A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3) by George R.R. Martin
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Book Reviews of A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)
Book Review: Quite possibly my favorite book ever
Summary: 5 Stars
If you've liked the previous two installments of the ASOIAF series, then A Storm of Swords is the very definition of a must-buy; it takes the already great plot, characterization and overall workmanship of the previous two books and turns it up a notch or ten.
Be warned, though, several plot developments might result in your book being slammed to the floor or thrown across the room in rage/frustration or (if you're so inclined) wild celebration.
Book Review: Best Yet! 5 Stars With a Clear Conscience
Summary: 5 Stars
A Storm of Swords is incredibly entertaining and the best book of the series to date. The "issues" I had with the earlier two books (mainly the excessive, constant and gratutious sexual humiliation of women and other needless and bizarre hyper-sexual content directed at a 13 year old) which prevented me from giving them 5 stars are either gone or under control in this book. There is sex in this book but it isn't gratuitous - and therein lies the difference.
This book is nonstop action. The character development is interesting and on-point. This is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read in any genre. In short, I loved it and would recommend it highly. I suspect that fans of Martin will agree that this is the best of the series published to date.
Book Review: The Best yet
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best of series so far. I'm excited to get started on a feast for crows.Book Review: As the Dragon Turns
Summary: 5 Stars
Some of the self indulgence that turns Feast for Crows into a mediocrity shows up in this book, especially with Arya's POV. She goes here and doesn't do much, goes there and doesn't do much, and goes to a 3rd place and does didly squat. Martin wants to get her to Braavos so that her POV can begin to do what it was meant to do but he doesn't quite know how to get her there.
But Martin still has a dramatic tale to tell and he tells it.
One of the themes in Martin's story is how all these characters make plans and they all go astray. The more carefully planned and longer term the more spectacular the eventual undoing. There's a great revelation concerning Littlefinger's machinations at the end of this book, at a critical juncture where things start to go wrong for him. He finds a way out of the current impasse but Feast for Crows starts to give hints as to how things may come undone altogether. But, he has an important new ally, Sansa Stark. Rather than a pawn that is caught in his web as some have intreprted her, she develops into a valuable co-conspirator.
Joffrey Baratheon who is really Lannister wins the Iron Throne by coming into posession of widow Margery Tyrell's privy purse. Renly Baratheon was gay and the lover of brother Loras Tyrell, so her claims to virginity are plausible. But, something goes wrong for Joffrey, and the going wrong is a great read. It's not just the Starks whose efforts come undone, the Lannister's luck starts to run out in this book as well.
For those that were suprised by the turn of events of House Stark in this book - there were two dead givaways in the previous book that things were going to go very wrong for the Starks. One was the vision that Dany had in the House of the Undying. Another was the dream that Theon Greyjoy had at Winterfell. RR Martin hits people over the head with a sledgehammer to telegraph the direction of the story and few people get it.
The only main characters who seam to come out on top of the circumstances thrown at them are the two main ones - Dany (Fire) and Jon (Ice), both of whom are Targaryens, though Jon is a bastard. These two characters have the great destiny of typical fantasy literature, though both their lives are so screwed up that you wouldn't want to be them.
There's something in the Targaryen bloodline that allows them to control dragons. Dragons had died out but have returned just in time to battle the evil undead ice elves from the north - the true threat to humanity that all those that play the Game of Thrones are ignoring, with the exception of unloved Stannis Baratheon who comes to Jon's rescue with the few men who remain loyal to him.
The catch is that dragons are dangerous and though they will obey the Targaryens, they make no other discrimination about what or whom they may choose for a meal between battles.
The Targaryens themselves, being the last nobility of the lost city/empire of Valyria have inbred for the past 300 years, and nearly every one of the last couple of generations has been insane. Rhaegar, Jon's father, and Jon are exceptions. Maester Aemon of the Night's Watch is another exception. Dany isn't an exception. She means well, but so far she has managed to accomplish nothing more than sowing chaos in her wake.
Book Review: Strong Readers Are Rewarded
Summary: 5 Stars
This is book three of this intricately-plotted, cast-of-thousands series and it easily represents a couple of reams of paper. The reader needs weightlifting to pick it up and the endurance of a soldier on a death march. Once you start, you are chained to it, in thrall to the drama and epic sweep of the story. Multiple characters hold a reader's interest; some are likable; some not so much. Every storyline has one sympathetic character in great peril. The characters develop and change; the reader's view of them shifts constantly.
Jaime Lannister is one of the undoubted bad guys with incest and murder in his background. He killed the king he was sworn to protect and crippled a child of seven. One spends the first two books hating him, but in this one, we see some of his inner motivations. We watch him growing a conscience and start to admire him for his good qualities. In his wit and bravery, he resembles his brother Tyrion. His story is one of many that undergo dramatic changes of circumstance and unpredictable shifts.
Jon Snow, the bastard son of Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell, is another character whose circumstances upend themselves. Daenerys is another character who transforms herself. It is interesting that these two characters seem to be moving in a parallel direction.
As splendid as this series is, I can see fault lines developing as the story lines splinter and more characters and more plot lines are brought before the reader. The author has a habit of leaving a character in peril at the end of a chapter and with so many stories going at once, it is frequently a long time before he can get back to that thread. Seven hundred pages of this will leave the reader feeling jerked around. I would have deducted a star, but the author presented so many dramatic twists near the end of the book that I was stunned. Suddenly one sees why he splits off and follows Sam Tarly; one gets the point of something five hundred pages earlier. The complexity and permutations of fortune will make re-reading this series as great a pleasure as the first reading was. This is splendid value for the money, a series and a book to treasure for years to come.