Lev Grossman of TIME has reviewed A Dance with Dragons, and the review is nothing but praise!  But, a warning:  SPOILERS for the first four books!  So if you’re new to the series and are still working your way through the novels, particularly A Storm of Swords, TURN BACK.  NOW.  Do NOT click the link!  I MEAN IT! However, I’ve quoted two choice, spoiler-free passages below:

“But the real power of Martin’s work arises from his extraordinary skill as a plotter. A Dance with Dragons follows, by my count, 11 major story lines, as well as assorted minor ones, each with its own rhythm, written in its own voice, and each playing off all the others. Martin will never win a Pulitzer or a National Book Award, but his skill as a crafter of narrative exceeds that of almost any literary novelist writing today.”

It’s a shame fantasy writers will never be recognized in the same way as writers who work within the amorphous genre of mainstream drama, because George really is one of the best.  If he’ll never get a Pulitzer, it’s at least satisfying to see him get some heavy accolades.

“The complexity of Martin’s design ensures that we experience the struggle for Westeros from all sides at once. It’s as if he’s trying to show us that every fight is both triumph and tragedy, depending on where you see it from, and everybody is both hero and villain at the same time.”

No other novel has challenged my moral judgment as much as any of the books from A Song of Ice and Fire.  The story is riveting and complex, and the characters are masterfully depicted and developed. But underneath that all, ASOIAF maintains a truth that is sometimes hard to accept:  The world is rarely black and white, and we all have the duality of light and dark within ourselves.