A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) – George R.R. Martin

Title: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) by George R.R. Martin
Publishing Info: October 31, 2000 by Random House Publishing Group
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: August 24, 2013
Related Posts: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1), A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2), A Feast For Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4), A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...

HAHA, um, wow. So how do I review A STORM OF SWORDS??? Okay, I guess let’s go back to the beginning… I first started this two months ago for A Song of Ice and Fire Read Along, book number three! Unlike books one and two, I was actually immediately hooked and ended up breezing through over 100 pages in one sitting.

I feel like each book is going deeper and deeper into the political plots of the world of Westeros (and beyond) and there are some characters’ chapters who solely exist to show a different side of that political conflict (like Davos… *eye roll*… Davos.) because otherwise we’d be completely clueless as to what people like Stannis Baratheon are doing. As a person who doesn’t usually get into political conflicts, I’ve actually been pretty engaged with most of it. It’s incredibly interesting to see the battle for the Iron Throne and who really will become the true king. There are several people battling for it let’s face it… This is George R.R. Martin. ANYTHING can happen.

There’s one thing I noticed, particularly while reading A STORM OF SWORDS, and that’s that Martin has a way of very slowly unrolling a chapter and then BAM! It ends on some kind of wild and crazy note or line or event. I love the surprise but it kiiiiind of drives me nuts. I’ll be a bit bored throughout the chapter and then it ends with something that totally catches me off guard in a bit of AWESOME and I’m left waiting for that character’s chapter to roll around again. Then again, those are the kinds of things that make the Davos chapters bearable. (Can you tell I’m not quite a Davos fan?)

So, guys. I’ve seen all of two episodes of the TV show so far which I only watched after I finished those chapters in the book. And I watched this clip of Dany because Alyssa told me I had to watch after I finished that part in the book (okay, obvs don’t watch it if you need to avoid spoilers!) and once more confirmed… Dany is BADASS.
Anyway… the point that I was making is that I had heard about The Red Wedding but somehow managed to avoid spoilers of what actually happened until I read it in the book. This was both good and bad. I was so happy & proud that I managed to avoid ALL of the spoilers floating out there (it was not easy…) but I was also just WAITING for it to happen the. whole. book. I was basically reading so I could get to The Red Wedding because I HAD to know what happened. The suspense was incredible but at the same time, I almost hyped it up for myself too much because I imagined every possible and terrible situation that could happen and I was so scared as to what it could possibly be. When I finally got there…. Yes, it was insanity FOR SURE, but I think I imagined way too many things and the shock factor was lost on me a bit. I was waiting for it and I knew it was coming so although I was surprised by what actually happened, I wasn’t caught off guard by it… Although I will say that imagining watching that will probably be WAY WAY worse than reading it. Okay, I’ll stop. No spoilers, I promise.

A STORM OF SWORDS had the most shocking moments for me, I think, with maybe a few exceptions that totally knocked me off my feet in A GAME OF THRONES. It was definitely my favorite of the series so far and folks… if you’ve only watched the show and haven’t read the books, I have it on good authority that the show stopped before several surprises at the end of book three were revealed… Be prepared for some more good twists in season four!

Daenerys Targaryen // Character Obsessions: Her dragons, her mission, being a kickass queen.
If Dany wasn’t my favorite character before, she sure is now. Everything she does in A STORM OF SWORDS is basically a big pile of awesome. From the way she handles herself (easy to forget she’s 14 when she’s older in the show) to her political aspirations to how she handles the people she gathers to follow her… She’s pretty much as badass as you can get. I can’t wait for the day when she marches back to Westeros. Holy crap.
Arya Stark // Character Obsessions: Her prayers, valar morghulis, her family.
I’ve always loved Arya. I love her spunk and her determination and I just love girls who aren’t girly girls haha. Her story has been one of the more interesting ones in the series for me. She’s seen A LOT go down and she’s got a struggle ahead of her, always. I’m always rooting for Arya!

Kept Me Hooked On: The series. This was the longest book of the series so far but it was AWESOME. Let’s be honest… You’d better have chock full of awesome if you’re writing a book that’s 1177 pages long. (At least my version was.)
Left Me Wanting More: Flow. I mentioned those chapters that ended with a crazy surprise but the beginnings of a lot of those were quite slow. I can understand the build up to a surprise but don’t leave me to the point of almost wanting to skim to get the chapter overwith because a few times I had to go back and read what just happened because I almost missed the details!

Addiction Rating
BUY IT!

I still need to watch the show, but even with the lengths of the books, they’re worth the read!! If you can read more than one book at a time, I highly advise taking your time and spreading out the read of this series so it doesn’t get overwhelming like we’re doing for #SOIFRA. I’m falling in love with the series a little bit at time and spreading them about has helped me not get overwhelmed and anxious to finish and it’s also allowed me to savor moments and think on things if I need to.

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