the Stark girls. And lest you say, "Oh you just like the female POVs," I wasn't fond of Catelyn's chapters. People like Davos, but he bores me. Mainly because Stannis bores me, and I don't really care what happens in his storyline.

Apparently Theon's coming back from the dead for the next book. I was a fan of Theon. He was such a little shit, but redeemable. He just made bad choices. I like his sister Asha as well. The rest of the Greyjoys I could care less about. I wish GRRM had just picked one of them to use as a POV, because I thought getting Aeron, Victarion, and Asha in AFFC just needlessly complicated things. It worries me when he gets into these one-off POVs. I'd much rather stick with the same character repeatedly, with the exception of the prologue (the prologues in A Song of Ice and Fire are always told from the perspective of a "red shirt" type character... you know, the nameless guy who's the first one to bite it in a Star Trek episode). I feel the same way about Dorne-- we didn't need Hotah, Arianne, and Arys. This was a departure from previous books, and AFFC did feel a lot more diluted because of it.

Anyway. These are my thoughts. I heart Jaime. Who is not in the next book.

I hate George R.R. Martin.