A Storm of Swords

Coming on to the third installment of the fantastic A Song of Ice and Fire series, I've finally reached A Storm of Swords and begun reading it in earnest. This book I probably remember the least about from originally reading it, and I think I had a very dim view of much of the book at the time, and I absolutely remembered certain events wrong. In fact, I even confused some major events in this novel for those which took place in A Feast for Crows! So on sitting down and reading this again, it was very much like reading the book for the first time!

Some major spoilers are following since you can't really have a review of this book without them. If you haven't read this book or watched the show, be warned!

The book begins with House Lannister triumphant. Even though this is a supposed victory for House Baratheon, it rings hollow. The three male heirs are dead or defeated, the King on Dragonstone driven into the sea, the King in North has won every battle but now he faces the united strength of the south and west, while the ironborn have overthrown his castle and occupied much of the North, and Tyrion Lannister himself has fallen from grace.

Meanwhile in the North with the ironborn invasion, now the King Beyond the Wall comes pounding to the South and with him the might of the Free Folk with raiders, warriors and giants, but nipping at their heels are the mysterious but deadly Others. Jon Snow finds himself on the wrong side of the Wall, and maybe on the wrong side of the war.

Intrigue, betrayal, and weddings abound as the realm remains split in A Storm of Swords.

Another copy of a book which owes me nothing.

As laid out, all the characters here are in a moment of transition, the war is still being waged even though it is largely won in the south. However, the North, the Iron Islands, and the Riverlands are still in revolt against the Iron Throne. It is looking less and less likely though that these revolutions can continue. The new King of the Iron Islands has launched an ill fated invasion of the North, but this has only served to weaken the power of the King in the North, and so now the war may be for nothing. Worse, he may have made an indiscretion off the battlefield which may cost him more than any defeat ever could.

Like I mentioned above though, this book is chock full of action and events. I had actually misremembered parts of it and changed them to be part of A Feast for Crows in my head. It was a revelatory experience to go back and read the nail biting build up to things like, the Slavers Bay Campaign, the Battle of Castle Black, the Red Wedding, and the Purple Wedding. Seeing the details intricately built up to, betrayals, poisons, and political chicanery was absolutely amazing. I had forgotten just how much went into this book and how important it became for the later volumes.

One of the great themes was that of victory and loss. None of the victories we see on screen come without loss or complications. I enjoyed that each win still managed to bring with it a series of losses, and in some cases outright defeats.

Dany's arc was fascinating as it shows her maturing, but also questioning some of her goals and motivations while having trouble with some of the issues of her youth. I did enjoy that she became something of a wicked badass when doing all this. It's a tale that hits close to my heart because of my love of Civil War history, and the parallels are fascinating to look for.

Jon Snow's story is also interesting as it careens from a spy thriller to an epic story of siege and diplomacy, with so many twists it really made my head spin as I was reading it. I found the whole story with Mance Rayder to be compelling as it explains the threat of the Wildlings, and the threat that hangs over the whole Seven Kingdoms with the Others.

One story line I remembered astonishingly little of was that of Sansa Stark. I think back when I first read this I mostly skimmed her story, which is probably a grievous error. It was so much richer than I remembered, full of intrigue, subtle hints at the nature of the Tyrell's and their plans, while crossing so well with that of Tyrion Lannisters. He finale in the Vale was so well done, I really did underestimate her as a character when I first read this series.

Outside of Tyrion's arc (because how can you not love Tyrion? And the duel, that duel!) I would say that these were the stories that kept me going. Reading all of Catelyn's arc was gut wrenching as this time I knew where it lead. Seeing all the events coming to a head, in a way that really ties off what I consider to be the perfect trilogy in A Song of Ice and Fire,was immensely satisfying. I have more thoughts on why I think the first three books are so well done, and slide so seamlessly together, but those are for another time.

For now I would just like to finish by saying that A Storm of Swords is truly a masterpiece of the writers craft with such deftly handled foreshadowing and amazing plot arcs that it was well worth my time to reread. I'm in love with Westeros all over again.