Half the characters, half the quality really. I liked the overall sense of story that I got when reading the other books, but I didn't really get that here. This book did do some things well though. It made you really hate Cersi. And why we're allowed to. Probably the favourite parts of this novel were Arya and Brienne, though I was disappointed with Brienne's ending. I mean really? All of that and no pay off? Will we ever get a pay off in this epic story? Will Daenerys get to Westoros riding her dragons only to be killed unceremoniously just because that's not we expected? I'm probably missing something about Brienne's story, but at the moment I just don't see it. Oh well. Until the next chapter!