Right
off the bat, I have to admit that because I thought that A Clash of Kings proved to be
rather disappointing, I definitely went into reading A Storm of Swords with somewhat lower expectations. That being
said, I actually ended up liking this book a little bit more than A Clash of Kings. However, this book still
proved to be rather difficult to get through in terms of its ability to maintain
my interest throughout the entire book. I actually ended up taking two breaks
from reading this book in order to read two other books. If I’m being entirely
honest, I’ve definitely been kind of dreading writing this review, because I
know that there are a lot of people who think very highly of this particular
book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Admittedly, I held off on writing my review for A Storm of Swords for quite a while after having finished reading
it. When it comes to discussing my thoughts on this book, I want to be
perfectly clear that I definitely didn’t completely hate A Storm of Swords, but I do have quite a few problems with it; that
being said, here are my thoughts on A
Storm of Swords.
When
it comes to which characters’ P.O.V. chapters I enjoyed the most, I definitely
enjoyed Jon Snow’s, Arya’s, Daenerys’ Catelyn’s, Tyrion’s, and Bran’s P.O.V.
chapters the most. I have to admit that I’m surprised that I enjoyed Catelyn’s
P.O.V. chapters in this book as much as I did. While I’ve always liked Catelyn
as a character, she’s never really ranked very high on my list of favorite
characters; both in terms of the A Song
of Ice and Fire book series, and the show Game of Thrones. Samwell Tarly’s P.O.V. chapters were definitely my
least favorite out of all the P.O.V. characters in this book. I just thought
that he was a very annoying character, especially when it comes to his first
P.O.V. chapter.
The
main problem that I have with this book is that I felt like George R. R. Martin
really meandered quite a bit throughout the book in a lot of ways. While I
really appreciate it when authors, especially fantasy authors, really take
their time to try and create elaborate worlds for their books to take place in;
sometimes I feel like Martin has the tendency to get too caught up in spending
a lot of time describing things such as the food the characters are eating, or
the clothes that the characters are wearing. In the grand scheme of things,
those kinds of things aren’t really all that important when it comes to actually
developing and progressing the various storylines that take place throughout
the book. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mind Martin spending some time talking
about things like that, because I do think that it can help with the world
building for the series. I simply think that this book and the series as a
whole could definitely benefit from there being a better balance between
describing some of the details that help establish the series’ setting and the
society that the characters live in, and actually progressing the various
storylines at a satisfying pace.
When
it comes to ensemble stories, regardless of whether it’s a TV show, movie, or
this case, a book, I usually don’t have a hard time keeping track of all the
characters and all of the storylines. That being said, I feel like Martin could
have handled the ensemble nature of A
Storm of Swords a lot better than he did. As I was reading this book, I
thought that he was oftentimes spreading out a lot of the characters’ P.O.V.
chapters too much. Quite a few of the characters in the book would have a
P.O.V. chapter, and then Martin would spend a decent chunk of the book focusing
on other characters, so I was constantly having to go back and refresh my
memory in regard to what had been happening with them in their previous P.O.V.
chapter. I ultimately feel like Martin could have done a better job of
organizing each of the characters’ P.O.V. chapters when it comes to how he
spread them out throughout the book.
While
I’m definitely not an uptight prude, I felt like A Storm of Swords was unnecessarily crude and gross at times. For
example, there were several chapters throughout the book where characters would
repeatedly mention that they needed to use the bathroom, either to another
character or in their internal monologue. Personally, I thought that was
completely unnecessary, and it added absolutely nothing to the book as a whole.
Also, while I think that Martin is a very talented writer in a lot of ways, I
don’t think he’s very good at the way he handles having the characters talk
about sex and romance, both in this book and the A Song of Ice and Fire series in general. I oftentimes found
Martin’s writing for the parts of this book involving sex and romance rather
off-putting and offensive; and books, TV shows, and movies having sexual
content in them don’t usually offend me. That being said, while I don’t think
that Martin’s writing for Cersei and Jaime’s relationship is truly stellar, I
do think that it has a little bit more depth to it, compared to the way the
Martin handles sex and romance in regard to all of the other characters in this
book.
When
it comes to the chapters of the book that focused on the Red Wedding, perhaps
other fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire
series will disagree with me, but I personally thought that they were kind of overrated.
