OMG I HATE the beginning of this book. I’ve had to restart three times. I don’t care about Chett the boily-faced lackey of the Night’s Watch or his planned rebellion.The prologue is awful. Here are some of my thoughts while reading – page 70: I hate this book. Page 120: I hate this book; I am totally quitting. Page 350: still hate this…SOOOO boring. Page 617: Ok, somewhat better, let’s get this over with. I want to read something else for a change.

Ok, so this one started out REALLY slowly. After it finally got going, MAJOR events occurred including multiple deaths, maimings, desertions, broken vows, betrayals, murder trials, and lots and lots of weddings. There are attacks on the Wall, dead kings, new kings, ransoming of captives, and all sorts of shifting alliances. Characters we love are killed off and characters we’ve been led to hate seem less hateful. Once I got into it, I did enjoy the surprising plot twists in A Storm of Swords, but all in all, this book was about 1000 pages too long. It seems crammed with minor characters no one cares about who serve no purpose other than to provide some downtime between the shocking deaths of main characters. I feel I can’t say any more or else I’ll ruin the shocking bits, so…On to book 4; let’s hope it starts off better than this one did.