A Storm of Swords (apologies to anyone that keeps up with this my previous entry was labeled A Storm of Swords, but was for A Clash of Kings.)
By George R.R. Martin
1216 Pages (Fantasy Fiction)
Spoiler Alert: This book is the third in the series. See my entry for A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings before reading this.
The warring continues in this Third installment. Brienne of Tarth is charged with escorting Jamie Lannister to King’s Landing. Catelyn Starck’s only hope for her daughter’s safe return is the “Imp”, Tyrion Lannister, will hold true to his word and return them. They travel south by river and eventually are turned inland. They are soon captured by the Brave Companions and brought to Harrenhal. Here Vargo Hoat chops off Jamie’s hand. Jamie is released by Roose Bolton with regards to Tywin Lannister.
Beyond the wall, Jon Snow is still traveling with the wildlings and hopes to find a way out of their service. He takes a liking to Ygritte who he took captive earlier. They soon become lovers. Samwell Tarly is with the main contingent north of the wall which is attacked by the Others. The living dead. Almost all defends are killed as nothing seems to kill them. The men are forced to run for there lives. As the others catch up to them Sam “luckily” kills one with an obsidian blade. Jon Snow convinces the leader, Mance Rayder, that he has joined the wildlings and is sent with others to climb the wall and attack Castle Black from the other side.
Robb Starck reveals that he has betrayed his oath to marry a Frey. Instead he has married Jeyne Westerling after being cared for her after battle. It soons becomes evident that he must make amends with Freys because his army needs to pass over their bridges in order to follow through with the King in the North’s battle plans.
Arya Starck joins in with the group known as the Brotherhood without Banners. Sandor Clegane, The Hound, is captured by the Brotherhood. He is offered trial by combat and succeeds and killing Beric Dondarrion, their leader. A red priest soon after brings him back from the dead. The priest says he gets his powers from R’hllor. Arya decides to leave and is captured by Sandor Clegane.
Davos Seaworth stranded on a rock in the water and is rescued; only to be jailed as soon as he is brought to Dragonstone for treason. Melisandre has seen his murderous intent in the flames.
Daenerys Targaryen is trying to build an army to retake what is rightfully hers in Westeros. She is convinced to trade one of her dragons for an army of the greatest warriors in the world. The leads to one of the most memorable scenes in the series so far, but I wouldn’t ruin that for you. I’ll let Martin tell the right way.
At over 1200 pages you can imagine this is just a brief overview of what is going on in this book. Martin is in full form drawing you into the story and you have to keep reading. Again and again I found myself having to stop myself because I was reading late into the night. It felt like a much smaller book. His writing style is top notch. The characters have become extremely developed. You don’t have the Evil Villain versus the Good Knight. There are people acting the way they think they should. Some are vile and some are good, but most fall into a middle grey area. The story is filled with battle, intrigue, back stabbing, friendship, hatred, kindness, humor and horror.
I told myself I needed to hold off on the next book, A Feast for Crows, but I am already itching to get into the next book. The fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, is not even confirmed to be finished. My hope in rereading the series was to get reacquainted with the story before the next book comes out. Since it now looks like that is a long way off I need to put a little time between this and the 4th book.
This is Martin’s Masterpiece. The Song of Ice and Fire series is the best Fantasy Fiction series I have read and will surely go down as a classic. Any reader owes it to themselves to pick up this series and give it a try.
Emotional 5: The depth of the characters and the ease with which you can jump into this story make this an easy one to grade.
Intellectual 3: This books focus isn’t on grabbing you intellectually, but it succeeds in trying to figure out who and what are involved in all the details that affect the rivaling kings.
Long-Term 4: I have no doubt this series will stand the test of time and potentially rise to the top of the crowd of epic fantasy series.
