This book focuses on King's Landing and Dorne, leaving us in the dark about the Wall and Daenerys but giving plenty of detail about Cersei's command of the Iron Throne, Jaime's attempt to rid himself of the Kingslayer moniker, Brienne's attempts to find the Stark girls, Sansa and Arya's own journeys, and a bigger picture of the utter chaos the realm has fallen into. This felt darker than the previous books (and they are pretty dark) because Tyrion and Tywin are both out of the picture, Jaime and Cersei don't trust each other, zombie Catelyn thinks all of her children are dead, the realm is in ruins -- well, it's all pretty bad. But I still found myself pulling out my highlighter for some truly beautiful passages. And I loved seeing more of Dorne.