Finished Storm of Swords. Seriously, what is the point of developing characters so much if you make a business of offing them all? It tired me out and I think I'll take a break from the series for a bit to read something more constructive.
In essence, the author analyzes how western civilization evolved from monarchy to democracy and argues that a monarchy is actually the lesser of two evils. Given the dismal state of American politics at the moment... I'm really interested to see what he has to say. This book has been heralded as "one of the most important works of the 20th century".