ADwD 23: Daenerys 341

Galazza Galare the Ghiscari thinks Dany should marry Hizdahr zo Loraq so that there's a king and somehow that will make her more powerful. She agrees to have a chat with him about it. She doesn't fancy him, but she does set him the challenge of keeping peace in the city for 90 days. If he succeeds, then she'll marry him.

Ser Barriston doesn't approve. He thinks they should abandon this place and head to Westeros and conquer it. There is talk of marrying without love. Apparently Dany's parents got marries because a witch called Jenny of Oldstones said they would beget a "prince who was promised". Is she the same old woman that Arya met on top of a hill with Lord Beric and who got freaked out because Arya had an aura of death about her? That would have been before the red wedding.

Anyway, then Dany's true love Daario turns up and she considers having some fun with him but thinks better of it when he suggest she pull a red wedding stunt of her own to kill all her probable enemies. She's not up for that at all.

ADwD 22: Tyrion 321

Tyrion (not drowned; doesn't seem to have caught greyscale) learns some more from Young Griff aka Aegon Targaryen about how he came to survive. Varys bought a baby from a poor man and made a swap. Tyrion tells Griff he should just go to Dorne and take over Westeros himself. Once Dany hears about it she'll bring her dragons, he thinks, and this will be better than going begging to her.

Tyrion and Haldon the Halfmeister go off in search of news in Selhorys. Dothraki are lurking about in the wilderness. A red god preacher is preaching support for Dany being the chosen one. They go to the local bar and play cyvasse, which is chess but with cooler pieces. Tyrion loses on purpose but they get to hear some rumours about Dany. Apparently she feeds her dragons on newborn babies. It was one time! And by accident! C'mon, give her a break! Most dramatically they learn Dany is still holed up in Meereen and not heading for Westeros at all. This comes as quite a surprise to them.

Then Tyrion does the usual Tyrion thing of thinking with his dick. He visits a brothel, gets drunk, doesn't find Tysha, does find someone who recognises him and means to take his head to Cersei. So predictable, Tyrion.

ADwD 21: Jon 310

Jon goes off to visit the wildlings liviing in Moletown. They don't have much food. Jon recruits a bunch of them by promising them food, even though the Watch are going to run out too, sooner or later.

The days are getting shorter. Just how do these decade long winters work anyway? I'd assumed some sort of climatic oscillation, but now it seems astronomical. Is something tilting the planet on its axis? Or is it just magic?

Also, this wall. How long is it? I'm having a hard time seeing how 63 extra people can help Jon keep watch over it in any significant way. And he wants to open extra forts. The map says there are 18 forts. I think about 5 are open now (Castle Black, Shadow Tower, Eastwatch by the Sea, and two others that Jon opened a few chapters ago). There must still be many miles of unwatched wall. I'm really worried.

ADwD 20: Reek 294

Ramsay the Bastard of Bolton has sent Theon, of all people, into Moat Cailin to secure the surrender of the Ironmen troops there. I'm surprised Theon is functional enough to do the job.

But Theon who thinks he is Reek does manage to persuade the men that he is really Theon, and the Ironmen are all half-dead or drunk by this point anyway, and aware that they have been abandoned by Victarion after the kingsmoot did not go his way. Presumably a similar situation awaits Stannis, or the Boltons (whoever gets there first) at Deepwood Motte. Theon manages to walk away with all the men (an axe in the head of the one who did not want to surrender helped).

Theon is grateful to to Ramsay for letting him keep his remaining fingers and is allowed to eat and sleep with the dogs, which is quite an upgrade from the dungeon. The surrendering ironmen are all killed, natch.

Ramsay's dad Roose turns up with a new step-mother for Ramsay (a Frey woman) and his bride, fake Arya, who Theon recognises as Sansa's rather sill friend Jeyne Poole. Did we know it was Jeyne? Not sure. But anyway: poor Jeyne! Will Theon say anything about this? Is it possible that he and Jeyne will end up helping each other?

ADwD 19: Davos 282

Davos has been held prisoner at Manderley's castle in White Harbour for over two weeks. His ride home has long since sailed.

