If I never read the word Greyjoy again, it will be too soon.

Last year, my kids did the swim team at our pool. That meant I had HOURS of time for reading, just sitting pool-side, and I got through the first three GOT books. This year, one kid had a broken arm and we also ended up going away for a month. This meant very little time for me to dedicate to George Martin. But I did manage to plod my way through book 4 (and jeez, I just picked up book 5. WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO HAVE TIME TO READ THAT ONE?!?!?!?).

Like many of you, AFFC was not my favorite of the series. There were many characters I really didn’t care about at all. Anybody with the last name Greyjoy? Yeah, I don’t care. Samwell and Gilly? Don’t care. The Faith of the Seven? Yes, I should care, but no, I don’t.

But. There were many things I actually did like about this book. (And yes, there are minor spoilers below.) For the most part, I really liked reading Jaime’s continuing transformation. I know, there was a ton of anti-Jaime sentiment because of certain acts on the HBO show this year. I much prefer book Jaime to TV Jaime. He’s a deeply flawed, not very good man, but I liked a lot of the choices he made in this book. Especially his last choice, regarding the plea for help from his sister in King’s Landing.

And his subtle transformation to becoming a new man was just one of many character transformations in this volume: Arya becomes Cat, Sansa becomes Alayne, and Samwell briefly becomes a man who is free to love Gilly (but I didn’t care).

Also interesting was reading chapters from Cersei’s POV. Her thirst for power and her obsession with protecting Tommen, no matter what the consequences, were like a car crash. I knew it would end badly, but I couldn’t look away.

And while the Iron Islands bored me to tears, I (mostly) enjoyed time spent in Dorne. I look forward to reading (and watching, I guess) more about Dorne and the dysfunctional Martell family.

This volume didn’t have a “WOW” moment like in the previous entries — Ned’s killing, the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, Tyrion’s escape, Lady Stoneheart’s appearance — and I kept expecting one to jump off the page and surprise me. Sadly, I didn’t get one, but maybe I just need to readjust my expectations when reading Martin. But he did leave me perplexed at the very end, by the re-appearance of Pate (yes, I had to flip all the way back to the prologue to see if Pate was the character introduced there). I’m intrigued, George RR.

My last comment about this book is more a comment/question for any of you who watch the show and read the books. On HBO, Brienne (and Gwen Christie) is such a kick-ass character, I can’t help but love her. If the show decides to follow her plot line from the book (not like they have thus far), I’ll be distraught. But when reading if I didn’t have the vision of Gwen Christie in my head, I wonder if I would have been as upset at what happened to Brienne. Brienne as a book character is fine, but she’s a wonderful TV character.

Taking a little break before I pick up book 5…

3 1/2 stars.

You can read my other reviews of the books in A Song of Ice and Fire on my blog.