Book 16 of 2012

16) A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) by George R. R. Martin
Having finished this Saturday morning, I have now exhausted my George R. R. Martin reserves, as I bought the first three books of the series when I saw the initial commercial for the HBO show's first season. The knowledge that too few of the characters I really like appear in volume four probably means that me and A Song of Ice and Fire are on a break until the third season begins next April. But that's okay because these books take a long time to read, and it'll be nice to devote myself to something else besides medieval political intrigue, weird incest, sword-fighting, and fire-breathing dragons.

The third book of the series focuses on four concurrent stories, beginning by overlapping with the ending of the second book so the reader can experience what happened in the various areas of Westeros while the Battle of Blackwater took place. Martin really delivers on a number of levels, the least of which are the character perspectives he chooses to utilize this time around: Catelyn, Bran, Arya and Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Davos Seaworth and Daenerys Targaryen all return while Jaime Lannister and Samwell Tarly also get near-narrator duties, which makes all the difference. Martin's clever use of perspective illustrates how well he knows the characters and how important it is to keep track of who knows what about everyone else. Plus, Martin devotes more time to the characters I enjoy and less to the ones I'm not nearly as into while managing to push the latter into the former camp by the time this edition ends.

By far, this is my favorite of the series to date. The first book involved a great deal of table-setting and benefitted from reading along as the first season progressed. The second book, in hindsight, is solid, but ultimately just that, because it serves as a long-winded continuation of the first by establishing even more characters and fewer things happening than befits the length of the story. The third book really hits a sweet spot. Each character is endearing and each of them has fascinating, often times devastating, things happen to them that serves to shape, mold and change them.

The first book deals with the compromises power necessitates, while the second is about keeping the perception of power despite the difficulty in doing so. Book three continually asks question, "How does one survive when said power is stripped away?" Several characters find themselves forced to deal with a new playing field when they no longer hold the power they once did, and the ramifications are very enticing.

Most rumors I've read say that this book will be divided into two seasons of the show, and anything less would really do a disservice to the story. So much happens along the way, and there's a huge moment just past the halfway point that would serve as the ultimate season finale cliffhanger that I'll be utterly gobsmacked if it doesn't happen that way. And the ending of the book would also be another awesome reveal for season four. The possibilities for how great this show can be are endless, and I suspect that's when I'll start the series again because the visual stimulation the show provides adds to the desire to experience the world Martin offers.

Book 4 of 2012

After reading this book off and on for seven months, I finally finished this on President's Day weekend. I originally planned to take an extended break from the series after finishing this volume due to the enormity of each book, but seeing that the first POV chapter is Jaime Lannister actually has me rethinking that idea.

4) A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice & Fire, #2) by George R. R. Martin

The second part of Martin's immense epic that's served as the source for the hit HBO show continues right where the last one left off. Westeros is in turmoil as the country plunges into civil war over who should be the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Besides Joffrey, the son (in name only) of the recently deceased king, there's Renly and Stannis, brothers to King Robert, Robb Stark, the proclaimed King of the North, along with Balon Greyjoy and Daenerys Targaryen. Frankly, it's a job that's accompanied by problems that someone wouldn't wish on their worst enemy, so it's difficult to understand why they would want it. The same three basic stories continue from before: the aforementioned war to gain control of the Seven Realms of Westeros, Jon Snow and the Night's Watch folks travelling north of the Wall to investigate zombies and find their missing members, and Dany Targaryen trying to return to home with her dragons.

The big difference in reading this volume compared to the first is the lack of the television show as a supplementary guide. Reading the first book concurrently with watching the show revealed the surprising lengths the latter took to follow the former, and the show also took some of the characters that received short shrift in the book and fleshed them out. Thanks to some of those moments, some of which came to the forefront more in this volume, the motivations and misconceptions I may have had were easier to understand. Without the show this time around, I was left to my own devices. That's not a negative, as it has me pumped for Game of Throne's return on April 1, but it was jarring and revealed just how much the show spoiled me for the rest of the books. Considering fans of the series have had to endure a majority of their time as fans without the series AND with long gulfs of time between volumes, there's never been a better time to jump on this bandwagon.

Where the last book was about the relationship between power and compromise, this one deals more with maintaining the perception of power when one recognizes how much their grasp on it can wane. Each of the characters has a tenuous grip on the power they wield, and the differences between many of them comes down to whether or not they recognize how tenuous that grip can be. 

The scope of the story continues to expand, and the note at the beginning of book three explains that some events occur concurrently with the Battle of Blackwater. Knowing that helps going into the third book since, despite how large and encompassing the story is, it felt like a few of the characters were ignored far too much. Robb Stark appears to be having a ton of success, but the reader only gets to hear about it second hand. Some of the characters that do get their own POV chapters are left out in the figurative cold as well. More Davos and Daenerys would certainly be welcome compared to the amount of Sansa, Catelyn and Bran we receive. The Starks are the center of the story and the family the reader is supposed to be rooting for, but too many of the other characters are far more fascinating. But the series so far is literary pizza in the sense that even the bad or boring stuff (food descriptions, I'm looking at you) is still plenty entertaining.