A Dance with Dragons

A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

Length: 48 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Dubbed the American Tolkien by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the number-one New York Times best-selling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series - as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again - beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times 3,000 enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone - a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

Enchanted? Check out the rest of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

©2011 George R.R. Martin (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Filled with vividly rendered set pieces, unexpected turnings, assorted cliffhangers and moments of appalling cruelty, A Dance with Dragons is epic fantasy as it should be written: passionate, compelling, convincingly detailed and thoroughly imagined." (The Washington Post)

"Long live George Martin...a literary dervish, enthralled by complicated characters and vivid language, and bursting with the wild vision of the very best tale tellers." (The New York Times)

"One of the best series in the history of fantasy." (Los Angeles Times)

Great

and now we wait for WoW and hopefully DoS is not to far after that.

as always just great

great great great just wish THE S.O.B. WOULD FINISH THE NEXT BOOK,LIKE SERIOUSLY FINISH

Why oh why would u keep letting this guy Roy butcher your masterpiece

Once again Martin smashes all doubts of a letdown and delivers an AMAZING 5th book. This truly is one of the greatest series of all time. My favorite character(s) are not the main ones. Out of those John Snow has always been BY FAR my favorite. But I LOVE the smaller characters. The Viper or Dorn hands down is the greatest character in the whole series. I wish George would let me write a book just about him. He has laid such an amazing foundation I can see his life in my head. Spending his life traveling seeking out the greatest fighters and training his long sword/spear/etc. Crossing the globe finding the most beautiful women and...training his short sword if you get my meaning. Fighting in wars and battles and living for one reason...revenge.

So let’s get to the narrator. Seriously I could win narrator of the universe. Every book on audible is butchered by these worthless narrators. I do not understand why Martin let him read the rest after the first. Maybe he never listened to it. Here is what I would do if given the chance to narrate a series like this. One ASK HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE DAMN NAMES!!! Since George worked closely with HBO I am sure they got the names right. So main characters like BRE-AN (say it with me Roy...BREEE ANN!) of Tarth is NOT Brian! It makes me cringe every time you say it. But what’s even worse though not so ignorant as not getting the name right is the AWFUL accent. You do great when narrating. But you butcher 99% of the voices. Outside of a few old male characters you are atrocious. And you drop in and out of the accents. You change their accents. So what I would do number two...go through the book first. Highlight each character’s speaking parts in different colors. Work on specific accents and voices. Make little girls sound like little girls not like drunk old leprechauns...which is what 90% of the characters sound like. Don’t make high born intelligent characters sound like half wits with a dick in their mouth. Seriously. It takes so much away from this masterpiece.

Why wouldn’t you do those two simple things? How much did you get paid to screw this all up? It seriously sounds like you got the book, started recording as you read it for the first time. If you are not good at voices than DO NOT DO THEM! Go make coffee or flip burgers.

George if you read this seriously give me a shot. I will re do all the books and I bet you sell more. U have a much better range and will put the work in. Not just half ass it like this guy.

So for any of you who read this just understand that you will be distracted from such an amazing story by a shit narrator...

Great Story. Too much unnecessary detail.

The story is compelling and it is easy to become invested in most of the characters. Although there was one character that got a lot of attention, but had zero impact on your rest of the story, and I'm glad they left him out of the show. My main criticism is that Greorge R.R. Martin takes too much time describing unnecessary details. Don't get me wrong, I love it when an author vividly describes the world and events in a way that makes you feel fully immersed in that world. But Martin takes it a bit too far in my opinion. I felt immersed at first, but then it just keeps going, describing less and less significant details. Instead of feeling sucked into the world of the story, I zone out, and then when I focus back on book, 9/10 times I find that I haven't missed anything important

The last book for a long time.

This is probably my second favorite book in A Song of Ice and Fire after Storm of Swords. I feel like the beginning to the midpoint is very strong and a lot of badass moments and misery that is to be expected of the series. This along with book 4 though leaves you hanging, wanting more. It’s all building up to the penultimate book Winds of Winter which is still not seen the light of day. The last few hundred pages I feel suffer from a ton of characters that just aren’t very interesting, they’re not our main characters so the big story is sort of happening I. The background while we focus on a bunch of minor characters. Theon is my favorite POV character and I just love his chapters. They are so dark and he sees a lot of things that slip past his kind but is readers will catch these things and see the importance of them. If you love this series I would suggest reading Fire and Blood, the world of ice and fire book, or the tales of dunk and egg to get more of your GoT fix. You could also watch the show on HBO because the show continues where the books leave off with this being the end of the books so far. So everything in the show after this point is completely made up and not the original authors ideas. They basically sum up the end of the series in a couple of seasons, while George is taking his time coming up with a massive and hopefully satisfying next book. The show will answer some questions, but not all, as there are a lot less characters in the show. I am so curious to see the rest of Aegons conquest and Jon Snows resurrection. I am dying to see what happens at the wall and to see Stannis vs Ramsay which the show ruined.

Much better than the previous installment.

this is a pretty fantastic book. i really hope he finishes the series. or lets someone else do so.

Still Many Questions, but That’s Okay

A Dance with Dragons was a little more of a spread out story than the previous books. Even though this is the 5th of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, it is still good as a stand alone book with proper reminders of past events as told, sometimes, from different perspectives.

Roy Dotrice returns as the narrator with about the same level of performance as in the previous installations. Brienne (of Tarth) is pronounced Bryan. Mr. Dotrice pauses in the middles of many sentences as though it’s the end, and then continues on surprising you that there’s more to say. Characters who had one voice at one section, have a different voice later on. But the performance is still not bad enough to ruin the story, and listening experience.

I recommend a Dance with Dragons for the plain enjoyment of the story, and also for those who watched the Game of Thrones series and would like to know how much different the two are.

Best book in the whole series

Title says it all. Wonderful book! Great performance, outstanding story, very well written. Definitely recommend!

A Masterwork

We will never see the likes of Mr Roy Dotrice again. This man breathed life into Game of Thrones. I loved every second of this book.

Poor Dany’s voice

Another great story with great narration but apparently Dany Targaryen has turned into a squeaky leprechaun.