From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Plot-wise, A Storm of Swords picks up where A Clash of K

Plot-wise, A Storm of Swords picks up where A Clash of Kings left off once again. Interestingly, Martin includes a note on chronology before the prologue…basically that not all of these events are happening in sequence. We catch up with the Night’s Watch a bit before the events that ended A Clash of Kings, since we ended that narrative with Jon Snow, but pick it up with Chett (and later Sam, yay!). What’s intriguing about this disclaimer is that it made me see much of Dany’s story in a different light. She’s still the farthest away from the action, and I still don’t have a great sense of how her timeline lines up with the timelines of the other characters. We see almost all of the other narrators cross paths at one point or another – at least they get near enough to tell where all of the timelines intersect – but Dany still might as well be in another book. I’m anxious for her to join the action, if only because it’s amusing to watch all of these “kings” fighting over the Iron Throne with absolutely no idea that Dany and her three dragons are on their way (eventually).

Anyway. The struggle for power, it continues. Having won the battle of Blackwater through no doing of his own, Joffrey continues to be a pain in the ass whilst sitting on the Iron Throne (and getting occasionally impaled by it, oh darn). Stannis and Melissandre continue to be creepy and intense (this is totally turning into a religious war on me and I’m not sure how I feel about it…all of this Lord of the Light stuff makes me nervous for the characters). Theon is blessedly absent, although one of Bolton’s men awesomely hands Catelyn a piece of his finger at some point. I would be totally fine if we never saw his slimy ass again, but sadly he’ll probably outlive everyone – depending on how much skin Bolton lets him keep I guess. Robb is still winning battles as King in the North, but when he makes the rash decision to marry for love instead of keeping his promise to marry one of the many Freys, things get a hell of a lot worse for him. It’s interesting to note that, while Robb never loses a battle, there’s never a sense that his cause is doing all that well. Jon has successfully infiltrated the wildlings and Mance Rayder is making a move to be more than just King Beyond the Wall. I like that we get to see both sides of the battle for the Wall through Jon and Samwell.

It’s really hard to describe the plot accurately, mostly because the stories are starting to blend together – my fault for reading the novels all back-to-back. I kept forgetting that Blackwater was the end of A Clash of Kings, not the beginning of Storm. For my own sake, I’m just going to break the rest of this review down by character, since the series at its heart is a character-driven narrative (that’s what I love about it!).

Jaime: I LOVE that we got a glimpse inside the Kingslayer’s head. His conversation with Catelyn near the end of A Clash of Kings was one of my absolute favorite chapters. I like that, while he’s still not necessarily a sympathetic character, Jaime has become more multilayered. We’re given a sense of why he’s taken many of these actions and the price he’s had to pay for each of them. Plus he and Brienne are just a great team together. I really hope she gets some chapters of her own eventually, because she might be my favorite non-narrator character.

Sansa: Ugh. Child, when will you learn? I get being an optimist and trying to make the best of a bad situation, but she borders on delusional. If she thought about how “it’s just like in the songs!” one more time, I was going to have to find a way to reach into this book and smack her. You would think seeing her own father beheaded at the command of her betrothed would wake the girl up to reality, but she still has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that her life just flat out sucks. Girl clearly needs a get-a-grip friend, still. I thought Tyrion might be that for her, but turns out he’s too chivalrous. Who knew? I do feel bad for her, given what’s happened to her family since the series started, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy listening to her whine when her fairy tale continues to fall apart.

Arya: She, on the other hand, has really grown on me. In spite of countless setbacks (remember way back when she thought she was headed to the Wall? Good times), Arya always manages to find a way to survive and keep moving forward. She and Sandor were good foils for one another, I thought. I’m actually not dreading being inside her head again in the next book. I do wish Nymeria would come back though. It’s been foreshadowed for hundreds of pages now.

