Well, somehow I was up about an hour and a half past my bedtime reading the end of this one, and I think that tells you what you need to know about it.
As usual with sequels I’m not going to get into a lot of details on the plot of Storm of Swords, but this one keeps with the pattern of those previous. Multiple view points, battles, blood, love, romance, honor, kings, houses, and supernatural gods. It was just fantastic. With this one even more than the other two, I am astounded with Martin’s ability to write characters. How do you take someone like Jamie Lannister, Kingslayer, someone that you’ve grown to dislike throughout two books and make him sympathetic? It happened. I am shocked to report that I now actually LIKE the person that was set up to be the biggest villain in the first two books. it is truly impressive.
I still have some trouble keeping characters straight in these books, and of course the 1000 page length with multiple characters telling the story through multiple settings and countless events doesn’t help with that. I think that’s the only thing keeping this book from a five. But at the same time, I’m not sure I would like these books as much if it was just one narrator in third person explaining everything, or told from just one character’s point of view. I think my sudden turnaround on Jamie is proof enough of that. Sometimes I think I could be one of those people that read the books over again in anticipation of a new one coming out, but other times it seems completely overwhelming when I remember that I’ve already read nearly 3000 pages about Westros, with probably around 4000 to go. (seven books in the series, I think)
Regardless, aside from that small complaint, I am loving these books, and I put the fourth on hold at the library within five minutes of finishing the third one. This is somewhere between a 4 and a 5, my favorite one so far.
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