AFfC 11: The Kraken's Daughter 178

Asha has come home to the Iron Islands from conquering on the mainland to get involved in all the choosing-a-new-king business. There's some family reunion stuff to deal with, like telling her mother about the fate of her probably- (and therefore almost certainly not) dead brother. There's a lovesick highschool sweetheart who is probably going to turn into a murderous incel at some point. For now, since Asha knows the path to true equality of the sexes and arms herself, she has the upper hand over him.

There's some doubt over whether Balon really did just accidentally fall off a bridge. There is an uncle who likes reading history (he prefers his history dead, because it is written in ink, instead of alive, where it is written in blood; very good). And there is the business of the kingsmoot, which is a turn-up for the books to Asha, but she's going to make the most of it by going there and trying to become queen.

AFfC 10: Sansa 163

Sansa is now in the unlucky position of having to cover up for Petyr Littlefinger's murder of her aunt Lysa. If she doesn't go along with this Petyr will probably end up dead and where does that leave Sansa? Also she is somewhat grateful that Petyr saved her from being murdered by Lysa, and apparently not clever enough to realise (or perhaps the truth is too terrible to contemplate) that he arranged that by kissing Sansa in full view of Lysa.

Everyone seems to agree that the various lords of the vale aren't going to be too happy with Petyr being in charge of the Eyrie. So he invites one of them up (Nestor) and flatters him into thinking that Lysa wanted him to inherit the castle at the bottom of the mountain that protects the approach to the Eyrie. He also makes sure (with some confusion over signatures) that Nestor has a vested interest in Petyr continuing to be in charge or the Eyrie. So that bit of the nine dimensional chessboard is sewn up. Meanwhile Sansa must continue to pretend to be his daughter, and the horrible little Lord Robert thinks of her as his new mother. Good grief what an unpleasant and dull existence. To think Sansa at one point thought she was going to be married to a handsome and chivalrous king of Westeros.

It's almost certain that Petyr is heading for a fall. And it will be a big one. But what is his next move?

AFfC 9: Brienne 146

I like Brienne's quest. It is like a computer RPG. Talk to NPCs. Find clues. Travel to next location hinted at by clues. Maybe get in a fight or two along the way.

Brienne does not have much luck until she reaches Duskendale. She goes to get her shield repainted.  Then she has a bath, and fondly remembers Jaime getting into the hot tub with her at Harrenhal. Poor Brienne is now in love with Jaime Lannister, it appears. Then she goes to meet the castellan of Duskendale and we get a history lesson about Dontos Hollard. Did we know he was called Hollard before now? I don't remember it. But his family and the Darklyns of Duskendale once took king Aerys captive. Tywin laid seige to the city and Barristan Selmy (now hanging out with Daenerys) rescued him. But it is said this episode is what made him mad. And it did not end well for the Hollards or the Darklyns, either: Dontos is all that is left of those families. And lots of people are looking for him now.

She has a flash of inspiration when she decides that a likely destination for Sansa would be the Eyrie, since Sansa has an aunt there. If she hears about Lysa's death and that Littlefinger is hanging out at the Eyrie, she might have a further flash of Scooby-doo logic. But for now she meets a Dwarf who seems to have seen someone like Dontos at Maidenpool, which is where Sam's father Randyll Tarly is for some reason. I suppose Dontos could have been picked up by a boat there, since we last saw him in the Blackwater. He was trying to get three people across the sea to Pentos, presumably. Not sure who the other two are. But it did not end well for him, since someone called Nimble Dick captured him and turned him in for a ransom. The dwarf is headed for King's Landing -- that seems like a dangerous place for a dwarf to be going with a lordship up for grabs for killing Tyrion. Do people know well enough what Tyrion looks like?

There was a battle in Duskendale between Stark troops and Randyll Tarly troops and Brienne sees the graves. But I can't remember reading about this particular battle before. A quick search finds that Tyrion was told by Bronn about Tywin sending Tarly to Duskendale to deal with some of Robb Stark's wolves. This was in the chapter where he is waking up after his injuries at the Battle of Blackwater. Tywin confirms this later in the chapter. Tyrion wonders why Robb would risk attacking Duskendale. Brienne and Jaime later planned to to find mounts at Maidenpool and ride via Duskendale and Rosby to King's Landing, but were captured by Vargo Hoat on the road to Duskendale, where Brienne finds herself now. Possibly the fighting was going on in Duskendale then. In a later Tyrion chapter, Varys tells him that Randyll Tarly won the battle outside Duskendale. The survivors are heading back towards Harrenhal where they will encounter GREGOR waiting for them. There is no mention at all of Duskendale in the first book. It's interesting how consistent GRRM is, though. He must have worked all the movements out with wargame miniatures or something.

