Big ol' pre-Dance with Dragons ASOIAF re-read post

Because everyone else seems to be doing it, so why shouldn't I?



OK, so I raced through all the books four years ago and haven't come back to them since, but I thought I had better re-read them all before the new one came out. I can see why I haven't re-read them before, as the books I read over and over tend to fall into the general category of "comfort reading," and these totally don't. (Catelyn's chapters, in particular, are really wrenching the second time through.) Nevertheless, I'm glad that I did it; it's interesting to see how the fake-outs and red herrings get set up (Theon's chapters in ACoK are a particularly good example of this), as well as the little clues to character. (A couple of details that stand out: Sansa and Jeyne Poole get contrasted with each other a lot in the first book, and these are the first hints that Sansa is made of tougher stuff than it might appear; and Shae makes a couple of comments about Lollys that reveal her to be a rather nasty piece of work, although I didn't notice it the first time through.)

(It also did not occur to me the first time through that Jon might be Lyanna's son and not Ned's, although this seems blindingly obvious in retrospect, so maybe I'm not the most observant reader. In my defense, most of the clues come in AGoT, and at that point I was still preoccupied with questions like "Wait, they made Richard III a Woodville by birth? How's that going to work?" -- having not yet realized the books were not that sort of historical fantasy. I'm also not sure it's going to matter that much that Jon is Lyanna's son and not Ned's, since he's presumably illegitimate either way and has in any case voluntarily taken himself out of the game just as Maester Aemon did, and I don't see him going back on that choice.)

I think AFfC is my favorite of the books so far, despite a sad lack of Tyrion. This is partly because I have less of a Dreadful Things Are About To Go Down vibe when I'm reading it (I mean, I'm sure they will go down, but I don't know what they are yet), and partly because it has more political intrigue and less supernatural stuff than the rest. Which means there's a fairly good chance I will like ADwD a lot less, alas. (To be honest, I find both zombies and Dany rather boring, although I'm fine with the fact that she will eventually become queen, and will be rather good at it. Dany, I mean, not one of the zombies. I'd just rather not have to read several thousand pages setting it up.) I think one of my problems with her whole story line is that it feels so foreordained; you know where it's going to end up, even if she didn't run into people making prophesies on a regular basis. (BTW, I really dislike prophecy as an element in fiction. I'd much rather have the illusion that the characters' fates are not predetermined, that their choices matter, even though I know perfectly well that it's an illusion, because, well, duh, it's not a Choose Your Own Adventure book.)

It will, however, be kind of hilarious to see how the Tyrells react when the future monarch turns out to be someone they can't possibly marry off to Margaery. I guess there's always Willas. (I hope we get Margaery's point of view in some of the future books. She's obviously not stupid, and I want to know what she thinks about stuff. I'm also inexplicably fascinated by Roslin Frey, although I'm not betting that she'll ever be more than a bit part and probable cannon fodder.) Maybe I just like the "girls as reluctant pawns" storyline, especially when they have the potential to become players in their own right. I think Sansa is actually a more interesting character than Arya.

I also want SO MUCH to see Sam's adventures at the Citadel. I hope we will. I mean, Martin wouldn't have taken the trouble to send him to the Citadel if important things weren't going to happen there, right?

I think that is all.