All five A Song of Ice and Fire books, ranked worst to best

4. A Dance With Dragons (Book 5, 2011)

The most recently published book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance With Dragons has a lot of same pacing problems as A Feast For Crows. That said, a lot of the storylines actually arrive at inflection points. Daenerys rides Drogon out of Daznak’s Pit! Theon escapes Winterfell! And of course, Jon Snow is stabbed to death by his own men. That’s right: as far as we know, Jon Snow is still dead in the novel series. Now that’s how you end a book.

The best chapter once again belongs to Cersei Lannister, who is forced to walk naked through the streets of King’s Landing while her subjects boo and jeer. It’s a breathless, horrific stretch of writing from Martin. That said, some climaxes are once again pushed into the next book, including big battles at Winterfell and Meereen. If Martin and his team only had the will to take a hacksaw to these novels, there is a brilliant book waiting within.

The bloat is everywhere. Davos Seaworth has four chapters to himself when two would more than suffice. Tyrion Lannister returns, but his sharp wit is too often wasted on languid riverboat journeys. We again spend lots of time with characters from the Iron Islands and from Dorne, as Martin tries to widen the scope of the story to the point where he risks losing our attention.

There is excellent writing in these books. They just needed a firmer hand during the editing process. If I had to guess, I’d say that The Winds of Winter will be more like Feast and Dance than the first three books, and that’s okay — Feast and Dance are good reads — but I hope everything is tightened up a bit.