Helpful Score: 3
Well written and easily readable, Martin has a great series on his hands with his Song of Ice and Fire books. A great fantasy tale with as much infighting as The War of the Roses.
Hayley W. (redtsunami) reviewed A Storm of Swords (Song of Ice and Fire, Bk 3) on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
The darkness before the storm couldn't possibly get any blacker, right? I mean at the end of "A Clash of Kings" it seems as though the entire Stark Family is just beyond the edge of the cliff diving headlong into an abyss! And then, it just.. gets.. worse.
It doesn't just get worse for the Starks though, it gets bad for just about all your favorite characters and happily some of your not-so favorite characters. I do enjoy the way many characters have grown in this book in particular Jamie Lannister and Sansa Stark.
These were two people that I believe most readers would have dismissed as being one-note, but actually they are much more complex than some of the main players in this crazy game of chess. I feel after this book that the series can only get better from here on out. Which is a relief because I was not so captivated by the first book in this series.
It doesn't just get worse for the Starks though, it gets bad for just about all your favorite characters and happily some of your not-so favorite characters. I do enjoy the way many characters have grown in this book in particular Jamie Lannister and Sansa Stark.
These were two people that I believe most readers would have dismissed as being one-note, but actually they are much more complex than some of the main players in this crazy game of chess. I feel after this book that the series can only get better from here on out. Which is a relief because I was not so captivated by the first book in this series.
Helpful Score: 1
Another excellent installment in Mr. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire series. I cant believe the twist and turns this character driven plot takes! One of he most impressive things about this book, and the series in general, is that except for the zombie-like others there is no bad-guy. Everyone acts according to motivations such as honor, greed, lust, etc. Of course, there are so many characters, and minor events with major consequences, that I am not sure I could follow everything if I was waiting years in between novels instead of weeks. However, if you enjoyed the first two volumes in this series, you wont want to miss this one. Ive never read a thousand pages so quickly!
Helpful Score: 1
In the longest book of the series so far, the lands of Westeros are no closer to peace than when we last left them. Filled with jaw-dropping twists, ASoS was very easy to get lost in for hours upon hours.
=part three of the A Song of Ice and Fire series=
=part three of the A Song of Ice and Fire series=
Steven C. (SteveTheDM) -
Helpful Score: 1
The third book in Martins epic A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords is by far the better of the first three. Of course, theres a caveat with that: I watched the first season of HBOs Game of Thrones miniseries between the time I finished A Clash of Kings and when I started this one. And that had a fascinating impact.
It didnt spoil the story, of course, because the HBO series only covers the first book. But what it did do was root the story in strong visuals. Faces became associated with names, and as I read the book, I really had a deeper connection to all of the characters than I ever did before, and even a better connection with their likely emotional states than I had in the first two books. The HBO series is recommended on its own merits, of course, since its awesome, but I think it truly does help bring Martins world more fully to life for readers as well.
This book is, of course, the continuation of events after the events of a Clash of Kings, and this book, this one more than the others (so far), had me stop in my tracks and wonder at the ruthlessness with which Martin treats his protagonists. When I have to shut the book and spend a good ten minutes just thinking about what the freaking heck just happened and what that means for the world and how wrong all of my assumptions were... Well thats where Martin takes us. Shocking, surprising, and worth all the words he poured out onto the pages here.
Im quite eager for the fourth book now, more so than I thought Id be. (Which is why I dont yet have the fourth book. Grrrrr....)
5 of 5 stars.
It didnt spoil the story, of course, because the HBO series only covers the first book. But what it did do was root the story in strong visuals. Faces became associated with names, and as I read the book, I really had a deeper connection to all of the characters than I ever did before, and even a better connection with their likely emotional states than I had in the first two books. The HBO series is recommended on its own merits, of course, since its awesome, but I think it truly does help bring Martins world more fully to life for readers as well.
This book is, of course, the continuation of events after the events of a Clash of Kings, and this book, this one more than the others (so far), had me stop in my tracks and wonder at the ruthlessness with which Martin treats his protagonists. When I have to shut the book and spend a good ten minutes just thinking about what the freaking heck just happened and what that means for the world and how wrong all of my assumptions were... Well thats where Martin takes us. Shocking, surprising, and worth all the words he poured out onto the pages here.
Im quite eager for the fourth book now, more so than I thought Id be. (Which is why I dont yet have the fourth book. Grrrrr....)
5 of 5 stars.