Manderley finally agrees to see him. Davos tries to appeal to Manderley's sense of honour to stick with supporting Stannis because he is Robert Baratheon's true heir, but Manderley knows a losing side when he sees one. The Freys try to claim that Robb caused the red wedding by turning into a wolf. Manderley knows this is nonsense but is going along with it anyway. Being on the winning side is more importance than truth!

Manderley's daughter Wyllis can see through all this and calls him out on it. She is young enough to be honest. But it doesn't do any good.

Manderley gets annoyed and sends Davos off to be beheaded as a traitor. It doesn't look like he is going to miraculously suvive after all.

ADwD 18: Tyrion 269

The little boat is making its way through a foggy part of the river which is the domain of "Stone Men", who are basically lepers but cooler. The meet a friendly boat first, then they get attacked by stone men.

While preparing for that fight, everyone suddenly wants to protect young Griff. With this information and by the colour of his eyes, Tyrion figures out that young Griff is in fact Prince Rheagar's son, previously thought to have been killed by Tywin. Rheagar is Mad King Aerys's son and would have been heir to the throne, except he had an affair or something with Lyanna (Robert's girlfriend) and sparked a rebellion after which Jaime killed Aerys and Tywin and other Lannisters tried to kill all the other children to end the dynasty.

But Varys must have been up to something even way back then to start trying to put Targaryens back on the throne and somehow saved this young prince whose name I have forgotten. He is probably the heir of the throne. He's also Dany's nephew, is that right? That won't stop him marrying her. She might not like giving up the thone, though. Also by Dornish law she might be heir to the throne, so Quentyn could help out there. I have a feeling this could get even more complicated yet...

Oh, and now the boat has been mysteriously turned around and stone men have attacked again and now Tyrion is drowning. After the ad break we'll find out how he gets out of that one.

ADwD 17: Jon 253

With all the king's men, queen's men and wildlings, the night's watch are going to run out of food. Maybe they can get help from the Vale of Arryn, which should have lots more food. Knowing this, I would not be surprised if the vale ends up being of more strategic importance when the winter comes and food starts to run out everywhere.

Melisandre gives Jon the bone-shirted wildling and claims she can keep him loyal with a magic gem. Stannis means to attack the Dreadfort but Jon thinks this is a bad idea. He says Stannis should leave the wildlings with Jon to help defend the wall (presumably against monsters, not other wildlings) and go and find 3000 men from clans who live in the north-west. Jon thinks he should take these men and attack Deepwood Motte and defeat the Ironmen who hold it. (Or have they in fact abandoned it by now to have their Kingsmoot? Hmmm.) That suits Jon because he does not like Ironmen. But he is not taking sides in politics, oh no. He's a completely neutral defender of the realm.

How is Jon so good at strategy? He left Winterfell a boy and he's been in a handful of battles. I guess he learned a lot from Ned, including how to cut people's heads off and that "The Map is not the Land", which is pretty important advice.

ADWD 16: Daenerys 235

Dany still has lots of problems, including generally being blamed for freeing the slaves causing poverty. Xaro is back, and reminding her of all of them. "If all men must grub in the dirt for food, how shall any man lift his eyes to contemplate the stars?", he asks. That definitely needs solving. But he has the cause all wrong. "If each of us must break his back to build a hovel, who shall riase the temples to gorify the gods? For some men to be great, others must be enslaved." Which is typical mercantilisy fixed-quantity-of-wealth thinking. The answer is exactly the sort of productiviy improvements and innovations that come from people having ownership of their enterprises. The answer is division of labour, specialisation and mechanised farming.

Xaro thinks Dany is going to be attacked and wants her to depart for Westeros, so he gives her some ships if she'll promise to leave soon. She smells a rat, and besides doesn't want to abandon her city. This annoys Xaro so he declares war on her. Well escaped, Dany!

ADwD 15: Davos 223

Davos has rocked up in White Harbour to convince Manderley to fight for Stannis. He was supposed to have a fleet of ships with him; instead he's ended up going down the less impressive pretending-to-be-a-common-sailor approach.

