Game Of Thrones: Ranking George R.R. Martin's Westeros Books - Worst To Best

4. A Dance With Dragons

A Dance With Dragons may be the longest of George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire novels (in many territories it was published in two parts titled Dreams And Dust and After The Feast), but it's arguably one of the most disappointing. There's a common belief that in order for fantasy writing to be good it has to be extremely long, but A Dance With Dragons proves that's not always the case. One of the main problems with the novel is that it's too complex for its own good, attempting to balance a ton of material in exchange for consistent coherency. Not only that, but it takes a very long time to actually get anywhere, especially when it comes to the material at the beginning regarding Daenerys in Meereen. At a certain point it begins to feel like the story is being padded out for the sake of length, rather than the sake of the plot. Nevertheless there are still notable moments, like the Jon Snow cliffhanger and the tensions between Stannis and the Boltons. As a whole, though, A Dance With Dragons is definitely better than A Feast For Crows, as it returns to following the series' main characters. It's infinitely more enjoyable reading filler about people you care about than reading filler about people you don't.