A Storm of Swords - Review
A Storm of Swords (Book 3) is the best book in the A
Song of Ice & Fire series so
far. By a long shot. This book was just non-stop action and intrigue.
There were shocking twists after twists after twists and many
revelations that I didn't see coming. Not to mention, there were plenty
of deaths. With all the action and battles and shocking events, I was
scared that George R.R. Martin was just going to sneak out of answering
all the lingering questions that were posed in Books 1 & 2 ('A Game
of Thrones' & 'A Clash of Kings' respectively), but I was pleasantly
surprised to find out a lot of answers, especially for the main
mysteries that were posed all the way back in Book 1. This review has no
spoilers but it will lightly cover some of the events in this book. It
will be comprised of 4 brief sections. Characters, Plot,
Setting/World-Building & Pacing.
All of the POV characters have their best arcs of the series so far in this book. Whereas AGOT and ACOK had 1 or 2 POV characters that were slow or boring, there were no bad POV's in this book. All the POV character's arcs in this book continue to get better and build upon each book from this series but in particular, Arya Stark's arc in this book was drastically more entertaining compared to the previous books. The same goes for Sansa Stark, Bran Stark, and Jon Snow. Arya is becoming more of a bada**, Sansa is slowly starting to trust less people and stopped being so gullible, Bran is starting to harness his warging powers, and Jon is really in conflict with himself about what type of person he is.
We also get Samwell Tarly and Jaime Lannister as new POV chapters in this book and both of them are already among my favorite characters. Jaime specifically has had the most character development in this book. For those who have read the first 2 books, you would have already came to the conclusion that Jaime is a straight up prick, as did I. But slowly throughout his journey, you learn more about his backstory of why he was called "The Kingslayer", you get to see his initially annoying, then funny, then subtly beautiful relationship with Brienne Tarth, and you slowly start to sympathize with him chapter by chapter. He's far from being fully redeemed but that's what makes the characters feel so real in this book (and series). None of them are one-dimensional, there is good and bad in every character (only a few that are swaying heavy on either end of that spectrum). What this series does best is character development and the Jaime arc in this book alone should convince you on what a masterclass George R.R. Martin giving you on character development.
Whereas the plot for 'A Game of Thrones' was focused with Eddard Stark and 'A Clash of Kings' was focused on Tyrion Lannister, 'A Storm of Swords' is more evenly split between Arya, Jon, Tyrion, & Jaime. There are less battles in this book compared to ACOK (although there is a pretty epic one), but there is much more scheming, political machinations and crazy twists which is why I love this series so much. Jon, Tyrion, and Catelyn had the best storylines, in my opinion. Jon "joining" the Wildlings and seeing their way of life was really fascinating. His relationship with Ygritte was great and the battle at the Wall was insane. Tyrion's storyline continues to be fantastic as we see all the hard work that he did as "Hand of the King" being destroyed after the "Battle of the Blackwater" from ACOK. We see him go through a lot of trials and tribulations and his last chapter in this book was amazingly shocking.
Speaking of shocking, there are so many twists and revelations in this book. Whereas AGOT had Eddard Stark's beheading and ACOK didn't really have any big twists or revelations, this book made up for it......A LOT!!!. There was "The Red Wedding", "The Purple Wedding", Littlefinger's several revelations, the Arstan Whitebeard reveal and the entirety of Tyrion's last chapter in this book. Even after all these twists and revelations, I squealed like a little girl when I read the surprise in the last few pages of the epilogue. The plotting in this book was just brilliant.
Some other great storylines were in the chapters of Arya, Daenerys, Catelyn, and jaime. Arya travelling around with the "Brotherhood Without Banners" was awesome because we get to learn about Lord Beric Dondarrion who is a very fascinating character, along his red priest Thoros of Myr. Daenerys is learning to be more tactical and military savvy and she's strengthening her armies and gaining more assets chapter by chapter. Jaime's adventures with Brienne were funny and lovely, and we can see the truly good side of his character come out whenever he is with Brienne and we learn where his cruel side originates from (cough...Cersei...cough cough). Catelyn's chapters continue to be excellent as we start seeing more of the flaws of Robb Stark and Catelyn rightly being paranoid about Robb's mistakes and trying to help him make the best of his predicament. I could talk more in-depth about all the storylines I've mentioned and even the few I've missed because they're all great, but then this review would be way too long.....so moving on.