White Harbour seems like a pretty wealthy town. Its houses are made of stone. The Lannister ship Lionstar is in dock. I can't find any previous mention of this ship.

Davos plays the computer-RPG-game game of talking to random people. He learns that people are worried about the Bastard of Bolton, and that Manderley is recruiting for his army. He visits an inn with such bad food and wine that customs officials won't go in. There he learns all the latest news, including that one of Manderley's sons is still alive and held hostage by Lannisters. it all looks pretty hopeless for getting Manderley to fight Lannisters. Except obviously he's going to come to some agreement with Manderley to fake his own death to trick them into giving Manderley's son back. That would fit in with what we know from the preivous book.

He also hears rumours of Dany from a sailor on the Sloe-eyed Maid. He knows what happened to that ship. I had to search all the way back to ACoK to find reference to it: Back when Dany was planning to head straight back to Westeros she and Xaro were searching for ships and it was a ship that was too small for her needs, which differs from the captain's steward's version of the captain refusing because he was worried about dragons burning his sails. Anyway, at this point Davos is better informed than Cersei.

ADwD 14: Tyrion 208

Tyrion is travelling on a barge with Griff and little Griff, a nun called Lemore who swims naked every day, a husband and wife called Yandry and Ysilla, Duck and Halfmeister Haldon. They have plenty of scones and bacon to eat and spend their days swimming, playing board games, writing a book about dragons, learning foreign languages and maths and history, and admiring the local wildlife. Seems to me they have it pretty good. Why are they risking life and limb venturing into pirate-infested waters on some hair brained quest mostly for Ilyrio's benefit, exactly?

Tyrion is a maltheist: "And when I die, please let them bury me with a crossbow, so I can thank the Father Above for his gifts the same way I thanked the father below."

We learn of the existence of a rare book called "Blood and Fire", which sounds an awful lot like something Melisandre has probably read.

Tyrion thinks Ilyrio sacrificed Viserys. I had assumed that was a bit of a fortunate accident from Ilyrio's point of view, rather than something deliberate.

At the end of the chapter a giant turtle appears, which everyone thinks is good luck. We shall see.

ADwD 13: Bran 196

Ages ago, Bran set out to find the three-eyed-crow, the greenseer, who could help him to master his superpower. It was a long journey. On the way, he had a series of adventures. In this chapter, he successfully finds and meets the three-eyed-crow. How often does that happen in Game of Thrones, I ask? He didn't get kidnapped. He didn't become any more disabled than he already was. He didn't abandon his quest and go off and do something else. He didn't even change direction every chapter and randomly roam around the map getting distracted by various side-quests. He's gone in a more or less straight line from Winterfell to the three-eyed-crow. It has to mean something. Either Bran is the true hero of this series and is going to end up on the iron throne, or else this is GRRM's biggest dummy yet, and he's going to die in a freak boating accident in the next chapter.

In this chapter we meet a real life Child of the Forest, who talks and everything. And is over 200 years old ("Men, they are the children") so probably knows a thing or two. We also find out that the three-eyed-crow (who can't move on account of having tree roots embedded in his skull) has been spying on Bran and influencing his dreams ever since he was a baby. Oh, and either Hodor or Bran loves Meera; I'm not sure which. And Jojen is suddenly very weak; I don't remember why. Hopefully the underground colony of Children of the Forest can fix him up.

ADwD 12: Reek

The last person we met going by the name of Reek was back in ACoK. He was really Ramsay Snow the bastard of Bolton, in disguise as his former servant. Ramsay was pursued by some enemy or other and swapped clothes with his servant, then went to Winterfell which was held by Theon at the time. Bran and Rickon escaped from Winterfell and when Theon couldn't find them he killed a miller and his family and tarred and hung up his sons to make people think they were Bran and Rickon. That's why everyone thinks Bran and Rickon are dead. After that Theon finds himself in need of more men and Reek says he can get some and goes off. Robb Stark's castellan Ser Rodrick turns up to beseige Winterfell, calling Theon a childkiller. Theon threatens to kill Rodrick's daughter.