Bran: Let’s get all the Stark kids out of the way here. Obviously he’s not quite dead yet, but the Reeds are going to great lengths to make sure no one finds this out. I’m still not enamored with the wolf dreams, but his chapters were less of a trial this time around. I’m also developing a fondness for Hodor. It’s amusing to imagine the different ways in which he uses his name to respond to various situations. Hodor? Hodor. Hodor! HOOOODOOOR! See? Fun.
(Also: calling it right now, Coldhands is Uncle Benjen)
(Also, also: Where is Rickon? Did he just disappear into the mist with Osha? Are we going to see him again? I find him sort of annoying, but he’s as much of a loose thread as Benjen and that bugs me)

Catelyn: I sort of want to dislike her, because she’s really a terrible mother, but I can’t help but feel sorry for her. It’s interesting that Jon frequently remembers what a bitch she was to him, and other characters recall her coldness as well. I don’t have a great deal to say about her as a character; her chapters sort of bore me, in fact. They’re mostly a way to show the reader how Robb’s battles are going, and she really lost a lot of her personality after Ned died waaaay back in A Game of Thrones. I just wish she could have gotten to see her daughters again. (although that epilogue? Awesome! Totally worth the fact that I skimmed most of it at first because I didn’t give a shit who Merrett was)

Dany: She’s still one of my favorites. I can’t wait until her dragons are big enough to ride into Westeros. Her campaign to free all slaves everywhere is interesting, and I’m intrigued to see what she will do when given the chance to rule for a bit, instead of conquering and laying waste (which she is remarkably adept at for being…14? 15?).

Davos: He is my favorite new character. After spending most of A Clash of Kings forgetting who he was, I grew extremely fond of the Onion Knight. I figured this spelled doom, and I’m glad to see I was wrong. It’s nice to see him rise in the ranks and become someone of influence. It also gives us a glimpse into Stannis’s camp, which is disturbing, to say the least.

Samwell: I love Sam. He’s like Piggy in Lord of the Flies. I like that he’s sort of reluctantly stepping up, although that chapter about him sobbing and being unable to walk made me nervous. I wasn’t sure I could sit through much more whining after Sansa. Luckily, he manned up a bit. I think he’ll be a major player on the Wall in the books to come.

Jon: I’ve never been a huge fan of Jon, mostly because he’s exactly like Ned – absolutely loyal and true and noble…almost to a fault. Those ultra-noble guys are notorious stiffs. Ned was no exception, nor is his son. But Jon definitely came into his own in this book, as did many of the younger characters. I’m excited to see him lead the Watch (and I will admit I teared up when Ghost came back).

Tyrion: Saving my favorite for last, poor guy. When will bad shit stop happening to him? Tyrion is clearly the smartest of all the Lannisters, for all the good it’s doing him. I was worried he wasn’t going to survive into this volume, to be honest. And while I’m glad Martin kept him around, I hate that he’s become the punching bag for the family. His scenes with Sansa broke my heart…he just wants to be loved, by someone who is an honest companion. It’s terrible that she can’t see that, because I think they are actually a good match for one another – as foils, not necessarily as husband and wife. He could challenge her intellectually (which she sorely needs), and she could maybe inject some whimsy into his life? I just hated watching him be so miserable. I did love his ending, however (did he kill Shae? I’m assuming that’s what was hinted at).

Overall, I would rank this equal with A Game of Thrones in terms of how much I enjoyed it. The previous volume was a little tedious at times (too many descriptions of battles), but I had a hard time putting this one down, and even when I did, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I think it helps that I don’t really have much grounding in the fantasy genre. I’ve always disliked fantasy, quite frankly. I came into this series with exactly ZERO expectations of what a fantasy series “should” be like, and I think that’s helped. Nothing feels derivative because it’s all new to me. Nothing feels “untrue” to the genre because again, I have no preconceived notions. I’m growing more and more interested in the time that came before the Song of Ice and Fire timeline, however. The Age of Heroes, the rule of the Targaryens, the building of the Wall…I don’t suppose Martin has any prequels in the works for whenever this series is finished?