Still reading, see my comments for book 1. This seems to continue in the same vein, with something that troubles me lurking inside it.

Edit: 12 December 2003 – Well I’ve finished this, and I’ve deduced an interesting fact about Martin and the way he writes. In any fantasy story, there should be a semblance of balance between good and evil – Martin is very harsh when it comes to destroying the hopes of the good, but the way he destroys evil is particularly cruel, he makes the reader see that there is some good even in a bad person and then when we start to empathize with them – whack! – a head goes off. I don’t like this kind of writing, but Martin keeps me holding on to the series in the hope that there will be an eventual (good) resolution.