Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • A Dance with Dragons

  • Book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire
  • By: George R.R. Martin
  • Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
  • Length: 48 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (6,411 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
A Dance with Dragons cover art

A Dance with Dragons

By: George R.R. Martin
Narrated by: Roy Dotrice
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Dune cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
New Spring cover art
Unfinished Tales cover art
The Children of Hurin cover art
The Magician's Apprentice cover art
A Day of Fallen Night cover art
Many Are the Dead cover art
Macbeth: A Novel cover art
Wicked cover art
Red Rising (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
Viking Fire cover art
Debt of Bones cover art
American Assassin cover art
Ironhand's Daughter cover art
Dark Witch cover art

Editor reviews

A Dance with Dragons is part one of book five in this sweeping epic fantasy audiobook series A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R. R. Martin and narrated by veteran British actor Roy Dotrice. Now the inspiration behind the major HBO TV series Game of Thrones. Queen Daenerys’ dragons have matured. They have been locked away and are simmering with unimaginable power. Her enemies have found out of their existence. The dragons are loyal to no one. The monstrous army gathering behind the wall of ice and stone continues to grow stronger. Available now from Audible.

Summary

The complete, unabridged audiobook of A Dance with Dragons. 

HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A Dance with Dragons is the fifth volume in the series. 

The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance. 

In the east, Daenerys, last scion of House Targaryen, her dragons grown to terrifying maturity, rules as queen of a city built on dust and death, beset by enemies. 

Now that her whereabouts are known many are seeking Daenerys and her dragons. Among them the dwarf Tyrion Lannister, who has escaped King’s Landing with a price on his head, wrongfully condemned to death for the murder of his nephew, King Joffrey. But not before killing his hated father, Lord Tywin. 

To the north lies the great Wall of ice and stone - a structure only as strong as those guarding it. Eddard Stark's bastard son Jon Snow has been elected the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but he has enemies both in the Watch and beyond the Wall, where the wildling armies are massing for an assault. 

On all sides bitter conflicts are reigniting, played out by a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves. The tides of destiny will inevitably lead to the greatest dance of all....

©2011 George R. R. Martin (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"In the grand epic fantasy tradition, Martin is by far the best...tense, surging, insomnia-inflicting." (Time magazine)

"An absorbing, exciting read.... Martin's style is so vivid that you will be hooked within a few pages." (The Times)

"The sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads.... Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venomous they could eat the Borgias." (Guardian)

What listeners say about A Dance with Dragons

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,776
  • 4 Stars
    1,177
  • 3 Stars
    318
  • 2 Stars
    83
  • 1 Stars
    57
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,342
  • 4 Stars
    1,095
  • 3 Stars
    604
  • 2 Stars
    197
  • 1 Stars
    152
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,319
  • 4 Stars
    744
  • 3 Stars
    245
  • 2 Stars
    55
  • 1 Stars
    25

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrative a little disappointing 😕

Roy Dutrice has so many voices and accents and reads with such feeling.. His narration would be perfect if only he didn't change a characters accent half way through!! It really ruins parts of the story. Aria has suddenly been given an Irish accent ??? None of the other Starks have though ?? And Danares has also suddenly become Irish ?? It really is so annoying! I know there are a lot of characters but accents for families or areas should have been decided beforehand and a sample recording of each saved for reference in case there was any doubt.. I would have expected a more thorough and professional approach for the amount of money I have spent buying this series of audio books.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

80 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • CJ
  • 25-08-12

Dreadful narration

I have persevered with Dotice’s narration this far but finally have to throw in the towel. I thought the first three books well narrated and find Dotrice’s normal gravely and resonant speaking voice appealing. However, narration can make or break a book for me and the accent and intonation adopted for a particular character changes my mental image of that character. Dotrice does a reasonable job with the male characters – I’ve always thought Tyrion’s welsh lilt was fitting, for example. The problem is the female characters. Dotrice narrates all of the female characters – young and old and whether of noble or low birth – as if they were Cornish or Irish fishwives. I cannot picture Daenerys as a lithe and queenly figure when she is made to sound coarse and slow witted. I will finish this in print.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Starting to lose interest.

