"A Feast for Crows" by George R.R.Martin

Halfway trough the fourth part of "A Song of Ice and Fire" - apparently lots of hard-core fans criticised this book because George R.R.Martin had decided to split the story into two parts and several important characters are left for nr.five. So in this book we have no chapters about Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow - however they are present as they are constantly mentioned and people talk about them so its not like they are completely ignored, its just that we don't see their own point of view. Which is fine by me as I always found Daenerys Targaryen chapters a bit plodding - she might be important eventually in a distant future but her story really happens far away on another continent and so far there is nothing really connecting her with main plot.

What I found fascinating here is Martin's writing style - once he made decision to spread story towards even more distant lands (Dorne, Braavos and Iron Islands) he introduces even more characters and descriptions of strange new places and more exotic people are truly inspired, it feels almost like another novel now. At times I think that perhaps the whole idea might be simply too enormous, too complicated to connect the dots but Martin seems to have it all planned and it takes a nonchalant phrase by somebody like cunning Petyr Baelish to convince me that everything goes it should be, that things are not happening randomly but certain shadowy characters actually manipulate everything from behind the scenes. In the aftermath of the war, the whole kingdom is burned and torn apart which we see in the chapters about Brienne of Tarth - at first it seems strange that she gets so much space (feels like she is prominent character in this book) specially considering her story really goes nowhere as she basically search for Sansa Stark unsuccessfully most of the time until we realise she is here to show how the kingdom is all torn apart and destroyed, on her journey Brienne encounters only death, danger and poverty. Even though I have seen TV serial and know what will happen later, I read this book with greatest pleasure every night a chapter or two after work - there are some important differences between novel and TV serial, for one in this book we hear about certain character Lady Stoneheart  who is supposedly a very dangerous new leader of Brotherhood Without Banners and she was not even mentioned in TV serial, also we encounter Lord Randyll Tarly (father of fat Samwell, the cowardly and clumsy son he had sent to The Wall) not to mention other characters from distant lands like brothers who compete for crown of Iron Islands (Victarion and Euron Greyjoy), charismatic priest Aeron Damphair and so many new people and perspectives that occasionally I felt dizzy from sheer wealth of author's fantasy. Just great, it is very exciting once you start digging into it. 

My roommate saw me reading last night and he commented that he can't possibly read anything, he never reads in his entire life. It puts him to sleep, he says. Than again, he can't imagine finishing the day without getting drunk in a bar. To each his own, I guess.