Book Review: A Storm of Swords
Jan. 5th, 2007 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennythereaderA Storm of Swords
by George R.R. Martin
Copyright 2000
ISBN: 0-553-10663-5
This is book 3 in Martin's wonderful epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I can't give much of a summary without giving away plot points of the earlier books, so I'm not going to try to be specific.
Characters we love die, as do characters we hate. Some people turn out to have not been quite as dead as we thought they were. People are married and maimed and make mistakes and learn from them.
In this series Martin shows us what fantasy at its best can be. There is the battle between good and evil, but also very human political maneuvering, and we see the cost of both. Most of the characters are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and those few who appear that way when we first meet them reveal their many shades of grey as the story progresses. There are plot twists aplenty, but Martin never loses the thread of his tale in the complications. Characters who we thought were dead turn out to be alive, and alliances which seemed secure change with the wind.
In addition to the great plot, the world itself is very well thought out. The main nation of the series, The Seven Kingdoms, is based on feudal Europe as is fairly standard for a fantasy novel. The other nations of the world are more exotic, increasingly so the farther you get from the main stage of the story. Regional variations, sub-cultures, and religious variations are all there, but never in a way that seems formulaic.
If you've read the earlier books, read this one. If not, go read the first two, then read this one.
Rating: 10 out of 10.
As usual, the To Read List got updated.
by George R.R. Martin
Copyright 2000
ISBN: 0-553-10663-5
This is book 3 in Martin's wonderful epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. I can't give much of a summary without giving away plot points of the earlier books, so I'm not going to try to be specific.
Characters we love die, as do characters we hate. Some people turn out to have not been quite as dead as we thought they were. People are married and maimed and make mistakes and learn from them.
In this series Martin shows us what fantasy at its best can be. There is the battle between good and evil, but also very human political maneuvering, and we see the cost of both. Most of the characters are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, and those few who appear that way when we first meet them reveal their many shades of grey as the story progresses. There are plot twists aplenty, but Martin never loses the thread of his tale in the complications. Characters who we thought were dead turn out to be alive, and alliances which seemed secure change with the wind.
In addition to the great plot, the world itself is very well thought out. The main nation of the series, The Seven Kingdoms, is based on feudal Europe as is fairly standard for a fantasy novel. The other nations of the world are more exotic, increasingly so the farther you get from the main stage of the story. Regional variations, sub-cultures, and religious variations are all there, but never in a way that seems formulaic.
If you've read the earlier books, read this one. If not, go read the first two, then read this one.
Rating: 10 out of 10.
As usual, the To Read List got updated.
