Like the first two books, A Storm of Swords could coast on the fundamentals: deftly detailed characters, convincing voices and dialogue, a robust back-story, and a satisfyingly unpredictable plot. But it's Martin's consistently bold choices that set the series apart. Every character is fair game for the headman's axe (sometimes literally), and not only do the good guys regularly lose out to the bad guys, you're never exactly sure who you should be cheering for in the first place.

Storm is full of admirable intricacies. Events that you thought Martin was setting up solidly for the first two books are exposed as complex feints; the field quickly narrows after the Battle of the Blackwater and once again, anything goes. Robb tries desperately to hold the North together, Jon returns from the wildling lands with a torn heart, Bran continues his quest for the three-eyed crow beyond the Wall, Catelyn struggles to save her fragile family, Arya becomes ever more wolflike in her wanderings, Daenerys comes into her own, and Joffrey's cruel rule from King's Landing continues, making even his fellow Lannisters uneasy. Martin tests all the major characters in A Storm of Swords: some fail the trial, while others--like Martin himself--seem to only get stronger. --Paul Hughes

Product Description
Here is the third volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin’s stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

A Storm of Swords

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. 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....

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is 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. . .

So, when I came back to fantasy at the end of 1999, I read the usual: Goodkind, Jordan, etc. and then someone told me about GRRM and man, that was the kicker!

Here are the reasons to choose GRRM. I've also listed the reasons not to choose him to make it fair b/c I know their are certain personalities who won't like this series:

WHY TO READ GRRM

(1) YOU ARE TIRED OF FORMULAIC FANTASY: good lad beats the dark lord against impossible odds; boy is the epitome of good; he and all his friends never die even though they go through great dangers . . . the good and noble king; the beautiful princess who falls in love with the commoner boy even though their stations are drastically different . . . the dark lord is very evil and almost one sided at times . . . you get the idea. After reading this over and over, it gets old.

(2) YOU ARE TIRED OF ALL THE HEROES STAYING ALIVE EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE UNDER CONSTANT DANGER: this gets even worse where the author kills a main hero off but that person comes back later in the story. Or, a hero does die but magic brings him back.

This sometimes carries to minor characters where even they may not die, but most fantasy authors like to kill them off to show that some risked the adventure and perished.

(3) YOU ARE A MEDIEVAL HISTORY BUFF: this story was influenced by the WARS OF THE ROSES and THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR.

(4) YOU LOVE SERIOUS INTRIGUE WITHOUT STUPID OPPONENTS: lots of layering; lots of intrigue; lots of clever players in the game of thrones. Unlike other fantasy novels, one side, usually the villain, is stupid or not too bright.

(5) YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BIASED OPINIONS AND DIFFERENT TRUTHS: GRRM has set this up where each chapter has the title of one character and the whole chapter is through their viewpoint. Interesting tidbit is that you get their perception of events or truths. But, if you pay attention, someone else will mention a different angle of truth in the story that we rarely see in other novels. Lastly and most importantly, GRRM doesn't try to tell us which person is right in their perception. He purposelly leaves it vague so that we are kept guessing.

(6) LEGENDS: some of the most interesting characters are those who are long gone or dead. We never get the entire story but only bits and pieces; something that other fantasy authors could learn from to heighten suspense. Additionally, b/c the points of views are not congruent, we sometimes get different opinions.

(7) WORDPLAY: if you're big on metaphors and description, GRRM is your guy. Almost flawless flow.

(8) LOTS OF CONFLICT: all types, too; not just fighting but between characters through threats and intrigue.

(9) MULTILAYERED PLOTTING; SUB PLOTS GALORE: each character has their own separate storyline; especially as the story continues and everyone gets scattered. This is one of the reasons why each novel is between 700-900 pages.

(10) SUPERLATIVE VARIED CHARACTERS: not the typical archetypes that we are used to in most fantasy; some are gritty; few are totally evil or good; GRRM does a great job of changing our opinions of characters as the series progress. This is especially true of Jaime in book three.

(11) REALISTIC MEDIEVAL DIALOGUE: not to the point that we can't understand it but well done.