The setting and world-building continues to expand in this book. We got to visit a castle along the Wall (the Nightfort) but also some other places near it such as Queenscrown and The Gift, which gives the whole region of the Wall a much bigger scale than I previously thought it was. Through Daenerys's chapters, we got to see the 3 cities of Slaver's Bay (Yunkai, Astapor, & Mereen) on the continent of Essos and they were visually beautiful but also horrible places in terms of their culture and living conditions. The world-building continues to be fantastic. We learn more about the events leading up to King Aerys ll Targaryen's death and "The Sack of King's Landing". We're also learning more about Daenerys's long dead brother (Rhaegar Targaryen) and a bit more history of the Targaryen reign which left me drooling for more. I can't wait to dive into 'Fire and Blood' (A book about the Targaryen dynasty), so 'A Storm of Swords' did a really good sales pitch to get me to buy that book. We also learn a bit more about the looming big bad of the series (the Others), introduced in the prologue of AGOT, and some of the characters even had a confrontation with them which was........YIKES.
I thought that AGOT had a moderate pacing and that ACOK further sped up that pace. If that's the case, then 'A Storm of Swords' is ACOK on steroids in terms of pace. This book was just non-stop and that was a good thing. It never felt too fast or overwhelming at any point for me. This book spread out the shocking twists and gave us good breaks from the action and twists by providing exposition and answers to our questions from Books 1 & 2. This was the biggest book in the series so far and I initially thought a book this big was going to be a bit slow at times and chore to read but that was definitely not the case. It had fantastic pacing.
'A Storm of Swords' was an excellent blend of action, character development and political intrigue while also providing shocking twists and finally answering a lot of lingering questions from the previous books in this series. I don't know how George R.R. Martin managed to make a near 1000-page book such a page-turner and so compact, but he did. It's the best book I've ever read so far in my life, and I really have no complaints about this book..
[Characters]:
All of the POV characters have their best arcs of the series so far in this book. Whereas AGOT and ACOK had 1 or 2 POV characters that were slow or boring, there were no bad POV's in this book. All the POV character's arcs in this book continue to get better and build upon each book from this series but in particular, Arya Stark's arc in this book was drastically more entertaining compared to the previous books. The same goes for Sansa Stark, Bran Stark, and Jon Snow. Arya is becoming more of a bada**, Sansa is slowly starting to trust less people and stopped being so gullible, Bran is starting to harness his warging powers, and Jon is really in conflict with himself about what type of person he is.
We also get Samwell Tarly and Jaime Lannister as new POV chapters in this book and both of them are already among my favorite characters. Jaime specifically has had the most character development in this book. For those who have read the first 2 books, you would have already came to the conclusion that Jaime is a straight up prick, as did I. But slowly throughout his journey, you learn more about his backstory of why he was called "The Kingslayer", you get to see his initially annoying, then funny, then subtly beautiful relationship with Brienne Tarth, and you slowly start to sympathize with him chapter by chapter. He's far from being fully redeemed but that's what makes the characters feel so real in this book (and series). None of them are one-dimensional, there is good and bad in every character (only a few that are swaying heavy on either end of that spectrum). What this series does best is character development and the Jaime arc in this book alone should convince you on what a masterclass George R.R. Martin giving you on character development.
Favorite POV Characters - Tyrion, Jaime, Jon, & Davos.
Image: Jaime Lannister & Cersei Lannister.
[Plot]:
[Plot]:
Whereas the plot for 'A Game of Thrones' was focused with Eddard Stark and 'A Clash of Kings' was focused on Tyrion Lannister, 'A Storm of Swords' is more evenly split between Arya, Jon, Tyrion, & Jaime. There are less battles in this book compared to ACOK (although there is a pretty epic one), but there is much more scheming, political machinations and crazy twists which is why I love this series so much. Jon, Tyrion, and Catelyn had the best storylines, in my opinion. Jon "joining" the Wildlings and seeing their way of life was really fascinating. His relationship with Ygritte was great and the battle at the Wall was insane. Tyrion's storyline continues to be fantastic as we see all the hard work that he did as "Hand of the King" being destroyed after the "Battle of the Blackwater" from ACOK. We see him go through a lot of trials and tribulations and his last chapter in this book was amazingly shocking.
