A Game of Thrones – DaneCobain.com

George R. R. Martin – A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold | Review

Title: A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold

Author: George R. R. Martin

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 642

Rating: 8/10

George R. R. Martin – A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold

Blood and Gold is the second instalment of A Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series which you might know better as the series that Game of Thrones, the TV series, is based on. That makes this technically the fourth book, and so far I’ve been able to read them in order and to stay ahead from the series, although the first episode of the sixth season aired the day before I finished the book. I’ve been holding back on watching it, because I prefer to imagine the characters in my head before I witness them on the screen.

This book is probably my least favourite book so far in the series, although I still gave it an 8/10 which is above my general rating for a professional quality book. It also features a lot of key plot elements, including the Red Wedding, which I’d already heard about before I even started on the books. Luckily, I didn’t know the specifics, and so when it did happen, I got to experience it for the first time – it is a pretty big deal, but it felt over-hyped when I got to it.

Here, you get to watch character development in action – in particular, Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly of the Nights Watch grow even more three-dimensional, and we can start to see them coming into their own. Stannis Baratheon also made a couple of decisions which impressed me, and which simultaneously changed my opinion of his character whilst reinforcing who he was all along.

George R.R. Martin

But there are also a couple of lazier elements to the plots – one of the problems that I have with George R. R. Martin is that he seems to keep on killing people off and then bringing them back to life again. Done well, this can create a decent twist in the story – however, when it keeps on happening over and over again, it jerks you out of the story every time someone else dies. Instead of accepting it as a part of a story, you start to question whether the author’s telling the truth, and that makes you unsuspend your disbelief and leave Westeros for the next couple dozen of pages, until you have the death independently confirmed elsewhere.

Still, I read this across the space of eight days – I wouldn’t have been able to read it that quickly if I didn’t enjoy it, and I’m still showing no signs of slowing down. There are two more books for me to read until I’m up-to-date with the author’s latest releases, but he’s due to release another one pretty soon – either way, once I’m up-to-date with the books, I’ll be able to watch the series just like everyone else.

One good thing about Martin’s work is the level of detail that sits behind it – in this book, even more new characters are added, and several minor ones become more major. With each additional book in the series, you get to see another layer of the complexity – some of the story lines in this book were set in motion in A Game of Thrones, right back at the very start of the series. Considering the timespan of the books’ releases, you start to see how much planning must have gone into it – he’s tying up loose ends here that he introduced ten years earlier, and there are still other elements of Martin’s epic that are on-going even now.

Overall, then, whilst this isn’t my favourite book in the series, it’s still well worth reading if you’ve made it this far. And keep your eyes peeled for a couple of high profile deaths.

George R. R. Martin

Click here to buy A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold.

George R. R. Martin – A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow | Review

Title: A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow

Author: George R. R. Martin

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 672

Rating: 9/10

George R. R. Martin – A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow

This book here is the first part of the third book in George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series, and as such it comes about half way through the timeline of the books that he’s published at the time of writing. I’ve been reading through the series over the last couple of months, and each book has lived up to my expectations and left me looking forward to the next one.

This book follows on from where A Clash of Kings left off, and the action picks up pretty much straight away. It’s my understanding that this, and Blood and Gold (the second Storm of Swords book) both run concurrently, which means that the action in both books happens simultaneously. For me, I’m not sure how that’s likely to work, because it seemed to me as though every single character was accounted for here. That’s interesting, because I still have another 700 or so pages to go through before I move onto the next book, and I find it hard to see what else George R. R. Martin is going to be able to cram in here. But it’s a testament to his skill as a writer that I’m pretty sure he’s going to be able to manage it.

Now, I want to be careful about the plot, because I don’t want to give away any spoilers to anyone who hasn’t read the books or watched the show yet. That said, I can try to skirt around it. Take Jon Snow, for example – his moral character is tested to the limit, and he has to choose between his friends and the greater good. It’s a difficult choice for a young man to make, but by this point, Snow is no longer a child – he’s a man of the night’s watch.

George R.R. Martin

There are plenty of other characters to catch up with, too – the Lannisters are up to their old tricks, and the Stark kids are scattered throughout Westeros. Daenyris hasn’t arrived on the mainland, but she is beginning to amass an army to take back what she sees as hers. Meanwhile, the wildlings are gathering and the Others are out in force, and so the realm itself is in a lot of danger.

The good thing about Martin is that his books are characterful and plot-driven at the same time – sure, there’s plenty of stuff happening, and a lot of action scenes for readers to get involved with, but the subtle interactions between the characters is just as important as the outcome of any battle. But as young Robb Stark proves – winning battles is one thing, but winning the war is something different altogether.

Now, the book before this was called ‘A Clash of Kings’, and the very first book was ‘A Game of Thrones‘. Here, both of those titles are still valid – it’s interesting to see how the series builds upon itself, and how the foundations that Martin laid in the beginning are further developed with each additional book in the series. I’ll be interested to see whether he’s able to do that in the second Storm of Swords book, which I can’t wait to get started on.

It’s a testament to the quality of Martin’s writing that even now, after reading three books and about 2,000 pages in the space of just over a month, I’m still keen to read more. I’m now about halfway through the series, and showing no signs of slowing down so far. That’s the mark of a good author – even with Tolkien, I started to flag after reading the first couple of books in the Lord of the Rings series. Despite the length of books like this one, Martin doesn’t have the same effect on me – I could read his words all day long, and sometimes I have done. Go read some!