There’s sabotage, scheming, and various twists enough for the bloodthirstiest and most action-hungry, and things end in a satisfying enough way to leave the future open to plenty of possibility without being too open-ended. None of it is truly new or unique (in comparison to the setting, anyway), with plenty of reliance on those familiar rehashings of the dangers of overconfidence, the importance of friends, and so on. But all of it (generally speaking) has been done before, right?
Somehow, Martin manages to take all of these pieces and make a cohesive whole. It all ties together wonderfully, and I’m at a loss as to how he manages to do it so well. Naturally, there are a lot of loose ends left after things draw to a close, yet it stands as a compliment to Martin’s storytelling ability that I wanted to pick up the sequel the moment that I finished the first installment.