Pages 1-100
Pages 101-200:
1. So, the girl who's 'the blood of the dragon' is given three supposedly dead dragon eggs as a wedding gift? GEE, I WONDER IF THEY WILL HATCH. And, spoilers! they do. In the last chapter. Which means I literally predicted this 700 pages early.
Learn to write a fucking plot, Martin.
2. "That's good, bastard. Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it."
"Most men," the boy said. "But not you."
Conversations like this - the 'most people x but not you' thing - drive me nuts. Cop-out characterization ahoy!
3. He saw Winterfell as the eagles see it, the tall towers looking squat and stubby from above, the castle walls just lines in the drt. He saw Maester Luwin on his balcony, studying the sky through a polished bronze tube and frowning as he made notes in a book. He saw his brother Rob, taller and stronger than he remembered him, practicing swordplay in the yard with real steel in his hand. (This continues for some time.)
This is a recap episode. In a book, not in an anime where it's part of the form. This entire chapter is repetitive, dull, and out of place. Books do not have recap episodes, and that's all it is.
4. Constant repetition. In this part it's the idea that at Winterfell, 'the hot waters ran through the walls like blood through a man's body'. In that exact phrasing. Over. AND OVER. AND OVER AGAIN. The simile doesn't even change! And then, just to be sure that you don't mistake it for some sort of thematic phrase (as opposed to just plain bad writing, which is what it is) it's dropped for the rest of the book.
5. "You're a Snow, not a Stark. You're a bastard and a bully."
"A bully?" Jon almost choked on the word. The accusation was so unjust it took his breath away.
Jon at the Wall is even more unbearable than Jon at Winterfell, because there he at least displayed a modicum of humility. Once he reaches the Wall, he shows a petulant, whiny, pseudo-lordling side rife with entitlement. Despite everything that he and others have said before, he makes no effort to really find his place there. The inconsistency in this characterization is staggering.
6. Jon gets the letter informing him that Bran is okay, and he magically stops being an asshole.
Why?
Because George R. R. Martin can't write genuine character development to save his life.
Pages 201-300 to come.
