A Storm of Swords by George R.R. MartinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
(SPOILER ALERTS I TALK ABOUT PLOT TWISTS, DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT HAPPENED JUST YET)
I'm really enjoying this series, and highly recommend it to anyone who liked the HBO series or who likes medieval fantasy stories. There's war, there's sex, there's adventure, and there are dragons. Basically, I'm happy. A Storm of Swords is the third installment in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, and I have to say its just as good as the first two. My only issue is that I have the first four books in one file on my Nook (like having the boxed set. And it saved me money), so it's sometimes difficult for me to keep track of what happened in which book.
Similarly, it's sometimes hard to keep track of the many different characters; there are nine different main characters and the chapters alternate between their differing perspectives and plots. Dany is one of my favorite characters, but she only has one chapter out of every nine so it's hard to remember what's going on across the seas from Westeros. Other than my difficulty in keeping track of what's going on with which characters, I love this series.The Lady Tyrell, otherwise known as the 'Queen of Thorns', is a phenomenal character and I look forward to seeing more of her and the whole Tyrell clan. I also hope to see more about the war from Stannis Baratheon's camp; there were so few chapters and references to him I didn't really see what was going on.
The Starks' downfall is so sad to read. Martin has absolutely no qualms about whom he kills off, or how. There were several nights I couldn't put this book down, and found myself irrationally upset in real life over something that happened in the book. That's how you know it's a good story, when you are so invested in the story and what happens to your favorite characters..
In my opinion, this is definitely the best installment in the series so far. I am so excited to see what happens with Danaerys and her fight to reclaim the Iron Throne, and at this point just to find out who lives and who dies. It's painful, every time I have a new favorite character, they die. So sad, but that's clearly how the game of thrones is played.Seriously though, I need to stop getting attached to these characters. At least 15 major characters died in this installment, and i happened to like (or liked to hate) most of them. Definitely my favorite in this series (so far), and I'm looking forward to starting A Feast for Crows as soon as I can.
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I dont know if there has ever been a fantasy series as well written, realistic, unpredictable, morally ambiguous and ruthlessly brutal as 'A Song of Fire and Ice' is. Despite this books considerable length (900 odd pages)I literally could not put it down for longer than 10 minutes, and spent the best part of 2 days engrossed in reading it.
ReplyDeleteIn writing this book George R.R Martin has succeded in combining a brilliant narrative and 1st class dramatic writing, with conventional fantasy elements (magic, dragons etc) and a complex 'War of the Roses' type political situation to make a truly gripping and innovative fantasy novel. Indeed in some senses the book is almost a semi-historical fiction rather than pure fantasy novel because of the amount of elements and plot situations drawn from the 14th century English dynastic 'War of the Roses'. This serves to make the book an excellant read for anyone who is interested in medieval European/English history, regardless of whether they like the conventional fantasy genre or not.