While I didn’t think that the parts of the book that dealt with the Red Wedding
were entirely bad in terms of Martin’s writing for the book, they didn’t really
contribute all that much to my overall enjoyment of the book. That being said,
while I have my fair share of issues with the parts of the book that focused on
the Red Wedding, I was definitely very sad about the fact that Robb Stark and
Catelyn Stark were casualties of the Red Wedding since they were both
characters that I had always liked; both in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, and on the show Game of Thrones.
Admittedly,
I did think that the whole thing with Catelyn being resurrected by Lord Beric
Dondarrion through the performance of the last kiss was handled very well in
terms of how those parts of the book were written. I especially appreciated
Martin’s writing for that particular plot development in this book, since I’ve
often found characters being resurrected from the dead in other fantasy books
that I’ve read to be something that more oftentimes than not is handled poorly
in terms of how it’s executed. For example, the way Sarah J. Maas handles
characters being resurrected from the dead in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series (A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, and A Court of Wings and Ruin) is rather mediocre, and involves
some very inconsistent writing, as far as I’m concerned. One of the things that
really frustrates me about the way Maas handles characters being resurrected
from the dead in the A Court of Thorns
and Roses series is that I feel like she makes it seem like resurrecting
people from the dead is a fairly easy thing to do; without very much, if
anything, having to be sacrificed in the process. Plus, the characters in her A Court of Thorns and Roses series that are
resurrected from the dead don’t really come across as having changed in a bad
way after being resurrected. Ultimately, for the most part, characters being
resurrected from the dead in Maas’ books, and not really being negatively
affected by the whole experience comes across as something that Sarah J. Maas
does simply because she doesn’t have the guts to have the characters in her
books die, and have their deaths be permanent. As strange as it might sound to
some people, my issues with Sarah J. Maas’ execution of having her characters
die, only to be resurrected from the dead, without any major consequences or sacrifices
being made is a big part of why I really liked and appreciated the way Martin
handled Catelyn’s death at the Red Wedding, and her subsequent resurrection.
All
things considered, despite the fact that I do think that A Storm of Swords is slightly better than A Clash of Kings, I still have a lot of problems with it, and
George R. R. Martin’s writing for the A
Song of Ice and Fire series in general. Considering the fact that A Game of Thrones is the only
book out of the first three books in the A
Song of Ice and Fire series that I can honestly say that I genuinely love,
whereas A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords were both rather
disappointing and difficult to get through; it’s definitely a bit of a question
mark for me at the moment in regard to whether or not I want to continue reading
the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Given the fact that all of the books in the series are pretty long, reading
each book in the series is definitely a major time commitment. I’m not entirely
sure that I want to continue to devote my time to reading this series since
I’ve only loved one out of the first three books in the series. Even though Game of Thrones definitely isn’t a
perfect adaptation of the A Song of Ice
and Fire series, I might just watch the show and not continue reading the
books. That being said, my interest in seeing what else George R. R. Martin
does with Catelyn being resurrected from the dead is definitely one of the
reasons why I’m still considering the possibility of reading A Feast for Crows at some point in the
future. One of the other reasons why I’m not entirely ready to give up on
reading this series is that I’m very interested in seeing how the Dorne
storyline is handled in the books; especially after hearing so many fans of Game of Thrones express a lot of
disappointment and hatred for how the Dorne storyline has been handled on the
show.
I
definitely don’t see myself making a definitive decision regarding whether or
not I want to continue reading the A Song
of Ice and Fire series any time soon. For the time being, I’m planning to
explore other authors within the fantasy genre, and I’m going to start with Tad
Williams and his books. My current plan is to start by reading The Heart of What Was Lost, which is a
novella that serves as setup for Williams’ new The Last King of Osten Ard series. (The Last King of Osten Ard series is a sequel series to his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series.) After
that, I’ll be reading and reviewing the first official book in the Last King of Osten Ard series, The Witchwood Crown. If all goes well,
and I end up liking both The Heart of
What Was Lost and The Witchwood Crown,
my plan is to go back and read Williams’ Memory,
Sorrow, and Thorn series at some point in the future.
That
being said, my final score for A Storm of
Swords is 5 out of 10.
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