Theon is saved, briefly, when a new army turns up and slaughters the Stark army and kills Rodrick. The leader enters Winterfell. Theon is thankful at first. The leader takes off his helmet and it's Reek. Except he reveals himself as Ramsay in disguise, then whacks Theon round the head and burns winterfell. That's the last we heard of Theon; everyone presumes him burned at Winterfell.

At first it's unclear who this Reek is. Perhaps Ramsay's servant escaped after all. But whoever this Reek is, he has been imprisoned and tortured by Ramsay, so that would not make sense. Reek is brought before Ramsay and some other lords, one of whom recognises him as Ned Stark's ward. So *that's* what became of Theon. He is not dead, as is usual for presumed-dead people in ASoIaF. He has been imprisoned for quite a while.

Now Ramsay wants to clean him up and take him along to meet his wife-to-be Arya, who is in fact fake Arya. Theon should be able to recognise her as such (which is, perhaps, why he is being taken along). Either that or Ramsay has more cruelty planned.

A pox on both their houses, methinks; they're all bad guys. I feel bad for the fake Arya girl, though. I wonder if this could be the undoing of Petyr's plans. The Boltons won't be happy when they find out.

ADwD 11: Danaerys 170

Dany still has 99 problems. The Sons of the Harpy are still killing her people, including her handmaiden's brother, so she's retreating all her people into her pyramid and letting the Meereenese police themselves. I'm not sure that will end well.

Because she felt so guilty about one of her dragons probably having eaten a child, she's locked two of them in a dungeon but the other one has escaped. Not much point in being a dragon queen if you can't control your dragons.

Quaith pays Dany a visit by holographic conferencing. Dany doesn't understand the tech and thinks she is either dreaming or going mad. Quaithe speaks in riddles. I think the general gist is that Dany is going to be betrayed again, possibly by Renak. Also she is going to be visited by a bunch of dudes all wanting to marry her, and she shouldn't trust any of them. In fact, trust no one. Quaith is Mulder; now it all makes sense.

Even the local trades unions are kicking up a fuss because stone carving isn't a closed shop any more. Dany is forced to channel her inner Maggy Thatcher.

Hizdahr zo Loraq is still trying to get the fighting pits opened. He has some fighting slaves with him who want to be freelance fighters. It'll be like UFC but with actual deaths. Dany is quite rightly coming around to the idea that if that's what they want she has no business stopping them.

We get some Barristan Selmy backstory. He was booted out of the kingsguard by Joffrey after Robert was killed. He loitered around Kings Landing in disguise for a while and when he saw the Lannisters kill Ned Stark he realised he was best off out of it and he ought to find a real king to serve. Who ended up being Dany.

ADwD 10: Jon 154

Poor old Mance Rayder is being burned to death by Melisandre. I rather liked him. He's not going quietly, either, he's having a good old shout about it. Can't say I blame him. At least Jon has the courtesy of shooting him with some arrows. I'm not sure if that's what Melisandre had in mind, but there we are.

They open the gates and let through wildlings who are prepared to bend the knee to Stannis. I'm not sure what good it will do, since it's that or starve or get killed by wights; they're hardly going to be very loyal. They're also now on the right side of the wall for plotting revenge against the Watch or Stannis, should they fancy that idea. If I was a wildling I'd think settling the gift and taking control of the wall would be a pretty nice outcome. By the time people down south notice it'll be time to defend against white-faced blue-eyed monsters from the north anyway, not to mention something of a convenient fait accompli.

Bowen Marsh reckons they should just block up the tunnels through the wall. This sounds far too obvious. Should have done it years ago.

Jon wins the chapter: "Men love to complain about their lords and their wives. Those without wives complain twice as much about their lords." Hee hee.

Or is it Bowen Marsh: "What's a god compared to a nice bowl of onion soup?"

Jon is avoiding his friends because he's got some idea that in order to kill the boy and become a man and be a proper lord commander he can't just hang out with his mates any more. This seems daft enough that it's sure to come back and bite him. Why can't he just promote his friends so they can all hang out in the officers' mess? There's a lot to be said for a bit of nepotism. Instead he sends Pyp and Grenn to Eastwatch-by-the-sea.

