Miniature review due to absence of Internet and wifi. In fact, only now possible because phone can – sometimes – get some reception…

I teach.

Summer holidays are great times to read.

I expect to get a lot read so I thought this was an apt time for the next instalment of Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series.

It took the whole eight weeks! All of them. Admittedly, having new baby did impinge on reading time but not by that much. And it was a slog!

At his best, reading Martin is like watching chessmen being manoeuvred around a chess board at the pace of the Wars Of The Roses in real time. But this…?

This was like pulling teeth. None of the more engaging characters were present: Jon Snow was absent, Tyrion was absent. And who did we get in their place? Arya was reasonable as a character. But Brienne wandering around aimlessly searching for Sansa needed an editor’s red pen; Sansa herself and Petyr Baelish both needed a slap; and Samwell Tarly. Samwell Tarly. Stop whining and grow a pair!

I am currently in two minds whether to continue with the series, this book was so tedious!

Even in a series where Winter Is Coming is essentially the tag line, I had not expected its pace to be so glacial!