After a long delay, I expected much and more, to steal one of Martin's favorite phrases, than I got from the first A Song of Fire and Ice book in over five years. But what I got was like mother's milk, (another favorite,) for those of us who longed for a return to a world we loved and characters that we missed. A Dance with Dragons A Song of Fire and Ice, Book 5 by George R.R. Martin read by Roy Dotrice Bantam / Random House Audio July 2011 Longsuffering fans of the series (and I count myself among them,) have been reading this series since the first book A Game of Thrones was published in 1996. The most recent book prior to this one, A Feast for Crows, was published in 2005 and that novel is actually only half of A Dance with Dragons. But not the normal half, where the first portion chronologically is separated into part one and then the second half, or what happens next, is put into part two. A Dance with Dragons is actually like Martin took a loaf of bread and sliced it long-ways, making the whole story only coherent when you shuffle A Dance with Dragons together with A Feast for Crows like a deck of cards. The last full book, meaning all the characters working through a continuous timeline, was published in 2000. That means that for the last 11 years, fans of this series have been waiting for updates on some of these characters. It was not worth the wait. For the last 11 years we’ve wondered what happened to Daenerys Targaryen, John Snow, and others and the answers given in this book were less than satisfactory. In fact, it had been so long, that I had to be reminded who some of these characters were for the story to make sense (and in fact, the excellent HBO production of A Game of Thrones was instrumental in helping me remember.) I see no way that this series can possibly conclude in only two more books. Martin has been called the American version of J.R.R. Tolkein. That is most certainly not true! Not just because of the timeliness issues, but rather the fact that there is nearly complete moral ambiguity in these novels. At no time are readers clear about who is right or wrong, who is evil or good, and there is no one to cheer for that actually survives any given book. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings had no such issue. Tolkien made it very clear who were on the side of good and who weren’t. He also made clear that individual choices had consequences and actions like courage, loyalty and truth were to be encouraged and greed, lust and dishonesty were to be discouraged. Martin conveys no clear moral compass. And this is a looming failure for this series: will we even care who wins the Iron Throne in the end? The books may seem more like a very, very short ride after a long, long line at an amusement park, but those of us who made the mistake of reading the incredible first three books have no choice but to continue to wait for the series conclusion, frustrated, but hopeful. Roy Dotrice, was a complete failure in the unabridged audiobook version, which is what this review is based upon. From the first chapter I wondered whether I would be able to stomach the gruff, growling voices that made nearly every character – male or female – sound like they were angry Irish dwarves. He was great for the narration, but the voices were a huge distraction. And it may be because the book was 959 pages long, but there were a multitude of uncorrected errors by Dotrice as he would read and realize a moment later that he was doing the wrong voice and switch. Most audiobooks get edited to fix these, so I assume the non-corrections are due to length. Finally, on the audiobook, Martin may not be a good candidate for audio regardless of reader because of his reliance on characters and inner-thought in his narrative, which makes it tough to tell when listening to a reader when the character is thinking and when they are actually speaking. For those of us who have been hooked for years, we had no choice but to devour hungrily – like men starved – this book. But for those of you have not yet started this ride, hold off until or even if Martin finishes this series. Instead look to authors like Brandon Sanderson for excellent fantasy books that actually progress and series that actually end.