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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
George cooked again. I won’t lie, this book definitely had more lows than book 1, and I’d say I preferred book 1 but this was still absolutely incredible. George’s writing definitely feels improved, some moments and the way he wrote them were so powerful to read. Daenerys at Qarth was for sure the biggest low, it clearly took a backseat and felt a bit pointless up until the last 2 chapters, which in contrast were amazing, the house of the undying being one of the best chapters I’ve read so far in both books. Jon also took a backseat but his chapters were still great to read as usual, and he’s left off in a good place, I can’t wait to see how it goes with the wildlings in a Storm of Swords. Tyrion absolutely shined here, being the centre point of kings landing and the main conflict of the War of the Five Kings, every chapter was a great read, the riot in Kings Landing was great and the biggest stand out chapter in the middle portion of the book. The battle of Blackwater was nothing short of fucking perfect, the opening Davos chapter could potentially be my favourite chapter so far, it was such an amazing read throughout with the battle at sea, then the climax with the wildfire and the chain decimating a huge portion of the fleet of Stannis, the writing in that chapter was the peak of this book, “The mouth of the Blackwater Rush had turned into the mouth of hell”. The chapters in between with Sansa and Cersei were great, Sansa throughout this whole book was great seeing all the dark sides of Kings Landing and giving us a view into how the Lannister’s rule. The Hound got a chance to shine in her chapters easily becoming one of my favourite characters here, a broken but good hearted man who turned so cynical after being wronged by the world, but still there being some good clearly left there. Arya was interesting in Harrenhal, probably the biggest mixed bag, some of her chapters were incredible, when they were with the Yoren and the captives, then the chapters with Jaqen, but then besides that it wasn’t too interesting and got boring sometimes, but I’m excited to see where she goes from here in the next instalment. The north was also great and shone a lot here, Bran, Theon and everything with Winterfell was great to read, seeing Theon go from a cocky arrogant asshole in the first book, and at the start in the iron islands, to slowly becoming humbled by everyone around him seeing him as the opposite as his own beliefs, seeing how when he has to do bad things he slowly realises he’s not this person who he’s forcing himself to be, he clearly regretted killing those two boys a lot as he changes very much after that, he can’t sleep, he constantly second guessed himself which he’d never do before, there’s still clearly that arrogant asshole still there but it’s waning, I’m excited to see where he goes from here after being betrayed by Ramsay, it was great seeing inside his thoughts and his character. Bran took a backseat this book too, the wolf dreams were interesting and him learning to warg into Summer, but he didn’t really have much to do, Osha was great, Jojen and Meera Reed are fascinating characters and Hodor as always is the goat, but I’m hoping we see them do more in a Storm of Swords. Every Catelyn chapter stood out, everything with Renly, the war with Robb and her own inner conflict with Brienne at her side, with the “deaths” of Bran and Rickon, she was great to read and contrasted to the first book, I looked forward to each Catelyn chapter. Some of my favourite chapters from memory were Catelyns chapter with Jaime, incredible and added much needed character to Jaime Lannister who I can’t wait to read as a POV in a Storm of Swords. Tyrions chapter on the Blackwater Bay was a thrill to read, the charge and hope at the start as they just run over Stannis army, the details written by George on the horrors and just how sad war can be was fascinating to read, then as it goes on it slowly gets worse, more men come and come, then just when they think it’s going well and there’s hope the ships crash into the bay with the bridge across, and so many more of Stannis men come and it’s do or die with the epic battle on the bridges and decks of the ships, with it ending with the epic climax of Ser Mandon Moore’s betrayal, and the shy and timid Podrick Payne coming in clutch and slaying a kings guard was so cool, it isn’t cool that Tyrion lost 3/4 of his nose though. Stannis was great in this book too, a cold and seemingly emotionless man driven by honor and duty, but you get glimpses into there being a lot more to this man than meets the eye, with everything regarding Renly being fascinating to read, the Parlay was great to read, and then the conversation with Davos was one of my favourite moments in the book, and was sorely missed in the show, Renly and the peach, how he always loved his brother despite everything that happened was so good to read. While not quite being as good as the first book in my opinion it’s really not far off, and is amazing and special to me in a different way than A Game of Thrones. I can’t fucking wait to read a Storm of Swords and dive deeper into these fascinating books. Overall it’s still absolutely a 5/5.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is ssoooooooo long. Probably the longest book I've ever read. By the time I reached the end the beginning was a distant memory. Book three might have to wait a bit for me.
4.5 stars realistically - almost every character is so self centred it drives you insane, but there's a lot more subtlty in the book compared to the tv show
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed this basically as much as the first book. I did find all of the fighting and strategizing did get dull after a while. I enjoyed Jon, Arya, and Bran's chapters the most, but the most fun chapter was probably Dany in the House of the Undying.
adventurous
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a much slower read than the first book. Tons of detail and lots of good story though.