There are no bad ASOIAF books (A Dance with Dragons review)

Well, we made it: the final (so far) book in the ASOIAF series, a Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin. Although it isn't my new love like a Feast for Crows, I still absolutely enjoyed it and thought it was a great installment. Let me know your thoughts below!

Chapters
00:00 - Rating/overall thoughts
04:09 - Theon
11:08 - Tyrion
16:51 - Jon
19:57 - Stannis/Melisandre/Davos
22:35 - Dany
26:29 - Arya
27:55 - Jaime/Brienne
28:49 - Cersei
30:17 - Kevan
31:24 - Ramsay's Letter
33:24 - Is ADWD off the "deep end"
36:04 - Revisiting my first concerns
38:33 - Series retrospective
41:42 - What's next

Mentioned Channels
@readbykyle3082

Socials

[Bookborn]

UPDATE: I keep getting this comment super frequently: I have already read knight of the seven kingdoms! I did it between asos and feast. The review is in my ASOIAF playlist :)

So full disclosure: I know I said I would start my reread in the fall/winter, but I'm already 80 pages into rereading AGOT ☠I kept trying to start other books and nothing was hitting so REREAD IT IS! I'll probably take a break and do preview chapters this week though too ♥

[luiseduardo]

Now to complete your character arc you need to listen to 10 hour livestreams explaining theories like "tyrek lannister is a horse", "euron is daario" and "roose bolton is a vampire"

[inigo]

Alright George, Bookborn has finally uploaded the review of the last book.
You can stop pretending and publish The Winds of Winter already.

[Andramae]

Hating Theon in ACoK and having your heart broken by him in ADWD is peak George Martin experience 😢

[JackSparrow-gnzn]

Asoiaf got you from "I don't like reading child violence" before book 1 to cheering for "had he lived, he would have grown up to be a Frey" by book 5.
lmao

[keith-c]

My joke is that the The Winds of Winter is perpetually 2 years away: "George has been pretty quiet lately... there's NO WAY he finishes it by next year. The year AFTER though..."

[DrZaius]

The way I look at Theon's chapters is that they kind of scold the readers. As readers we wish punishment onto him, some even a severe and harsh one at that. When we see said punishment done we realize that our wish for revenge just created an even more horrible monster. Because such is the way of revenge - things only get worse.
And the reason I slot in the readers as those wanting revenge is that this isn't what drives Ramsay. It's not him whose wishes for revenge create those horrors, it's our wishes for revenge.

[QuinnTheGM]

Less than the sum of its parts is a fantastic description for Dance. Definitely rated higher in my eyes based on the introduction of the best POV character of all time (Jon Connington).

[joshhunter]

Love how you’ve went from “never reading it, not interested” to full on wearing a House Start shirt 😂😂😂 bigger turnaround that Theon

[foodreviews]

You're right to think the book feels unfinished.

A Dance With Dragons was originally supposed to end with the battles at Meereen and Winterfell. George had already set a publication date for the book as he was writing it. However, the deadline was approaching and he still hadn't finished writing those battles. At this point, the book had already been delayed a bunch of times. So rather than delay it again, he moved those battles to the start of The Winds of Winter, assuming the book would be out a couple years after so it wouldn't be a big deal.

[turtleguyfan]

My favorite line from this book comes from when Jon Con reminisces at Griffin’s Roost about Rhaegar and everything that’s happened so far: “I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.”

[javiermendezperez]

watching you be so excited about ASOIAF has made me want to reread the books myself and I'm already midway clash of kings

[titansfan]

Please give us all the song and ice fire content possible haha. You’re single handedly bringing back the love for song of ice and fire. With the frustration of the show and winds not coming out. Your reviews remind me how good this series is. Might have to do a re-read myself lol.

[aminaa]

The fact that you wanted more at the end for the characters makes sense because George had so many chapters when he was writing dance that he had to cut the book short and added the end of dance to the beginning of winds instead

[MateoLegaspi]

Awesome! I can’t wait for your Winds review in 8 years

[BenJack]

Jaime knighting Brienne (in an episode titled “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” ❤) followed quickly by Podrick singing a hauntingly beautiful version of “Jenny’s Song” was definitely the emotional peak of the last two seasons for me.

[fantasyhaven]

Great video! For me, Dance has some of the best *and* some of the most boring (cough cough, Dany) chapters. Onwards to Winds of Winter... whenever that is 👀

[DrAwesome]

"When the epilogue started with Kevan, I had the thought 'Is George going to kill Kevan?'" IIRC every prologue and epilogue in the series ends with the POV character dying.

[readbykyle]

You are sad that you're done the books, and I'm sad that your first reactions videos are done 🤣 I will always look fondly on this era in a few years when you are doing deep dives about Qhorin Halfhand and Arthur Dayne and doing ranking videos about your favorite lemoncakes. We started from the bottom now we here 💪

[rohan.shieldmaiden]

Yes to Stanning Kevan Lannister! Sadly, Ian Gelder, who played him on the show, just passed away. 😔