Up to page 488 (Spoilers)

Pretty much along the same lines as before. I like Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Arya more than before, I love the drama and the tension thats building in the main story lines, I love the development of the characters.

I can't believe I didn't connect the dots about the Queen's children being Jaime's, not Roberts. EVERYTHING was hinted at beforehand: how Ned knew that the smith's apprentice was Robert's bastard because his appearance, which would imply that the extremely contrary appearance of Robert's supposed children would not make them his own. The fact that the previous Hand was looking into the genealogies and was killed by the Lannisters for it. That conversation Ned and Robert had about his 'son', Prince Joffrey, about how Robert was ashamed of him. I think its a testament to how well he wrote and developed that plot line that he gave all the hints yet I still couldn't put it all together myself.

Which is quite unlike one of his other storylines, which I am quickly coming to dislike. That of Dany and her brother with the Dothraki (sp?). Everything about that plotline so far has been predictable in the extreme, and boring. In the other thread I said I thought that the mark of good writing was that it makes me, the reader, want to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. Well... the Dany storyline does not do that for me at all.

It's actually frustrating. I'm reading through the other storylines that I love, am sucked all the way in, on the edge of my seat, excited to keep reading... and then a Dany chapter comes up and kills the mood. Thats almost always where I stop for the night, and I'll begin again another night on her chapter and then move along to the ones I actually care about. I'll soon probably end up skipping her chapters entirely, as I did in the Wheel of Time with some of its story lines.

I'm also getting a bit anxious that already in the first book, there are four or five main story lines being followed: Ned at the Royal Court, Catelyn hunting down her son's would be assassin, Jon at the Grey Wall, Dany with the Dothraki, and Tyrion's adventuring. Sometimes these storylines will overlap, but they are as far as I can tell still five distinct threads in this tale. 4 of the 5 are very interesting, I'm just hoping that future books don't make the same mistake that Robert Jodan did with his series, where there were so many story lines that it actually took away from the whole thing.

Dany gets annoying. There's not a whole lot that she does that's a good read.

And yeah.....Story lines. Lots of them. Fortunately, the author is good about keeping the story lines tied together (or wiping them out entirely). There's a reason each book comes with a list of names, titles, and households. Marten does it better than Jordan, though, if you ask me. What I've found is that people tend to pick a few characters they really like, and focus on them, with the rest of the book serving as background (not really, but you get the point, I think).

Dinwar wrote:

Dany gets annoying. There's not a whole lot that she does that's a good read.

That might be all I need to just skip her chapters then

I.......wouldn't go that far. I think her chapters will play a vital part later.

So I'll skip her chapters until she actually gets important

Calwyn wrote:

So I'll skip her chapters until she actually gets important

Haha, if you skip her chapters you are going to be a very confused fellow in the next book. I'd keep reading her chapters, as much as you don't like her, she does get quite a bit more interesting (would't you say Dinwar?

As for you comment about how Martin hints at everything before it is revealed out right. He does that all the time, the only problem is that you have to pay lots and lots of attention to catch things. Similar to location, location, location for real estate, with Martin it's details, details, details.

Dany is <3