This book was VERY long and VERY vividly detailed. It might be my age and un-maturity talking, but this book had so much world-building and action! I LOVED that! The scandalous aspects - incest, etc. - were, well, scandalous, and I can't complain. It was juicy. What I didn't like so much was the length. The length doesn't bother me, just a lot of scenes were drawn out and sometimes there's a little too much detail, you know?

However, in some ways, the details painted a very vivid picture of the world. George R. R. Martin definitely knew what he was doing, and hinted at other plots, other bigger pictures to be elaborated on later. Like Cait said in her Goodreads review, he made us feel ALL THE THINGS. We were completely manipulated by the author and his masterful writing. I applaud him.