22. A Dance With Dragons

by George RR Martin (1 million pp)

It seems like every brick book series has moments in it that are just typing. This book is way too long for what happens in it. It felt like every chapter ended with a twist and by the time you met up with those characters again, a bunch of stuff had happened to solve the problem and a few characters stood around and talked about it. Then there would be a bit of action and another plot twist. Too much stuff happened off screen that would have been nice to see and too much standing around talking that could have been shaved down. I'm invested enough that I want to find out what happens next and there were good parts, too. And lots of people died.

21. Fathom

By Cherie Priest (380 pp.)

I almost didn't finish this book. I got it at a book exchange and it's not that I thought it was a bad book, it just didn't seem like my type of book. But then some unexpected things happened and I was sucked in and had to finish. This book is about an old god (goddess?) of water and her schemes. She's bad and she finds other bad people to help her out. Meanwhile other gods have their own plans. A fun story. I found myself wanting to go back and read just a few more chapters. I have a small complaint in that it felt like every other scene went on about a page and a half longer than it needed to. And then end felt like it went on about 20 pages longer than it needed to.