Waiting on Wednesday: The Winds of Winter

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine

The Winds of Winter is the forthcoming sixth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers. Martin intends to resolve these cliffhangers "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."

Why I'm Waiting

 I'm rereading the first two books and then reading the final three and I really do love this series.  I may not be caught up with the books, but I do know what's going on (thanks to the internet and my friends) and I couldn't be more excited to see what happens next!

The Winds of Winter will release whenever George RR Martin finishes writing it, LOL

5 Star Reread Review: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

Author: George RR Martin

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Edition: Leather-bound 

Buy Links: Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

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Rating: 5 Stars

This is technically a reread for me, but it's been two years and I want to seriously finish this series this time.  For the record, I don't watch the show (I mean, I'm trying to catch up but I've seen like three episodes) but I keep pretty up to date by reading detailed summaries and I've read the wikipedia pages for most of the characters in the books, so nothing really catches me off guard when I read these.  Somehow, I still found it extremely enjoyable!

For those who don't know (are you living under a rock?) this series is a sweeping epic fantasy about the events of the land of Westeros.  When A Game of Thrones starts, the Hand of the King has died under strange circumstances, and Eddard Stark, Warden of the North, the king's best friend, has been chosen as the new hand.  Politics swirl around the Stark family while on another continent the only heir's to the previous king (a completely different family than the current ruler) begin to amass an army in order to reclaim their throne.

The first thing I realized upon beginning my reread was how much of a mastery Martin has with words.  He is, for lack of a better term, a Wordsmith and it's beautiful to read what he has written.  Besides loving the story, I had such a good time enjoying the very words and the grammar on each page.  Not unlike poetry, he puts the right words in the right order.

Beyond that, though, are the characters.  My favorite ASOIAF character has and always will be Sansa Stark and I will defend her until my dying day.  Say what you will, she survives in a setting the rest of her family would wither in.  And I think viewers of the show are finally starting to see how badass she really is.  Beyond her, I really love all the character's, though.  Or, if I don't love them, I love to hate them.  There are two exceptions to this rule, and it might surprise people.  Those exceptions are Eddard and Catelyn Stark.  Catelyn waxes and wanes for me- sometimes I really, really like her, but more often than not I can't stand her.  Both of them frustrate me for different reasons.  But in the end?  That frustration is such a powerful emotion I can't help but applaud Martin for creating such deep and intriguing characters such as these that bring out all these emotions.

The story, of course, is phenomenal and sweeping.  How does someone plan ahead and create this sort of thing?  It's unfathomable how rich this world and plot are.  I can't wait to dig into the next one (spoiler alert- I already have) and the next one and the next one.  I hope to finish the series before Winds of Winter (something that seems very, very likely).  Have you read the books?  Do you watch the show?  Who's your favorite character?