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.

Book Review: A Clash of Kings (Book #2 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R. R. Martin

Right off the bat, I have to admit that while I thought that A Game of Thrones was quite possibly the best book that I had ever read at the point in time when I read and reviewed it, which was towards the very end of 2015; I unfortunately didn’t like A Clash of Kings very much at all. I should probably point out that after reading A Game of Thrones, I went on to read and review Jeff Zentner’s debut novel, The Serpent King, back in April of last year, and if I’m being honest, I loved that book even more than A Game of Thrones. The more time passes, the more I think that The Serpent King is quite possibly one of the best books, if not the best book, that I have ever read. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that A Game of Thrones is an amazing book, but my love for the book has definitely lessened a little bit as time has passed, and as I’ve read other books since then. Because I loved A Game of Thrones so much, I definitely went into reading A Clash of Kings with high hopes that I would really love this book a lot, too. Sadly, that ended up not being the case.

My thoughts regarding A Clash of Kings definitely ended up being incredibly mixed, and my enjoyment of the book often depended on which characters’ P.O.V. chapters I was reading. For example, I really enjoyed the P.O.V. chapters for Jon Snow, Arya, Bran, Daenerys, and at times I really enjoyed the chapters that focused on Tyrion. That being said, I have to admit that there were also times that I did get kind of frustrated and bored when I was reading the chapters that focused on Tyrion, too though. I was definitely really surprised by the fact that Bran’s P.O.V. chapters stood out, as a highlight of the book for me personally, because I liked his P.O.V. chapters in A Game of Thrones, but I definitely didn’t love them. It was really interesting to see Bran begin to discover the special abilities that he has throughout A Clash of Kings.

I also enjoyed Daenerys’ P.O.V. chapters in this book, mainly because she’s currently one of my favorite characters in the series, and her P.O.V. chapters in A Game of Thrones were one of my favorite things about that book. That being said, when it comes to Daenerys’ P.O.V. chapters in A Clash of Kings, one complaint that I have about them is that I felt like her storyline didn’t really go anywhere for the most part. Daenerys’ P.O.V. chapters in this book definitely left me wanting more, and for the most part, I don’t mean that in a good way. When it comes to George R. R. Martin’s writing for A Clash of Kings in general, the biggest problem that I have with this book is that for a book that’s as long as it is, surprisingly very little seems to actually happen throughout the book with a lot of the characters; as far as I’m concerned. That definitely made reading A Clash of Kings a very frustrating experience for me.