All page totals given are for the US paperback edition.

After expanding the series to four volumes, Martin remarked, "What can I say? It's a BIG story, and a cast of thousands."[23]

After A Storm of Swords was completed in 2000, Martin began writing A Dance with Dragons, the intended fourth volume which would pick up the story five years after the previous volume. Martin found it difficult to make this work without an over-reliance on flashbacks. At the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia on 1 September 2001, Martin announced that he was scrapping more than a year's work and writing a different fourth book that would fill in the gap, named A Feast for Crows. He found it extremely difficult to go back and start again, especially as this novel was not planned for in his scheme for the series, and work on the book progressed slowly.

By May 2005, A Feast for Crows had become longer than A Storm of Swords (the manuscript for which had been 1521 pages) and Martin's publishers said they could not publish the book in one volume.[16] They suggested splitting the book in two and releasing the volumes as A Feast for Crows, Volume I and A Feast for Crows, Volume II, but Martin was unhappy with this idea. After discussing the matter with his publishers and his friend and fellow writer Daniel Abraham, Martin decided to split the book by character and location instead. The published A Feast for Crows thus contained all of the characters in the South of the Seven Kingdoms, while the forthcoming A Dance with Dragons will contain the characters in the North, the Free Cities and in Slaver's Bay.

In a May 2005 statement, the author also said that this move now meant that the series would require seven volumes. Martin recognized that this decision could cause frustration among some of his fans. He wrote: "I know some of you may be disappointed, especially when you buy A Feast for Crows and discover that your favorite character does not appear, but given the realities I think this was the best solution... and the more I look at it, the more convinced I am that these two parallel novels, when taken together, will actually tell the story better than one big book."[16]

These problems aside, A Feast for Crows was released in October 2005 and immediately won largely positive reviews. Time dubbed Martin "the American Tolkien",[24] and the novel went straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

Despite initial hopes of A Dance with Dragons being published quickly after A Feast for Crows, the writing and revision process for this fifth novel proved more difficult than anticipated. On January 1, 2008, Martin published an update on his website saying he hoped to have the book published in the autumn of 2008, but that it was only a hope.[25] After almost 6 years it was announced [26] that A Dance with Dragons will be released July 12, 2011. The book length will be similar to A Storm of Swords. During the long writing period, Martin insisted that he would not be bullied and works at his own pace, on this and several other projects, to make sure they come out as good as he can possibly make them.[27]

I thought Arya wasn't at the tournament of the hand? (according to the book)

The hound was supposed to be the one explaining the story of him and his brother, not Littlefinger. But i don't mind it really, i think that scene established the initial story between Sansa and Littlefinger, whilsts making the hound seem more enigmatic.

HODOR!!!!!!

Gendry the blacksmith

Gendry is more likeable in the second book.
Though he is still a minor character.

Yea, Arya's got more guts than he is the second book.

I don't know Renly's gay?

In early book 2, Maester Cressen did mention that Renly likes rainbow colours....stereotype, LOL!
Renly and Loras are very close as indicated in the middle of the book.
Have not finished 'Clash of Kings' though.

I can't believe what Stannis had done to Renly.

Jaime,"How dare you stare at her boobs! I'm gonna skewer your eye out!"
at least he goes with the last few images of that pair beautiful boobs in his mind

I still didn't get the part where the red priest give birth to the shadow.

cant wait to see Danaerys appear from funeral pyre with 3 dragons and kick some ass with em

No more Sean Bean in S02

Lommy and Hot Pie will be seen in Season 1.
So Season 1 covered a bit of Book 2.
But no Brynden Tully and Hoster Tully cast for Season 1.

The Danaerys assassination scene feel a bit forced though.
The rest is top notched entertainment.
This people know how to back-stab. Their words are sharper than their weapons.
The queen are so much evil in the show than in the book.
And Ned is stupidly honourable. He could sit on that bloody throne twice and he refused to take that step because of his honors. Damn!

"Yes, I didn't fight with honor, but he did" points at the moon door