(12) HEAPS OF SYMOBLISM AND PROPHECY: if you're big on that.

(13) EXCELLENT MYSTERIES: very hard to figure out the culprits; GRRM must have read a lot of mystery novels.

(14) RICHLY TEXTURED FEMALE CHARACTERS: best male author on female characters I have read; realistic on how women think, too.

(15) LOW MAGIC WORLD: magic is low key; not over the top so heroes can't get out of jams with it.

REASON TO NOT READ GRRM

(1) YOU LIKE YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS: GRRM does a good job of creating more likeable characters after a few die. But, if that isn't your style, you shouldn't be reading it. He kills off several, not just one, so be warned.

(2) DO NOT CARE FOR GRITTY GRAY CHARACTERS: if you like more white and gray characters, this may unsettle you. I suggest Feist or Goodkind or Dragonlance if you want a more straight forward story with strong archetypes.

(3) MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEWS TURN YOU OFF: if you prefer that the POVS only go to a few characters, this might be confusing for you.

(4) SWEARING, SEX: there's a lot of it in this book just as there is in real life. If you have delicate ears, this book may upset you.

(5) YOU DEMAND CLOSURE AT THE END OF EVERY BOOK: this isn't the case for all stories in the series. Some are still going on; some have been resolved; others have been created and are moving on.

(6) IF YOU WANT A TARGET OR SOMEONE TO BLAME: this can be done to some extent but not as much. This is b/c he doesn't try to make anyone necessarily good or evil.

(7) ARCHETYPES: some readers like archetypal characters because it's comfortable; we like the good young hero (sort of like Pug in Feist's THE RIFTWAR SAGA); it's familiar and we sometimes like to pretend we're this upcoming, great hero. You wont' get much of this in GRRM with the exception of one or two characters. There really aren't any super heroes compared to all the other characters as it's more grittier and no one is shooting fireballs every milisecond or carrying around some super powerful sword.

(8) LENGTH: you don't want to get into a long fantasy epic series. In that case, look for shorters works as this is biiig.

(9) PATRIARCHY: men are most of the main characters with lots of power (one female exception). While this is realistic of the medieval era, some readers may not prefer this if they want more girl power, so to speak.

By the way, if you don't want to commit to a big book until you know the author better, check out his short story, THE HEDGE KNIGHT, in LEGENDS.


Better than Tolkien   July 25, 2002
 170 out of 238 found this review helpful

Yes, you read right--George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice is BETTER than Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Why is everyone afraid to admit this? Yes, Tolkien is a genius--the fantasy genre wouldn't exist without him, and no doubt, A Song of Fire of Ice couldn't have been written. But ... each of Martin's books are more entertaining than Tolkien's trilogy. I get bored at times reading The Lord of the Rings; I barely sleep when I read each of the 700+ page Martin books. Am I alone?


The Days Of Our Lives   October 1, 2000
 120 out of 141 found this review helpful

This series has evolved into a soap opera---a damn good one, but a melodrama nonetheless. Almost every chapter is a cliffhanger, and the ending is geared to keep you hanging in suspense while you wait for the next installment. Shifting and twisting from one character and plot thread to the next, many pass each other like ships in the night, and just when you think they might meet and provide some resolution, they sheer away again, following their own separate adventure, only the general upheaval of the book's background holding the multiple storylines together. This is not a series that appears anywhere near a conclusion, and with the author's ability to continuously create and weave together more and more credible subplots, don't expect an ending to this series any time soon: after all, as the text admits, Daenerys' dragons are years away from being able to be ridden.

The title for this installment is not as apt as the previous: no battle occurs equal to the Blackwater, nor do the many opponents---ironmen, wildlings, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, or Lannister, let alone the Others---ever come together to meet in a single climatic battle, as the title might imply. Instead, the political conspiracy, betrayal and murder of the previous two books continues to dominate the tale, liberally leavened with slaughter and skirmishes. Players come and go, the plots multiply and thicken, and even what is expected often takes an unanticipated turn. And it is the profusion and complexity of Martin's intrigues that arguably sets this series apart from the other prominent fat fantasists, Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan. They as well depend upon a profundancy of subplots and scheming to extend and carry their stories, but Martin arguably does it more tightly and with greater relish.

