This book, as with the others preceding it, is a book of epic proportions - literally and figuratively speaking. The story enveloped me, the words embraced me and each character was enchained to me, leading this world to become my own as much as theirs. I didn't read this book - I lived it! 
 Martin offers a beautifully and flawlessly created world, complete with a complex set of characters with their own individual and familial histories, that often ends up feeling more substantial than the real world we exist in, after 569 pages. I have never come across a writer who can encapsulate an entire world, and all the various bodies who exist in it, as effortlessly as Martin does. His legacy is undoubtedly this series and his name will be remembered as belonging to one of the greatest writers who ever existed. 
 To offer a synopsis of this book would take more than the 19119 characters I have left, but what I will say is this - READ THIS SERIES!!