The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good. [...] Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war.
{buy here}
Almost as if A Song of Ice and Fire is simply one insanely large book, A Storm of Swords continues right where A Clash of Kings left off: with Westeros in the midst of a war for the throne and Daenarys Targaryen slowly but methodically making her way to the Seven Kingdoms to join the fight. While the self-proclaimed kings plot and fight for the throne, Jon Snow learns more about wildlings and White Walkers as he ventures with a group to explore beyond the Wall. The webs that Martin began weaving in the first two books only grow more intense and the twists and turns are magnified with shocking moments and very unexpected developments between different characters. Like many other reviews I have read noted, I wanted to throw my book across the room multiple times reading this!
Even though this was my favorite book in the series, it is still very dense and I found it difficult to read for extended periods of time, depending on which point of view I was reading. But sometimes I just really struggled through the characters, which is a blessing and a curse with these books. Fortunately some new point of views were introduced in this book, most notably Jaime. Hearing his perspective was refreshing and altered my perception of the Lannisters. One of the hallmarks of a great writer is the ability to give multiple dimension to their characters, especially by making the reader sympathize with the "enemy". When I find myself rooting for Tyrion and Jamie I am reminded at how incredible George R. R. Martin is at storytelling.
My favorite point of views are historically those of the Starks, especially Arya. Is anyone else secretly hoping that Arya and Gendry end up getting married someday? I promise I'm not offering any spoilers because as I type this, I haven't read the last 2 books published in this series and there are still 2 books left to be published; but I think Arya and Gendry getting married would be like a symbolic fulfillment of Robert Baratheon marrying Lyanna Stark. Not that George R. R. Martin would ever be predictable...
If you haven't started reading George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones), I highly recommend carving a reasonable amount of time for you to do this! A Storm of Swords is worth the read alone, but you can't understand its beauty without reading the first two books and I promise you won't be able to stop once you're three books in!
Bottom Line: The BEST book so far in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series! If this type of story interest you at all, this series is a must read!! 5+/5 stars
If you've read or have started reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series, what chapter point of views are your favorite? Who are your least favorite? I get easily bored by Davos, Bran, Jon and Sam - even though I really love all of them as characters. I admit Jon and Sam's chapters have gotten way better though!
Next week's book is A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
Jaime is such a game changer, it's incredible what GRRM does with him. I despised him and now he's one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteYou are so, so not alone on Gendry and Arya. A lot of people ship them and there's a lot of meta and thoughts on it out there!
My favorites are Arya, Jon, Sansa, and Jaime. I liked Catelyn's views of Robb and I like Dany's chapters because she's the only view of Essos. I used to dislike Davos's chapters so much, but he grew on me later. And Bran has is moments plus I love Meera so much. I have a few issues with Sam but I mainly like him!
And wow, I wrote a lot. I'm slightly obsessed with ASOIAF and like to talk about it =) I'm glad you're liking it, this is my favorite of the series, too!
i admit, when i read this book and got to know jaime better, i have a different perspective of him. who expects that different side from Jaime??
ReplyDeleteUgh, i can't wait to know what happen next to the Hound and Sansa. dang it.