Maester Aemon has left him a book that says the sword of light should be hot. But Stannis's sword is cold, which bothered Aemon. I have a new theory that it's the right sword, but it won't be hot until wielded by the right person. Such as someone who can get dragon eggs to hatch...

ADwD 9: Davos 141

As far as I know, Lord Manderley is going to kill Davos to get his son back, but that hasn't happened yet. Davos arrives by boat on the island of Sweetsister, having been abandoned by Salladhor Saan who is fed up because half his ships have sunk in storms in service to Stannis who does not pay his bills.

It's a bit of a dump: the lord's castle has a leaky roof and he can't afford proper lighting. Davos just wants to be sent on his way to White Harbor to have a chat with Manderley about maybe helping Stannis, but Lord Godric doesn't want to be seen to be helping Stannis. They come up with the rather obvious idea of just not mentioning that Davos was ever there.

During this conversation we learn that Stannis is pretty desperate at this point for someone, *anyone*, to bend their knee. Preferably someone with some gold. Godric also reckons Manderley's son is already dead, killed by Freys, but I seem to remember jaime rescuing him from Harenhall. Despite this, Wyman and Freys are making marriage pacts, which doesn't make much sense on the face of it. In general, if while reading ASoIaF I notice I am confused, it is a sign that I do not have complete information. Either I've forgotten it, or misread it, or GRRM hasn't told me yet.

Oh, we also learn that Jon Snow's mum is the daughter of a fisherman who gave him a lift from Sweetsister to the Eyrie to visit Jon Arryn, who he's named after. So there's that mystery solved, then. It's not the most earth-shattering revelation, though.

ADwD 8: Tyrion 129

Tyrion is sent off with Haldon Halfmeister and Ser Rolly Duckfield to go and meet Griff by the Rhoyne, so that they can then travel to meet Dany. We learn that he's well versed in his history, especially Targaryens and dragons. We get a bit more reminiscing about how awful a father Tywin was: he told Tyrion he couldn't go on holiday because he'd married a prostitute, even though we now know she was not, in fact, a prostitute, and Tywin knew this all along. If Tywin was so smart, how come he couldn't overcome his disgust at Tyrion and see how useful he could be. He even got the drains working properly at Casterly Rock. Never underestimate the importance of well-functioning drains!

Illyrio has sent along chests of useful items, including clothes, gifts for Dany, and a letter to Griff which, suspiciously, Griff burns before Tyrion can read for himself the parts about handing Dany Tyrion's head on a platter or whatever underhand scheme is undoubtedly brewing beneath the surface. Griff isn't all that friendly, but Tyrion's knowledge of which lords are which and how to look after dragons might actually be useful to Dany, so there is some hope this will go well.

ADwD 7: Jon 109

This chapter coincides perfectly with AFfC chapter 5; the first Sam chapter. It even has much of the same dialogue.

Jon is stressing over a letter where he's trying to shame Tywin into sending men so he doesn't look weak compared to Stannis. Then we get to see the previously unseen meeting where Jon gets Gilly to agree to the baby swap.

After meeting with Sam to send him off to Oldtown (Sam gives him an odd look when he mentions Bran; we know that this is because Sam wants to tell Jon that Bran is still alive but has promised Coldhands not to), he reminisces about how Aemon advised him to stop being a big baby and grow up now that he is the Lord Commander.

To this end, when Jon orders Janos Slynt to go and defend a derelict fort, and Slynt refuses, Jon chops off his head. Quite right too. Stannis agrees. You can't be seen to allow men to disobey orders. Jon is doing a good job so far.

ADwD 6: The Merchant's Man 95

This man is Prince Quentyn of Dorne, Doran Martell's son, on a mission to marry Dany so she can inherit Dorne and use it as a base for attacking the rest of Westeros. Of all the people trying to marry Dany, his seems the best case, especially has this is pre-arranged.