I seem to be of a different thinking from many of the reviews on this book. I don’t really have a problem with Roy Dotrice as a narrator. However I am finding I am getting bored with the story and how it does not seem to be going very far. I got hooked on these books and love all the characters, cultures and depth that Martin has created in this world. However I really get the feeling that even Martin has no plan on where this story is going. We found out in book 1 that ‘winter is coming’ but still? Is this saga even going have an end? Or will it have no idea how to end, like the series Lost? I am someone who normally does not get impatient with a story taking it’s time to build, however on this one I am starting to wonder if I will keep investing my time into this series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Dr
  • 01-09-11

I disagree, I still love Roy :-)

If you liked Roy Dotrice's other ASOIF narration you will still like this, although he has changed some of the voices such as Dany, as mentioned by others, which is a bit frustrating. Yes, Roy is not on as top form as he was for the first 3 books (its what, 11 years?), but I personally find him to be one of the best narrators out there. I find it very hard to listen to others (esp the over the top american voices) after spending so much time listening to this master!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I give up

Meh. I got nearly half way through and have just given up. It's all got unremittingly grim. Dany's story is boring the pants off me and there's no end in sight. There is no humour, no humanity, no light and shade, no attempt at actual human characters. For me successful fantasy has to be grounded in reality - the people have to be actual people who respond believably to situations, however fantastical. GRRM needs a damn good editor and kick up the wossname.

Roy Dotrice's characterisation is also driving me up the wall (or even THE WALL). Why has Dany now got a bizarre Oirish accent? Why is everyone who isn't a lord, a yokel?

Maybe when the next book is finally released, I'll come back and finish this one for but I just can't face slogging through more death, betrayal, misery and rape threats when there isn't even any kind of conclusion appearing over the horizon.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great listen

fantastic books all of them although Roy dotrice was a terrible choice for narration he constantly changes voices for characters and does the wrong ones for others he even pronounces some names differently...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Victarion Australian ?

Well yes, that first - had Roy Dorice really run out of accents so badly that he had to make Victarion Greyjoy australian ? That really is bizarre. Why not scandinavian or even russian?

And secondly, there are so many characters in these books that someone must be keeping a record of how they sound. How come the producer, who together with Roy Dotrice, must have had a reference file of how everyone sounds, didn't say "Hang on Roy, that sounds nothing like Xxxx !"

I'd love an explanation of why Dany goes from young english to old irish; Bran goes from child english to child westcountry; Stannis goes from quick northern to slow northern; Cersei goes from english to welsh; Melisandre goes from exotic siren to girly french and Strong Belwas covers an entire spectrum.

But now we've established that voices can change willy-nilly, can Victarion PLEASE not have an accent that couldn't have existed at the time.

I know Roy does a lot of voices but couldn't he do Cockney for some characters, or Spanish (as I reckon Dorn is Spain)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Rambling

Generally enjoyed the book. Made long driving easier, however the story does tend to ramble and the lack of any major event made the book a little frustrating. Narration is not always pitched right and the 60+ female Irish accent doesn't work for Danny.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

I'm sorry but...

It might just be me, but I'm afraid I found the narration very dull. I've listened to the first 30 mins so far and to be honest I need to go back and start again, as I can't remember anything that has been said so far.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • AB
  • 01-12-14

Back with gusto!

Would you listen to A Dance with Dragons (Part One) again? Why?

Definitely. martin is back to his best....and Dotrice too.
I was slightly disappointed by A Feast for Crows, but this rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the series!

What other book might you compare A Dance with Dragons (Part One) to, and why?

The earlier books of the series

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Well, things are simply starting to happen in the various cities and regions. The Wall, Bravos, and all the other key areas have plots within plots developing...

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Gripping!

Any additional comments?

I'm really going to miss listening to this series. Hurry up Winds of Winter!
Additionally, those who criticise Dotrice are simply wrong. Okay, he forgets a particular accent from time to time, but the sheer number of characters he's portraying is phenomenal.
He's a credit to this series IMO.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful