** spoiler alert ** 
 I think the books in this series are continually going downhill. Not only has the novel turned into a bloodbath as character after character is killed off, the destruction of a good portion of the Stark family takes away the fantasy genres need to have a hero to root for. Not only are the majority of the characters simply despicable I find myself not even caring what happens to them. Also the dialogue is written in such a modern way it takes away from the setting/time period the story is supposed to take place in.