He's made it as far as Volantis (where Tyrion is heading) but has trouble finding a decent ship to go further because no captains want to go to get near rumours of war about break out in Slaver's Bay (i.e. Dany getting her comeuppance). He's already had his friend Cletus Yrnwood killed by pirates on another part of the voyage; a bit of a shame because Cletus sounds like he was a fun guy.

Quentyn seems to be worried about Varys's spies. I guess this means Quentyn is working separately from Illyrio and Varys. He's also worried that Tywin will be sending men after Dany. We already know that when Cersei hears rumours about her she ignores them, so Quentyn need not worry about Lannister soldiers, at least.

They meet some sellswords planning to go off and fight in wars against Dany. Shortly after, Quentyn's friend Gerris has an idea for a way to get closer to Meereen. Seems pretty obvious they're going to get themselves recruited by the sellswords in order to travel safely with them, then go AWOL when they get there.

ADwD 5: Tyrion 81

Tyrion and Illyrio are travelling by litter along an ancient Valyrian tarmac Roman road. They have good food on board. Tyrion is being sent to Volantis to wait for Dany's presumed arrival.

Viserys apparently tried to get into Dany's bed before her wedding. Did we know that already? Tyrion tries to figure out why Illyrio is so interested in helping her but his proferred motives are suspect. I had thought he would be annoyed about her selling his ships, but he seems pretty impressed with her.

We get a bit of Illyrio/Varys backstory. Seems like they got started handling stolen goods before Varys figured out that the real money was in information. Tyrion is pretty amazed that Varys has been plotting for Dany to return all this time. I need to go back an re-read a much earlier chapter where Ned and Robert were arguing about whether to assasinate here and see if Varys had anything to say then.

I'm still a bit vague about why Dany would want to work with Tyrion, but Illyrio thinks the fact he killed Tywin will sway her.

It seems as if it is Illyrio who has hired the Golden Company for Dany, not prince Quentin as previously assumed. Interesting. They'll be keen to help her re-take Westeros apparently because they or their ancestors were exiled from there originally so they think of it as home.

Tyrion is to meet and work with someone called Griff, who Illyrio trusts. Tyrion continues to obsess about Tysha.

ADwD 4: Bran 68

Bran, Hodor, Meera, Jojen and Summer are following the strange zombie Coldhands through the forest looking for a three-eyed crow. They're running out of food and Jojen is getting weaker. I'm not sure if we know the reason why; I don't remember Jojen getting injured or anything but it's been a while.

Coldhands goes off to find some bad guys who are nearby and sends the children away to take shelter in an abandoned village. Bran takes telepathic control of Summer and finds some dead Watchmen being eaten by another wolf, none other than Varamyr Sixskins who now permanently inhabits his wolf's body now that his human body is dead. They win a fight and then Summer/Bran have a taste of human flesh too.

At this point I don't understand the mechanics of wargs well enough to predict what will happen. Bran is seemingly unperturbed about tasting human flesh. Varamyr's pack have seemingly joined Summer but I don't know if wolf-Varamyr is more wolf-like or more human-like at this point so I can't tell how likely he is to betray them.

ADwD 3: Jon 52

Jon is having wolf dreams again. Has he really not figured out that he really is inhabiting his wolf's body? I think he probably knows it but doesn't want to think about it too much. Via telepathy, we know that of the four remaining wolves (Sansa's was killed by Ned) one of them can no longer be sensed. Whether because dead (we think Robb's wolf was killed at the Red Wedding) or not is ambiguous. Bran's wolf Summer smells of summer, weirdly.

There's a bit of a Wildling refugee problem, but at least there are some spare lands for them to settle. Melisandre still wants two kings' blood, a father and a son to wake a dragon.  Okay, confirmation that Jon does know what is going on with the wolf dreams: he thinks his wolf knows that Robb's wolf is dead. He also thinks that Bran's and Rickon's wolves have escaped, but not Bran and Rickon.