Speaking of shocking, there are so many twists and revelations in this book. Whereas AGOT had Eddard Stark's beheading and ACOK didn't really have any big twists or revelations, this book made up for it......A LOT!!!. There was "The Red Wedding", "The Purple Wedding", Littlefinger's several revelations, the Arstan Whitebeard reveal and the entirety of Tyrion's last chapter in this book. Even after all these twists and revelations, I squealed like a little girl when I read the surprise in the last few pages of the epilogue. The plotting in this book was just brilliant.
Some other great storylines were in the chapters of Arya, Daenerys, Catelyn, and jaime. Arya travelling around with the "Brotherhood Without Banners" was awesome because we get to learn about Lord Beric Dondarrion who is a very fascinating character, along his red priest Thoros of Myr. Daenerys is learning to be more tactical and military savvy and she's strengthening her armies and gaining more assets chapter by chapter. Jaime's adventures with Brienne were funny and lovely, and we can see the truly good side of his character come out whenever he is with Brienne and we learn where his cruel side originates from (cough...Cersei...cough cough). Catelyn's chapters continue to be excellent as we start seeing more of the flaws of Robb Stark and Catelyn rightly being paranoid about Robb's mistakes and trying to help him make the best of his predicament. I could talk more in-depth about all the storylines I've mentioned and even the few I've missed because they're all great, but then this review would be way too long.....so moving on.
Favorite Storylines - Tyrion, Jaime, & Catelyn.
Image: The Nightfort (a castle along the Wall).
[Setting/World-Building]:
[Setting/World-Building]:
The setting and world-building continues to expand in this book. We got to visit a castle along the Wall (the Nightfort) but also some other places near it such as Queenscrown and The Gift, which gives the whole region of the Wall a much bigger scale than I previously thought it was. Through Daenerys's chapters, we got to see the 3 cities of Slaver's Bay (Yunkai, Astapor, & Mereen) on the continent of Essos and they were visually beautiful but also horrible places in terms of their culture and living conditions. The world-building continues to be fantastic. We learn more about the events leading up to King Aerys ll Targaryen's death and "The Sack of King's Landing". We're also learning more about Daenerys's long dead brother (Rhaegar Targaryen) and a bit more history of the Targaryen reign which left me drooling for more. I can't wait to dive into 'Fire and Blood' (A book about the Targaryen dynasty), so 'A Storm of Swords' did a really good sales pitch to get me to buy that book. We also learn a bit more about the looming big bad of the series (the Others), introduced in the prologue of AGOT, and some of the characters even had a confrontation with them which was........YIKES.
[Pacing]:
I thought that AGOT had a moderate pacing and that ACOK further sped up that pace. If that's the case, then 'A Storm of Swords' is ACOK on steroids in terms of pace. This book was just non-stop and that was a good thing. It never felt too fast or overwhelming at any point for me. This book spread out the shocking twists and gave us good breaks from the action and twists by providing exposition and answers to our questions from Books 1 & 2. This was the biggest book in the series so far and I initially thought a book this big was going to be a bit slow at times and chore to read but that was definitely not the case. It had fantastic pacing.
Image: Dragonstone.
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
[Final Thoughts & Rating]:
'A Storm of Swords' was an excellent blend of action, character development and political intrigue while also providing shocking twists and finally answering a lot of lingering questions from the previous books in this series. I don't know how George R.R. Martin managed to make a near 1000-page book such a page-turner and so compact, but he did. It's the best book I've ever read so far in my life, and I really have no complaints about this book..
Rating: 10/10
*My Rating System*
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Very Good
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
5 Stars (9-10): Amazing
4 Stars (7-9): Very Good
3 Stars (5-7): Average to Good
2 Stars (3-5): Bad to Mediocre
1 Star (1-3): Terrible
Comments
Post a Comment