ADWD Jon I

So in my mad quest to penny-pinch, I have the international trade paperback version of A Dance With Dragons, whereas I have the US paperback versions of all the other books. So I don't know if Dance has a different map, or if the international versions have had different maps this whole time.

But I hate the style of the new map, is what I'm getting at. I'm almost at the point where I'll flip to the map in A Storm of Swords because I'm so used to the old style.


I bring this up because once again we're up on the Wall, and the various other Night's-Watch-castles-that-aren't-Black-Eastwatch-or-Shadow have come into play again. See, Book 3 ended with Stannis arriving at the Wall with a huge freaking army and expecting the Lord Commander to do whatever the hell he wanted. He was also planning on legitimizing Jon Snow and having him convince the other lords of the north to bend the knee, so he was less than thrilled to discover that a) he couldn't make Jon the Lord of Winterfell because b) Jon was already the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and because he's supposedly Eddard Stark's son, he does not know when to stop holding on to his honor so tight his fingers lose circulation.

By the way, Jon burned his hand back in the first book. I mention this because every subsequent Jon chapter has him clenching his burned fingers. Stannis grinds his teeth, Arya bites her lip, Jon clenches his burned hand.

So anyway Jon and Stannis have a bit of a head-to-head because Jon wants the Night's Watch to guard the realm and Stannis wants it to serve him. And because Stannis is an inflexible dick and Jon's obsessed with honor, they get nowhere. At this point I'm wondering what happened to Davos, because Stannis was so much more likeable in his chapters. Last we saw of him in Storm, he was condemned to death but delayed his execution long enough to tell Stannis about how badly the Wall needed help. Then in Feast we learn that he's (apparently) been/going to be executed. But for now apparently he's still Stannis's Hand. Which is funny because Stannis mutilated his hand, yet Davos pretty much loves him unconditionally. Man, Stannis was so much more likeable in Davos's chapters.

Jon has started hatching his plan to get Gilly and Mance Rayder's son way the hell away from Stannis and his royal-burning priestess Melisandre. We already know that, surprisingly, this plan works 100% successfully because we've already read A Feast For Crows. Okay, actually we know that Gilly and the "prince" are currently hanging out at the Citadel, the only college in the realm, where their only protector is a fat guy who's being roped into a conspiracy involving a totally badass assassin and a plot to extinguish all magic from the world forever. But none of that has happened yet.

So once Jon and Stannis are done yelling at each other, Melisandre tells Jon that he's in great danger and will have need of her soon. I think she just wants somebody else to sire another ringwraith on her, because Stannis apparently can't do it no mo'. Then she leans in and whispers, "you know nothing, Jon Snow."

Boom. End chapter.

That's two cliffhangers in a row (four, if you count the prologue and the revelation that, yes, Illyrio is on Team Daenerys, but I don't), and this book's barely started yet. Next up is a Bran chapter. If Martin manages to end that chapter on a cliffhanger, I'll be equal parts impressed and annoyed.