Commentary

I have to say so far this has been my least favorite novel in the series. I haven't liked most of the changes, or the shift of focus, or the lack of anything happening, and the fact that it's still only something like mid-autumn.

Brienne was a great character in the Jaime chapters, but I find her rather boring in her own chapters. (Perspective matters.) Speaking of Jaime, I don't like how he's turning out. It's certainly the logical progression of his character, from the amoral villainous Kingslayer who killed Ned Stark's entourage, to a human being who is starting to care about things, and the events that happened to him definitely support the change. It's just that I don't like it. And Cersei, whoa. She's not as smart as she thinks she is. Her effectiveness in manipulating people comes from being shamelessly evil, not from being particularly cunning. As such her chapters leave me flat as well (although I suspect that could be intentional, more on that later).

Even the one Arya chapter was a letdown. The Arya chapters had been some of my consistenly favorite chapters, but this religion she found herself in just seems random.

The events in the Iron Islands were somewhat interesting but I really rather would have had Asha's point of view for all of it. I am not a fan of this revloving door POV, and it doesn't seem necessary. Asha was there for most of it, so there's no reason we couldn't have had all Asha chapters.

The Dornish chapters I'd have to say were my favorites of this novel. I loved pretty much all the characters in it: the Sand Snakes, Arianne, Hotah, the Darkstar, and even Arys Oakheart. Especially Prince Doran; it was nice to see someone who is skilled at the "game of thrones" manipulate things for peace for once. I was not a fan of the shifting POV, but at least for the Dornish chapters it seems like a single POV wouldn't have sufficed.

But some of the most interesting aspects of this novel are hearing rumors about things I would rather be reading about. Is the Hound alive or what? I predicted he was but the things attributed to him don't sound like him. At one point a witch was mentioned and clearly referred to Catelyn. Rumors of dragons in the East were common. All things I'd have rather been reading.

And I wouldn't have expected it, but I kind of miss the Bran chapters. I didn't really like Bran, and the chapters were boring, but it did connect the current action to the earliest scenes.

Prior Predictions

I made some hilariously wrong ones:

1. I predicted both Clegane brothers would pull through. Gregor is certainly dead (we'll credit Qyburn with being corrupt enough to hide the fact that he is a live for some reason, but doesn't seem likley). Sandor is rumored to be alive, but the rumors are unlikley. We'll call it likely wrong in both cases.
2. I predicted Jon Snow's inheritance of Winterfell would become a thing, but it hasn't so far and gets less likely the more the novel goes on.
3. I surmised the Pycelle would end up the King's Hand, wrongly. I also surmised that Dorne and the Tyrells (old town), would start to get conquesty. Wrong on both counts, although in Dorne it was only because it was thwarted.

A few other predictions are likely to turn out to be wrong, but I won't call them wrong yet. I predicted Asha would get chapters, plural. It's still not true, and the pattern suggests she might not get any more.

I was right on one prediction: that Brienne would get her own chapters.

Predictions

1. The big one: Are Sir Loras and Margery doing it? It's complicated. Certainly there are clues that suggest it retrospect (like when Ser Loras got huffy when Tyrion asked him why he took a Kingsguard post). If it were just that, I would just predict that they are doing it and that Cersei would twist that to her advantage (though it wouldn't work out as well as she'd think). Problem is, I have suspicions that Margery (and probably Ser Loras also) is just as busy manipulating things as Cersei is. Certainly Margery was a protogee of her grandmother the Queen of Thorns. In the face of ambiguity, I'll just go with the bigger surprise: it's an act. Margery wants Cercei to think she and her brother are lovers, and Cersei will work out this elaborate plan, only to fall into Margery's trap.
2. And then Margery will turn out to be a worse person than Cersei ever was.
3. Jaime and Brienne will meet again. It almost has to happen, and one way or another it'll have a big consequence. Jaime clearly is attracted to her in spite of himself, but I'm not sure he's ready to jump in yet. My hilarious guess is that Jaime and Brienne will meet up with Catelyn and he will cross over. Or he'll be disbelieved and again have to come to terms with his reputation.
4. Maester Aemon has some purpose behind asking about the dragons. My guess is that he will connect Dany's actions to Melisandre's and realize something Very Bad is about to happen, probably at the Wall, and he'll die leaving Samwell to make some decisions on how to handle it.
5. Who told on Princess Arianne? I'll guess Drey since he didn't seemed too surprised, and then tried to convince Arianne to cooperate. But I don't know if it was necessarily someone in the party.
6. The Darkstar was the one who escaped after Ser Arys foolishly diverted the Hotah's men.
7. Why did Myrcella have blood streaming through her fingers? I'd guess that she was hit by a stray arrow and (to make things interesting) died of it, but since she was shaking and wailing she would have only died of gangrene later. I'll predict she was hit by a stray arrow and not killed but maybe disfigured? Of course, maybe Arys's blood just splashed on her.
8. Euron's horn is going to Not Work As Intended. I fully expect it to have some effect on Dany's dragons. Remember, dragons are not slaves, so I don't expect Euron to control them to his will, but he might make them act out. Dany (who, I expect when we next meet her, we will see that she has been ruling very well) will have to be on the move again because of it.

Random Thoughts

I really liked the characters from the Dornish chapters.

I never liked Cersei (either as a person or as a character), and her own chapters aren't making me like her any more.

Seriously, where in the world is Tyrion?