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A Dance With Dragons: Part 2 After the Feast (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5) by George R.R. Martin
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About the author
George R.R. Martin
1,510 books121k followersGeorge Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 16, 2025
Please don’t die George.
May 24, 2026
It is at an end. And gods is the potential of this series insane.
So first A Dance with Dragons in a vacuum:
Solid, far more solid than Feast, less meandering. Point of view characters Barristan Selmy and Jon connington are my absolute favourites for the disconnect with how they view themselves and how the world views them.
Men doing terrible things but believing wholly they are good and noble and honourable.
A couple of typos lead me to believe that this book lacked sufficient editing. Made more evidence by numerous info dumps which hurt the narrative no matter how much my little nerd brain is tickled by them.
I reckon Dance had the potential to be the series second best outing, the story at the wall reaches a climax, there's always something that the story is moving towards and when the writing is good. It is exceedingly tasty.
Martin's original plan seems to have been to use Feast as a long prologue into Dance and when read in this way I think the books make more sense. Feast crawled on broken legs so that Dance could limp over the finish line.
As far as the series goes:
A song of ice and fire provides me with so many contradictory feelings that I am forced to say it's incredible.
The world is second to none in fantasy. Instantly recognisable, intensely imagined. A giant, convoluted, grinding machine of a world that operates on a level of complexity and interconnectedness not often seen before or since in the genre. Martin has left hints and symbolism a plenty and you feel smart for noticing something is related to another chapter forty pages prior.
Planetos does the heaviest lift in the story I reckon, but the characters lift nearly the same amount. Only a few characters stand out as somewhat boring. Areo Hotah seems to exist purely to explain Dorne. Damphair to explain the Iron Islands. Where Martin shines is in his secondary characters.
It should say a lot that my least favourite book contains my favourite character. Dick Crabb. Just a salt of the earth, simple fella who seems shadier than he is. I know that guy. I've met him half a hundred times before.
Where Martins work suffers is in the prose. Not always but it swings from perfectly invisible writing to jarring info dumps in the same paragraph. Again I love the info, I'm a giant nerd, but I can't deny I know I'm reading a book in a way that I often don't when reading this series.
For that immersion alone, the series as a whole would be five stars, though none of the books would reach those heights in a vacuum. It will be very upsetting if Martin never finishes this series because it is the most complete world in fantasy.
And just like a world, it's rough in parts but the whole picture is majestic as fuck.
So first A Dance with Dragons in a vacuum:
Solid, far more solid than Feast, less meandering. Point of view characters Barristan Selmy and Jon connington are my absolute favourites for the disconnect with how they view themselves and how the world views them.
Men doing terrible things but believing wholly they are good and noble and honourable.
A couple of typos lead me to believe that this book lacked sufficient editing. Made more evidence by numerous info dumps which hurt the narrative no matter how much my little nerd brain is tickled by them.
I reckon Dance had the potential to be the series second best outing, the story at the wall reaches a climax, there's always something that the story is moving towards and when the writing is good. It is exceedingly tasty.
Martin's original plan seems to have been to use Feast as a long prologue into Dance and when read in this way I think the books make more sense. Feast crawled on broken legs so that Dance could limp over the finish line.
As far as the series goes:
A song of ice and fire provides me with so many contradictory feelings that I am forced to say it's incredible.
The world is second to none in fantasy. Instantly recognisable, intensely imagined. A giant, convoluted, grinding machine of a world that operates on a level of complexity and interconnectedness not often seen before or since in the genre. Martin has left hints and symbolism a plenty and you feel smart for noticing something is related to another chapter forty pages prior.
Planetos does the heaviest lift in the story I reckon, but the characters lift nearly the same amount. Only a few characters stand out as somewhat boring. Areo Hotah seems to exist purely to explain Dorne. Damphair to explain the Iron Islands. Where Martin shines is in his secondary characters.
It should say a lot that my least favourite book contains my favourite character. Dick Crabb. Just a salt of the earth, simple fella who seems shadier than he is. I know that guy. I've met him half a hundred times before.
Where Martins work suffers is in the prose. Not always but it swings from perfectly invisible writing to jarring info dumps in the same paragraph. Again I love the info, I'm a giant nerd, but I can't deny I know I'm reading a book in a way that I often don't when reading this series.
For that immersion alone, the series as a whole would be five stars, though none of the books would reach those heights in a vacuum. It will be very upsetting if Martin never finishes this series because it is the most complete world in fantasy.
And just like a world, it's rough in parts but the whole picture is majestic as fuck.
May 14, 2026
Once again, I have to wait to know the answers to the amazing cliff hangers and storylines that George gave us with this book. The Epilogue alone gave me chills. Winter was always an ominous figure in this universe and now it finally has arrived and we don’t know yet how the characters and the world will react to this relentless enemy. In terms of the Game of Thrones itself, things are even more messy, now with the plot of the alleged Targaryen heir, with the death of Kevan Lannister, so many unanswered questions, but it makes one so eager to wait and read George’s work. He is an amazing writer and takes so much care with all of his characters, even if they are just in the background, so I know that everything will tie itself pretty nicely. I would say that, once again, I am fully excited about this universe and truly in love with it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2026
Ok… so just finished this in time for New Year so I have completed the series (what’s available anyway) in 2025.
Again I’m disappointed! I wanted so much more from this book and considering it was the last one I had high hopes. Maybe I built it up too much.
It just seemed to drag on. There are new characters introduced that I really didn’t see the point of having, Eurons brother for one. His storyline seemed pointless and boring.
I wanted more from the original characters, even their chapters lacked depth for me in this book.
I’ve gave it 3 stars because I’m enjoying the series as a whole but I’m struggling with them now.
I’m worried Martin will drag this out too long that it’ll never get finished or he’ll rush it and make the finish just awful.
I’m so glad I didn’t read these when they were first released, because waiting for over a decade to find a conclusion would kill me!
Crack on Martin and finish the damn books!
Again I’m disappointed! I wanted so much more from this book and considering it was the last one I had high hopes. Maybe I built it up too much.
It just seemed to drag on. There are new characters introduced that I really didn’t see the point of having, Eurons brother for one. His storyline seemed pointless and boring.
I wanted more from the original characters, even their chapters lacked depth for me in this book.
I’ve gave it 3 stars because I’m enjoying the series as a whole but I’m struggling with them now.
I’m worried Martin will drag this out too long that it’ll never get finished or he’ll rush it and make the finish just awful.
I’m so glad I didn’t read these when they were first released, because waiting for over a decade to find a conclusion would kill me!
Crack on Martin and finish the damn books!
October 30, 2024
Quite relieved to have reached the end of these (for now at least). Some characters don’t appear in this book, and some have such a gap between chapters that I’d forgotten how we last left them. I also don’t understand why some of the viewpoint characters have different names associated with their chapters - surely not just to confuse me?! Yet another masterpiece though.
February 23, 2026
A thoroughly gripping addition to ASOIAF. It's just deeply disappointing that the series remains, and will likely always remain, unfinished. Martin has been writing The Winds of Winter for almost 16 years at this point so I think it unlikely he will ever finish the series. This makes it difficult to recommend a book with so many cliff hanger endings.
March 24, 2025
would give 3.5 if i could. Last third of the book really picked up and redeemed it for me. GRR better pull his finger out and get this next book out.
July 8, 2025
I love you GRRM please don't go bald..😕
May 29, 2026
Damn how the tv show butchered these books in the end 🥲
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews