My Love/Hate Relationship with ‘A Dance with Dragons’

George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” came into my life when a friend recommended the books to me, shortly after the third volume in the saga, “A Storm of Swords,” was published in 2000. I had my doubts – the cover was awful, and I thought the R.R. was a silly gimmick (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling–great fantasy writers tend to have initials in their names somewhere). I had no faith in the genre after having read a few fantasy novels. I was mainly into fantasy through role-playing games and not the literature. Needless to say I was blown away by these three books.(a dance with dragons)

After finishing “A Storm of Swords” the first long wait began. In the time before the fourth book, I began collecting Ice & Fire-related stuff, like the collectible card game, which sweetened the wait. Finally, in 2005, the fourth book, “A Feast of Crows,” was published, and it was an unexpected and very different book from what had come before. And then began the even longer wait for “A Dance with Dragons.” I hung out on various web forums discussing the books, discussing the wait, reading other books, getting on with my life, but all the time I was impatiently awaiting the fifth book. I dare say no other book has been anticipated with such sweet bitterness; several of the plot lines have been dangling since 2000.

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