I'd heard lots of good things about this book, but I was resisting: I don't enjoy waiting for the next book in a series, so I decided I'd wait until it was complete. And then I had a sudden longing for high fantasy, and my willpower collapsed. Now I foresee myself racing through the series, and waiting with everyone else for the next installment. 
 The world-building is complex in its politics and history, and fairly typical medieval-esque fare in other respects. Even down to the jousting knights, the social system is plucked from the pages of history. Which is fine; if every Martin had to develop every aspect afresh in the same level of detail, he'd never get a word written. 
 All 800+ pages of this novel (goodness, I was glad for my Kindle!) are really setting up the characters and situations for later books. If I have one minor gripe it's that the ending wasn't really an ending: stopping here simply isn't an option. But it's masterfully done, with sympathetic figures on all sides (and a few less sympathetic ones to add colour). I can't wait to see where it goes from here.