One might detect a note of criticism in my preceding comments. There is a suspicion that this nine hundred odd page volume could easily have been reduced by a couple hundred pages. Many of the subplots and episodes in this book appear to exist for their own sake, contributing little to advance the overall storyline---There is a noticeable shift of tempo between the first and second half of the book. And at times the author's obvious manipulation of the reader's interest becomes wearisome and frustrating. However, there is little question as to the author's ability to spin a story, juggling so many without once losing control, and for most, I suspect, the plethora of plots and intrigues---even the repetitive cliffhangers---will prove appealing. Martin writes with a vividness of detail and characterization that never pauses, and has created a diverse cast of characters in which one feels invested. And the author could never be faulted for his imagery or a lack of imagination. Certainly one of the best books of the year.


A SLEEPING DRAGON ROARS HIS HEAD...   December 30, 2000
 82 out of 93 found this review helpful

Aii, where to start. So much has been said already here.

Two magnificent instalments, and then STORM OF SWORDS, eagerly, oh so eagerly awaited. And this third volume initially lulled me into a false type of security so immense that I sure won't forget it. The first half & something moves along rather placidly, relying more on character & plot build-up than real fireworks. GRRM taking a breather from the general "character slaughter" ? Well, nasty tongues may call the first chapters somewhat Jordan-esque, building up to...something (?), but certainly interspersed with some brilliant scenes & interludes (e.g. Sansa's interrogation by the Tyrell family, Jon Snow's adventures beyond the wall, anything about Daenerys, etc.), but so what...- until certain parties join for a hastily arranged wedding feast to correct wrongs done out of impulse by some of the protagonists...and all hell breaks loose...and the final 350 pages that follow are simply a brutal, no-holds-conventional-rule-breaking-watershed in modern fantasy - no more, no less - all the way up to a last page of an epilogue that may be the eeriest, most mindboggling final lines ever written in a fantasy epic.

You want details ? Buy the darn book !

But kidding aside, why the so-called watershed ? Well, here we have to return to the Grandmaster Himself who defined the rules of high fantasy for decades to come: JRR Tolkien. Basically, he established a manicheistic system as the basic tenet for the genre (good is good, bad is bad; roles & morals of given individuals are clearly defined). While Tolkien was a brilliant writer, he unfortunately forced the genre into a rather limited straightjacket of characterization, which - even more unfortunately - was gobbled up like ambrosia by the D&D crowd - anybody for Forgotten Realms, R.A. Salvatore and friends ? - turning Modern Fantasy into a McDonalds-like affair. The best, recent attempts in this field to escape the pattern were Donaldson, Eddings, Jordan & Goodkind, but ultimately they succumbed to the major rule of the game: manicheism combined with emotional repetiveness of the characters ! ...which is nice & comforting in a genre that is conservative in nature - but ultimately boring if you are in for the kicks in the Internet-Age (especially in a case like R. Jordan, that seems afraid to take his series to a cathartic conclusion and keeps meandering around the bushes...).

Over the last 25 years, I only see two authors (and yeah, damn, I've read quite a few of them in the genre) that have made serious attempts to break this straightjacket: First, Gene Wolfe with his early-Eighties-series "Book of the New Sun" - in spite of widespread literary acclaim at the time, this epic seems to have been condemned to oblivion for the simple reason of its incredible lyrical density - it is a "tough" read - too tough for the conventional human fantasy-consumer. If you can get a hold of it, get it - it'll turn your fantasy-world upside down !

And the second author - of course - is George RR Martin - literally an iconoclast who is rewriting the rules of the genre, blowing Tolkien's unchangeable law of manicheism into deepest outer space, with a lightness of pen and pencil unseen in decades in this genre.

Should we be surprised ? Ladies, gentlemen, especially the Jordan-ites - whether you like it or not: GRRM has been around as a SF-borderline-to-fantasy-writer for almost 30 years, winning his first of three Hugo-Awards in 1975 (!), being renowned as an excellent stylist ever since. It is humbling, almost humiliating and indicative about the current state of fantasy literature that an old master of sci-fi take a short "vacation" from his mainstay business to show hotshots like Jordan, Goodkind, Feist, T. Williams & x-amount of others how to go about to redefine the rules of the genre.