On the way to Maidenpool, Brienne meets Tyrion's abandoned squire, Podrick Payne, who is also looking for Sansa for some reason.

AFfC 8: Jaime 130

Jaime is standing vigil over his ever-smellier father's corpse. Presumably this is some sort of unfathomable Westerosi tradition. He's wracked with guilt that he caused all this by freeing Tyrion. Actually he caused all this by picking the absolute worst time to tell Tyrion the truth about his first wife. He's also consumed with jealousy at the idea that Cersei would sleep with Lancel and a Kettleblack, as Tyrion told him.

Varys has done a runner. He didn't want to free Tyrion in the first place but Jaime would have killed him otherwise.

Cersei comes to beg him to be hand but goes off in a huff when he says no. But later he helps her out a bit by explaining how to deal with Mace Tyrell, by sending him off to capture Storm's End. It seems like Jaime could just help Cersei out like this from time to time without having any official capacity. She still needs to choose a hand, though.

AFfC 7: Cersei 111

Cersei goes to her dad's funeral. We learn that the reward for killing Tyrion is a lordship. And that Tywin had no sense of humour. Cersei prays that he be judged fairly: she should be careful what she wishes for.

The corpse smells bad and has a funny smile. Cersei is very paranoid now (though they are out to get her), and thinks the septon hired by Tyrion must be behind it.

She has to talk to tedious people. Mace Tyrell wants to be King's hand and has some relative he wants to be master of coin, but Cersei is (quite rightly) suspicious of Tyrells. She asks Gyles Rosby to be master of coin. He doesn't want the job but he takes it.

The not-quite maester Qyburn wants to know more about the poison that is very slowly and painfully killing GREGOR. He should ask the Martells, one of whom was talking previously about it being deliberately slow and painful poison. Anyway I'm a bit suspicious of Qyburn, mostly since Cersei seems incapable of hiring anyone trustworthy (see also the Kettleblacks). And I fully expect GREGOR to make a full recovery and be a bit miffed with the Dornish.

Cersei asks her uncle, Kevan Lannister, to be hand. Up until now I'd always thought of him as a harmless background character, but it turns out he has enormous balls! He tells Cersei he'll take the job only if she buggers off to Casterly Rock to get away from Tommen, since she is, if Joffrey is anything to go by, a terrible mother. And if she doesn't like that, well he's got a quite a lot of soldiers who will back him up. And by the way he knows who Tommen's father is. Awesome stuff, he is my new favourite Lannister.

Interestingly he recommends Sam's dad Randyll Tarly as king's hand as an alternative.

AFfC 6: Arya 98

We last saw Arya getting onto a ship, trying to get to the Wall. Instead she's ended up bound for Braavos, which is a kind of Venice-like city of islands and about as un-Westeros-like as possible, in case Arya wasn't homesick enough. She's going to end up seriously tough at the end of all these adventures.

The weird coin that Jaqen H'ghar gave her leads her to a weird temple. Inside she meets an even weirder old man who seems to be able to read her mind and change his face. The face-changing, if I remember rightly, is a trick Jaqen himself pulled last time Arya saw him. This seems like pretty overtly magical magic, unless it turns out to be some trick along the lines of Stannis' suspiciously not-hot fire-y sword.

AFfC 5: Samwell 80

Jon is now the Lord Commander and doesn't hang out with his friends much any more. Dolorous Edd is his steward. Sam is reading books in the library to learn more about the Others. Stannis is still hanging around. Jon's dilemma is how to get help from Tywin in King's Landing without pissing off Stannis, and keeping Stannis around without pissing of Tywin. It seems pretty moot to me: no-one else is likely to help the Watch.

It seems to be common knowledge that Stannis wants to sacrifice someone with king's blood to resurrect a dragon. Jon is worried about Maester Aemon (Targaryen). So he sends Sam and Aemon off to Oldtown to keep Aemon safe (assuming the journey doesn't kill him) and for Sam to become a Maester. This re-awakens Sam's nightmares about his dad strangling him with a chain last time he said he wanted to be a Maester. There really are some pretty crappy fathers among the Westeros noblemen.

Anyway I'm pretty sure some other big stuff is going to be happening in Oldtown and Sam will likely get there in time to have a ringside seat.