3. A Dance With Dragon
Now, if you didn't like this book very much, let me just say that I understand where you're coming from. However, I absolutely loved this book. It wasn't perfect and some of the things that promised to be the most exciting parts of it were cut from it and moved to the next book, but it was pretty damn epic. I don't personally like the fact that the Battle of Winterfell and Maureen were moved into the next book when reports say that they were ready for this one but were cut for page count. Still, even without those, this was a pretty masterful book. There's not a single part I disliked. Jon becoming Lord Commander and trying to do that job effectively while dealing with both the wildlings and the Others was great to read and see. Seeing Davos go to White Harbor and bargain with Manderly, and plot with him was great. Seeing the tension build at Winterfell as the barely allies of Roose Bolton try to resist the urge to kill each other was my favorite part. Watching Tyrion go across the Narrow Sea and make his way to Deanery's as well as Deanery's try to deal with ruling Maureen wasn't the best, mostly because a lot of Tyrion's stuff felt like filler. And while a lot of people say that Deanery's was unbearable in this book, I think it actually did a very job of showing how very hard it is to be a leader and even someone who has the best intentions has not guarantee of getting good results. Still, she was annoying. Almost every character got a chapter in this book and that was great because getting to hear and see a little bit of everyone is what made these books so good to begin. While this still had a little bit of that too much set up problem that plagued A Feast For Crows, what made it stand apart was that it was interesting, exciting, tension-filled setup. By the end of the book, I was practically dying to know how things would turn out at Winterfell, if Davos would find Rickon, what would happen to the Wall, and what would happen at Maureen and Kings Landing. The only thing I could think when I finished it was where was the next one.