A Dance with Dragons

[oconel]

I finished reading "A Dance with Dragons" a couple of days ago. It was a weird experience because, even though I enjoyed it while I was reading it, when I finally closed the book, I realised I hadn't liked it as much as I had hoped and looking back I felt as if many chapters were just fillers (I like Dorne, but most of the chapters with Dornish people felt like a filler). The book felt to me like just a set up for the next, where the things that happen there could have been solved faster because when the book starts picking a pace is at the end. I think this is because the book is a complement of sorts of the fourth book and sometimes looks like grrm is trying to "fill in the blanks" about things that where mentioned in the previous book.

Also, I felt there were some repetitions in the book like talking about salt and pepper in hair and beards or metioning how the gods don't listen. I think that added a bit to the filler feeling I got.

Now some stuff:
- No, I don't believe Jon is dead (Et tu Brutus?)
- I'd have liked to know more about Bran, Jojen, Meerea and Hodor.
- If Daenerys was pregnant, who was the father? (unless the timeline in my head is pretty messed up she wasn't having sex with anybody three months before the "alleged" miscarriage)
- Did Quentyn story had any kind of purpose except making the reader feel sorry about his (unsurprising) death?
- Bonus points about the real-skin-masks like the one Arya wears.
- Reek was properly creepy.

What were your reactions/thoughts?