A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
9.0
Bestselling author George R.R. Martin releases the fifth installment in the Song of Ice and Fire fantasy epic. The long-awaited A Dance with Dragons took six years to write, is over 1,000 pages long and sold more copies on its first day of sales than any other work of fiction this year and appears to be worth the wait.
Buy from: IndieBound | Amazon | Read Excerpt
Critic's Reviews
Reviewer: Bill Sheehan
"Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, “A Dance With Dragons” is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined."
Reviewer: Jeff VanderMeer
"Was “A Dance With Dragons” worth the six-year wait? Absolutely…Having overcome the writerly challenges of a series grown longer than expected — and having survived the well-documented hostility of those readers who have displayed a grotesque sense of entitlement over publication delays — Martin seems poised in the last two books to bring home one of the best series in the history of fantasy."
Reviewer: Megan Wasson
"“A Dance with Dragons” may well be one of the best books in the five-book series so far. Martin’s prose is concise but pithy, begging to be devoured over and over again. All the fans’ favorite characters make an appearance, unlike in the last book. But what truly sets this book above some of the others in the series is Martin’s ability to keep his readers on their toes and the edges of their seats."
Reviewer: Dana Jennings
"Like its predecessors “Dance” has its share of flagons ’n’ dragons, and swords ’n’ sorcerers, but that doesn’t make Mr. Martin the American Tolkien, as some would have it. He’s much better than that…“A Dance With Dragons” meets the high standards set by its four siblings. And like all proper serials it gives the reader no emotional respite, ending with several razor-sharp question marks as the heavy wheels of fate groan into motion, and the murders and assassinations mount."
Reviewer: Lev Grossman
"A Dance with Dragons is not a book for Westeros newbies. If you haven’t started from the beginning you’ll miss out on the richness of Martin’s grand design. Each story has its own rhythm, and is written in its own voice, and plays subtly off each of the others. Martin will never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award, but his skill as an orchestrator of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today."
Reviewer: Ilana Teitelbaum
"…A Dance with Dragons has the feel of a tight, self-contained volume, with strong themes emerging even amid the scattered plotlines of some half-dozen characters…by the end of A Dance with Dragons, breakneck ferocity has returned to the series, and the only words the reader can trust with any certainty are those uttered to a dying man."
Reviewer: Tasha Robinson
"…it’s an immense pleasure to finally slip back into Martin’s thoroughly immersive world. It’s always been a joy to get lost in the flow of his words, even when it’s unclear where they’re leading. And Dragons shows him continuing to develop as a writer: It can be difficult, but it’s richly rewarding..."
Reviewer: Tom Shippey
"The great attraction of the story must lie in its panorama of a medieval kingdom: knights in armor, mercenary “sellswords,” tavern wenches, struggling and striving inhabitants in all forms, from low to high…The interconnections within a fully realized world give the saga its engaging sense of wheels-within-wheels."