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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Book Review: A Storm of Swords (Book #3 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R. R. Martin



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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