Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin, 1175 pages, Fantasy.
The third book in the epic Song of Ice and Fire series continues to give many, many details about this imaginary world, and many of the people who inhabit it. The expansion of characters and storylines that made volume two somewhat frustrating is replaced by the thinning of said storylines. Favorite characters are dropping like flies here as betrayal follows betrayal and plans fall apart once the armies meet. Tyrion Lannister continues to shine, though he has less and less control over his own situation, as his father takes over. Tyrion's brother, Jaime, the kingslayer, surprised me as he slowly became a sympathetic character. Jon Snow's story was interesting, though a bit overlong. Sansa still seemed a bit player in her own tale, and her sister Arya, was never able to go anywhere to far in a straight line. Arya continues to be one of my favorites, and her interactions with the Cleganes were grim fun. After volume two, I didn't think I would be able to get all the way through all four volumes in time for Dance of (or with?) Dragons, but I think I will be able to make it. Even the parts I find a bit tedious, are only tedious in comparison to the better bits by Martin. The worst parts of this saga are better than the best parts by a lot of other authors. The page count is from the Bantam Books mass market editions that I am reading. On these large books the counts vary widely between editions. Someone will have to rule on this eventually.
Check our catalog.
No comments:
Post a Comment