A Dance with Dragons
George R.R. Martin, 2011
Fantasy Science fictionTravel & natureContemporary fiction
Exiled and out of gold, Tyrion Lannister crosses the narrow sea into a merchant's manse, where his wit is the only thing he still owns. Wit and memory cut through a heavy, gothic mood, while the pace moves in slow, deliberate strides.
Feels like melancholy and dread. About power and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy political fantasy with many viewpoints, dry humor, and a cold sense of dread. It is a long, bleak installment with graphic violence and sexual cruelty, and several storylines move slowly.
Why read it
It gives you a wide, cold view of power and loyalty, with Tyrion's sharp voice as a grim pleasure.
A page from the book
How a marriage is remembered years later, by the one who paid for it.
A light wind was riffling the waters of the pool below, all around the naked swordsman. It reminded him of how Tysha would riffle his hair during the false spring of their marriage, before he helped his father’s guardsmen rape her. He had been thinking of those guardsmen during his flight, trying to recall how many there had been. You would think he might remember that, but no. A dozen? A score? A hundred? He could not say. They had all been grown men, tall and strong... though all men were tall to a dwarf of thirteen years. Tysha knew their number. Each of them had given her a silver stag, so she would only need to count the coins. A silver for each and a gold for me. His father had insisted that he pay her too. A Lannister always pays his debts. George R.R. Martin.As a boy in Bayonne, New Jersey, Martin charged neighbourhood children pennies to hear his horror stories, and sold his first one for a dime.
Books that feel like this
More by George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows
George R. R. Martin, 2005
After a war of kings, the survivors divide the wreckage—and queens, outlaws and broken men get their turn.
A Clash of Kings
George R. R. Martin, 1998
Five kings claim one throne. In the capital, the cleverest man alive has been handed the job of defending it.
A Storm of Swords
George R.R. Martin, 2000
For the prologue alone: a frozen conspiracy, a migrating people, and a steward sharpening a grudge.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is A Dance with Dragons for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy political fantasy with many viewpoints, dry humor, and a cold sense of dread. It is a long, bleak installment with graphic violence and sexual cruelty, and several storylines move slowly.
- What is A Dance with Dragons like?
- Wit and memory cut through a heavy, gothic mood, while the pace moves in slow, deliberate strides. Feels like melancholy and dread. About power and memory.
- What should I read after A Dance with Dragons?
- If you liked A Dance with Dragons, try The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Douglas Adams) and The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro).
A taste of the feed
What a wall of forty-three pressed flowers can tell you that the police never could.
After putting down the telephone the eighty-two-year-old birthday boy sat for a long time looking at the pretty but meaningless flower whose name he did not yet know. Then he looked up at the wall above his desk. There hung forty-three pressed flowers in their frames. Four rows of ten, and one at the bottom with four. In the top row one was missing from the ninth slot. Desert Snow would be number forty-four.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo · Stieg Larsson
What a race with fifty arms and one terror decides to invent first.
The Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of the time they call the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief, are small blue creatures with more than fifty arms each, who are therefore unique in being the only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe · Douglas Adams
Even in a suicide fantasy, someone still has to make the coffee.
It was miserable, wet-bone March and I was lying in bed thinking about killing myself, a hobby of mine. Indulgent afternoon daydreaming: A shotgun, my mouth, a bang and my head jerking once, twice, blood on the wall. Spatter, splatter. “Did she want to be buried or cremated?” people would ask. “Who should come to the funeral?” And no one would know. The people, whoever they were, would just look at each other’s shoes or shoulders until the silence settled in and then someone would put on a pot of coffee, briskly and with a fair amount of clatter. Coffee goes great with sudden death.
Dark Places · Gillian Flynn
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed