Customer Reviews
Better than Tolkien
Yes, you read right--George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice is BETTER than Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Why is everyone afraid to admit this? Yes, Tolkien is a genius--the fantasy genre wouldn't exist without him, and no doubt, A Song of Fire of Ice couldn't have been written. But ... each of Martin's books are more entertaining than Tolkien's trilogy. I get bored at times reading The Lord of the Rings; I barely sleep when I read each of the 700+ page Martin books. Am I alone?
Martin does it again!
This book, like it's predecessors, was absolutely amazing! I expect the best from this series, and book 3 did not dissappoint. Martin writes the most interesting characters in fantasy. He even has me feeling for the bad guys. Book 3 lets the reader get inside Jaime Lannister's head a bit, and you actually see some nobility in his character that the first two books don't show. I don't want to give away any of the story, but some VERY important things happen in book 3 that nobody could have seen coming. If you're a fan of the series, do not hesitate, buy this book now! If you haven't read the series, check out book 1, a Game of Thrones. It's going to be nearly impossible to wait for book 4!
What can you say about a Masterpiece?
The cliche would be to say that words can't express how great this book is, but that, of course, is false. For words DO express how great it is - George R. R. Martin's words, though, not mine.
A Storm of Swords is the third, and the best (so far), of the Epic Fantasy series A Song of Ice anf Fire. In a time when half the world is writing Epic Fantasy, George R. R. Martin is the only one who is doing it as it should be done.
A Storm of Swords' pace is like that of a snowball, it start small and slow, and accelerates. The book's beginning is a masterful art of wieving threads together, and about a third way into is you start to shadder because you're in the most incredible rollar costar imaginable, and it won't let you off until the very ending, and you'll be left suffering until a Dance with Dragons will be out in 2002 - but that's true for all of us Martin fans.
A Storm of Swords shows Martin's loathing of happy endings and black/white characters - Martin's world is so realistic it hurts. The morality gets much more complicated, as we get indights into a character we thought was a villain, and see his actions completely differently.
The twists are very logical, but completely surprising. For each development predicted by the fans, three weren't. Some questions are answered, but more are asked, and through the entire story, the Stark words can be heard: "Winter is Coming"
After A Clash of Kings, I thought Martin wrote a story that was practically impossible to top. But he has, and now all I can do is to count the days until A DANCE WITH DRAGONS
