Author: George R.R. Martin
**CAUTION: IT DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS**
The longest book of the series until now (900+ pages), A Storm of Swords is by far the best of them, but also the most shocking. It doesn’t start from where the previous book finished, instead, it goes back some months earlier, so the 1st chapters overlap with the last ones from A Clash of Kings.
There are 10 main characters telling us the story: Catelyn, Sansa, Arya and Bran Stark; Jon Snow; Tyrion and Jaime Lannister; Davos Seaworth; Daenerys Targaryen and Samwell Tarly. The prologue is told by a man of the Night’s Watch and the epilogue by one of the hundred Freys.
In Essos, Danny is finally building her army and defying the power and cruelty of the Slavers of the Slaver’s Bay cities.
On the Wall and beyond, a horde of thousands of wildlings is moving south towards the Wall, under the command of Mance Rayder, while the men of the Night’s Watch literally struggle for their own survival.
In Westeros, while in the North we follow Arya trying to make her way up to her mother and Robb (now at Riverrun), in King’s Landing there’s a wedding to be held soon, which ends with yet another king dead (book 2 had initially 5 kings, book 3 starts with 4 and ends with 3 dead and only 1 replaced so far).
This was a page-turner and I could not stop reading it, but I have to say that at one point, when two important characters die, I set the book aside for a while, so shocked I was. I still hadn’t fully recovered from the death of a good character on AGOT, even though it happened 2 books ago, and now this… And because things got so intense, I could not help but check the index to see if one of my favorites would still be there, as another tragedy happens to (?)…
This book is tragic for almost every character, but there are nice moments when you laugh with them as well. I’m glad that Samwell is now a POV (point-of-view), and I believe all the main characters developed a lot, except for Bran, whom for me is still too childish. One character in particular surprised me and made me reconsider my opinion about him: Jaime Lannister. And as for Sandor Clegane, The Hound, which I didn’t know what to think on the previous book, now I think I pity him after all. I’m still not quite sure how to place my feelings about those two, but for sure something has changed.
Again, miscommunication, too many secrets, intrigues, political games, treason, death and pain, but fortunately we also have a glimpse of courage, endurance, love, bravery, compassion and hope. Or so I hope things get better in the next book!
P.S.: one thing that is still a question mark to me and has not been mentioned since the 1st book: what did Ned Stark promised his sister Lyanna just before she died? I wonder when or if we’ll ever have an answer, but I have a theory about it: Jon Snow is not Ned’s bastard…do you reckon?
Buy A Storm of Swords from: The Book Depository or Amazon.