Stannis's and Melisandre's men are staying at Castle Black. One of them, Ser Godry Farring challenges Jon to a sparring session. But Jon has to go and see Stannis to tell him why he won't be giving him half the Night's Watch's abandoned forts. Stannis is trying to get various northern lords to declare for him and not having much luck. He's only the Karstarks who don't have much choice since Lord Karstark got beheaded for killing one of Robb's prisoners. Stannis thinks he can marry Val to some lord and the Wildlings will follow him, but Jon explains that it's a stupid idea.

He's also trying to explain that Dalla's boy is not a prince so there's no point burning him to death for some spell. There's a discussion about Gilly and Dalla's son. It's clear Jon is already planning a baby switcheroo.

Jon seems to be expecting another Wildling attack from Tormund and asks Melisandre for intel. She warns Jon she thinks he'll be murdered by daggers in the dark surrounded by ice. It's not the most useful prediction and it's a bit of a worry.

ADwD 2: Danearys 34

Dany is still trying to improve Meereen. She has lots of problems. There's a terrorist group called Sons of the Harpy who are killing her men. The freed slaves are being hired back at meagre wages and the economy is suffering from a readjustment leading to a temporary loss of productivity. People are becoming beggars and prostitutes to pay the bills. Old, unproductive slaves are out on the street instead of being cared for by their former masters.

The prophecy from Quarth about three betrayals is somewhat clarified, at least as far as Dany thinks. The Maegi was the first, Ser Jorah Mormont (now exiled) was the second, and the third betrayal is still on the way.

Cleon the Butcher King of Astapor (leader of slaves who enslaved the former masters after Dany freed them) now wants to marry her. He'll have to join the queue. Dany thinks she could marry the wealthy trader Hizdhr zo Loraq, and at some point plenty of other people are going to turn up with proposals.

Dany finds being ruler hard work and has to make lots of difficult moral compromises. To make matters worse, her dragons are starting to get a taste for small children.

I'd put someone else in charge of the mess and start heading for Westeros if I were you, Dany!

ADwD 1: Tyrion 16

So we finally get to find out what Tyrion has been up to all this time! Cersei would really like to read this.

He's been bundled onto a ship by Varys and bundled off it again in Pentos by Ilyrio. Dany's old protector; giver of dragon eggs. Ok, so Ilyrio is definitely a player and not a pawn. He's probably in league with Doran Martell. I'm not sure how Tyrion fits in because the Martells and the Targaryens hate Lannister guts, owing to the whole killing Elia and Rhaegar and their children, siding with the usurper Robert Baratheon and so on. Tyrion still thinks of himself as a Lannister even though he hates his siblings and his father. So I'm not sure where that leaves things or how friendly Ilyrio really is towards him. He has some plans, clearly, but we will have to wait for another chapter.

Meanwhile Tyrion is mostly just feeling sorry for himself. He wants to figure out "where whores go" because those were Tywin's last words, in answer to the question of where his beloved Tysha who really loved him ended up. He thinks he could go to Dorne to help Myrcella claim the throne (that obviously won't work out) or possibly the wall. It's interesting how slowly information travels. He is surprised to find out that Stannis is at the wall. He is at least suitably suspicious of Ilyrio.

ADwD Prologue 1

A new book. And we have jumped back in time so we can find out what was happening with all the other characters who were not in AFfC while we were reading it. Should be interesting!

The prologue starts, as ever, with a doomed character. This time we're north of the wall with Varamyr Sixskins. Did we meet him before? In Mance Rayder's tent, perhaps? It's possible. Anyway, he has met Jon Snow at some point because he recognised him as a fellow skin-changer. Does this skill come from Bran or do all the Stark children have it from raising the direwolves?

Varamyr doesn't seem like a very nice chap. Killed his baby brother and his teacher. Does all kinds of abominable warg abominations. Ran away when Stannis's army turned up. I'm not entirely clear on what caused his eagle to burn. Did Jon fire an arrow at it a couple of books back? Maybe that was it. There's a rumour of a fleet of ships carrying free-folk south. It might even be true.

Anyway nowhere is safe anymore. Varamyr is wounded and dying. He is helped by a woman named Thistle, so naturally he tries to take over her body when the wights attack. That goes wrong, so he ends up being a wolf.