A Dance with Dragons, the most recent book in George R.R. Martin's hefty A Song of Ice and Fire series, offers the most extensive plot in the series by far. The fifth installment in the seven-book fantasy epic, A Dance with Dragons topped bestseller lists for weeks, continuing Martin's reign as perhaps the greatest U.S. fantasy writer of the 21st century.
In an era in which fantasy has been dominated by sparkly vampires and seductive werewolves, A Song of Ice and Fire is decidedly unromantic, focusing on the gritty details of dirty politics and featuring a motley cast of characters which range from seductive sorceresses to deformed dwarves. Martin also gives the genre of Tolkien-esque fantasy an updated twist, expanding on the scope and sweep of an entirely imagined world and straying far from the simple "good vs. evil" plotline which The Lord of the Rings embraced. In A Dance With Dragons, as with the rest of the series, no character is safe from Martin's bloodlust, regardless of whether his cloak is white or black, as the novel follows the bounty of characters which have been present throughout the series.
As a matter of fact, the man in black is one of the main protagonists. He is the bastard-born outcast Jon Snow, who is among the youngest men to become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the brotherhood which protects the realms of men. Although the cast is predominantly male, this series stands out from traditional fantasy fare in that its most powerful character is a woman: Daenerys Targaryen. Dany, the Dragon Queen, owns the only three dragons in the world. Both good and evil characters seek her out in this installment, and some take up the challenge to dance with the dragon as suitors for her hand in marriage.
My favorite character, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister, falls in with a gang masquerading as traders, whose true identities disrupt the power struggle in the land of Westeros in a major way. Tyrion, the consummate underdog, is back in this book after a low-key role in the series' previous book, A Feast For Crows. But no one viewpoint can capture what makes the series so captivating: its strong cast of characters.
All in all, A Dance with Dragons is a great read, though long, as the tome exceeds 1,000 pages. It can also be heartrending for fans who have come to care about certain characters who don't make it to the end. That said, ardent readers should be used to Martin's penchant for killing beloved characters; if not, brace yourself. Heroes fall, faces both familiar and forgotten rise from the dead, and just when you think you've got it all figured out, A Dance with Dragons is sure to surprise you.
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