And I must confess - I am looking forward to the next GRRM-volume - and not the next, repetitive R. Jordan dissertation on Rand, Nynaeve, etc.

The genre is changing...because it must.

Hang in...and soar with the real deagon - GRRM.

Sparrowhawk


Ungushingly critical....   January 21, 2001
 66 out of 73 found this review helpful

George R.R. Martin is certainly one of the most skilled writers in the genre today, and "A Storm of Swords" unfailingly continues to uphold the rigorous standard he set for himself in "A Game of Thrones". The enormous cast of complex characters, combined with complicated intrigue and a riveting plot make the book almost impossible to put down.

The world of the Seven Kingdoms is richly detailed, but more impressive is Martin's facility to create an atmosphere through detail. From the way he writes, it would seem that he knows what every tankard in every inn looks like, and what every one of the thousands of warriors, knights, and aristocrats is wearing down to the last buckle, even if these details are not always included. In short, Martin clearly knows his world inside-out, and thus is able to convey even more than is usual an atmosphere of reality in a fantasy world. He also excels in scene-painting, and every sensual nuance comes alive--sometimes, in violent scenes, more than one might like.

Another feature that sets Martin apart is his unpredictability. Even the most jaded reader will be surprised by something in the plot, which hurtles along in a speeding fury, killing nearly everyone in its path. There are no indestructible characters, which is rare for any genre.

Martin is also unique in that there is very little good and evil; even the Lannisters, who were pure evil in the beginning, are starting to morph into more complex characters. The reverse is also true, and most of the sympathetic or neutral characters reveal traits that are downright nasty. Nice people don't last long in Martin's world, as Eddard was first to learn; and sometimes the cruelty of even the most sympathetic characters can be jarring.

As for the characters themselves, Tyrion is just amazing. 'Nuff said.

However, I am disturbed by all the comparisons to Tolkien, as well as the widespread assertion that there is no fantasy out there better or on a level with this. Martin's approach, which is to develop multiple threads and follow each (for the most part) separately, has the upside in that it contributes to the overall complexity of the story. However, this approach also has a very distinctive downside, which is that character development and the reader's emotional involvement with the characters must take a permanent back seat. This plot is so immense, so sprawling, that ultimately it leaves no opportunity for the reader to become deeply absorbed in it--there are too many things which require the reader's attention for this to be possible. Each plotline skims the surface of an idea and a character's development, but because of the limited time slot is not able to explore them in greater depth.

For example, Jon's plotline in "A Game of Thrones", when he was making friends and enemies in Castle Black, was vaguely reminiscent of "Ender's Game" in the challenges that were presented to the character. Unfortunately, because Martin had so many other threads to take care of, most of the development in this thread went on behind the scenes: in one chapter Jon would be on bad terms with most of the boys. Then the plot switches away from him, and by the time it returns, Jon has managed to adjust and make some friends. The transition occurred while we were following Dany and Eddard--and while we certainly wanted to know about them, the fact that this major transition happened without us automatically means that Jon has become more distant from the reader than he otherwise might have been.

There is nothing wrong with this approach to the genre; it is a certain style that appeals more to some and less to others. Its main advantage is that it gives Martin a huge canvas upon which to use the many colors in his palette, an opportunity to create an endless array of dramatic events and atmospheric settings. But the disadvantage cannot be ignored, which is that although the broad and complex storyline is "a mile wide", it is also "an inch deep".

Another thing which makes this different from most fantasies is the absence of a sense of the magical, of quests and the inevitable destiny of some few great ones. This is a tale that is mainly of political intrigue and war. As such, it bears almost no resemblance to epic fantasy, and shares closer ties with military fantasy. Thus there is very little sense in comparing this work to Tolkien's, for there is very little resemblance beyond the fact that they share the same bookshelf. It is also ridiculous to say that it is better than various epic fantasies, because the strengths of Martin's work are the weaknesses in most epic fantasy--and vice versa. Both have valuable elements to impart to the reader, and both should be considered separately.