Yeah, the second part of the third book is Harry Potter all over again. (Only because I finished the thickest book in the series in a weekend)
All right, so let get down to it.
I actually took some notes while reading the book - which is really not my style, to tell you the truth. but I realized that there's just so much information I wouldn't be able to keep in mind everything for this post.
A Storm of Swords is really one of the best books I've read in a while - and mainly because of all the deaths. I know, I know, it sounds stupid to love a book where every other chapter a beloved character dies, but still.
I think it's all the unpredictability of the whole thing that makes it worth to read.
I loved the fact that the second movie series already covered a couple of things from the start of the third book - I was actually a bit confused while reading the second book, because it seemed to end at a place where a whole bunch of other stuff needed to happen.
Now, I have to tell you guys that some characters I hated at first managed to step it up a bit, and they became quite interesting, while others I still find absolutely boring.
One of these latter characters is Davos - I don't actually know why, but his constant whining makes it hard to read. And now that he actually has a whole bunch of chapters (Which, I know, it's necessary to see the plot from the side of Stannis), it makes it tedious. I actually want to see some good little chapters from the point of view of the Red Witch, because she seems really interesting all of a sudden.
Which brings me to Stannis's side of the war.
At the moment I think they are the best choice to win this whole thing, and it's mainly because of the witch. Which means that the witch will probably soon die in a really horrible way, just to make things harder, and keep things more interesting. (Maybe the fire priest will have to clash with the ice zombies. Eh? What do you think? Irony?)
All right, on to another point.
Tyrion and Sansa. Well, it wasn't totally unexpected, because I managed to somehow blow that little plotline for myself when I red Emő's blog post about the third book (damn, what was I thinking?).
Still, I didn't imagine the whole thing to go down in this manner. Emő made it sound like Tyrion, Sansa and Shae are having a three-way, which at that time seemed absolutely disgusting to me, and quite frankly I couldn't imagine the whole thing. (After all, Sansa is such a stupid little princess, I don't see her ever participating in such a thing) Thankfully that didn't really happen - sure, Tyrion and Sansa were married to each other, but they didn't consummate the thing.
Also, to tell you the truth every single time someone gets his move on Sansa I suddenly have the urge to vomit. I don't know why - she seems to me like a stupid bint, bordering on a Mary Sue character (which shouldn't be possible, considering the writer).
This doesn't mean that when she was hoping to be married off to the cripple brother of Margaery (I hope I remember correctly), I didn't actually want to see that happen. I was actually looking forward to get to know that guy - and I still want to see him, even after all of this.
What didn't surprise me at all was that Cat let Jamie go - because, I already knew that will happen because of the TV show. This was one of those plotlines I was talking about earlier - I think about half of it was blown for me in the book, because I already knew it will happen.
And even though Emő said that Brienne will be a bit better in this book, I still found her somewhat lacking.
When Petyr came up with the idea to get married to Lysa, I knew something was up. At first, I was actually thinking that Lysa can't be THAT stupid to believe anything Petyr said, but apparently I was wrong. The last few chapters took me by surprise in this side of the story, mainly because I didn't realize how absolutely bat-shit crazy that woman is (she took the overly attached girlfriend to a whole new level). I guess her son isn't too far away from her insanity either, in fact I think that he is a little Joffrey in the making. You know, with some added epilepsy and other health issues.
And here I have to stop for a minute.
I remember that when I first saw the boy on the movies, I noticed that something was definitely not right with that boy. At the time it was all waved off because I supposed it was because of all the incest the story has. Now I know differently.
All right, on to another spot. Robb.
What can I say?
In my last GOT book review I was wondering where the girl he sleeps with is. Well, now I realize where.
I didn't actually think that he will marry the girl, tho. Sure, the boy is young, and he is absolutely lead by his dick, but still. I'm not at all surprised that he got killed for not honoring the deal they made. I guess people were killed that time for less, so I'm not at all surprised.
And when it happened, I was actually relieved that Cat was killed alongside him - it meant that I won't be seeing any of her chapters anymore.
As you know I found the woman also pretty boring (about the same as Davos). Her constant whining was making my head hurt.
But apparently I won't be this lucky, now that I finished the damned book. I don't know how those guys did it - to wake her up from the dead, I mean - but it was disgusting. Which made the ending of the book one of the best endings I've read in my life.
I didn't like her too much before - and now I absolutely hate her. What a road she made!
Okay, now on to Dany for a bit.
The chapter where she actually seemed to sell her dragon angered me at first, but then when I realized what she was doing I relaxed. For a while, that is, because Dany's point of view always seems to be such a Roller-Coaster.
I have a love-hate relationship with her, actually. I love the fact that she tries to always do good, and that she always manages to somehow ferret away when danger comes. She can be a good strategist in war, and cunning when it comes to her open enemies.
And then I hate her for her private life. In there she is such a little brat, I want to hit her over the head sometimes.
Which brings me to Jorah. I actually don't know what to think of him anymore - I would have loved it if Dany would finally get her head out of her ass related to him, but it appears it was good that she didn't. Or was it?
Jorah's side of the story seems pretty straightforward till now, but in recent years we had quite a few stories where "evil spies" turned out to be the real heroes, so forgive me if I say I still want to trust Jorah somewhere deep down. After all, he WAS right in so many was - but apparently things turned out well this way too, so we can't complain.
Oh, and before I forget, Dany actually deciding to stay in that city and be the queen didn't really surprise me, but it doesn't mean that I don't find that incredibly stupid (and boring).
Aaand, now I jump back to Jaimie.
That "little" thing with his hand being cut off made me want to vomit once again. Not because I love Jaimie (although, suddenly I feel I can understand why Emő started to like his character), but because it was disgusting. I'm not sure how many of you guys know this already, but I have a big problem with movies and stories describing someone's eyes being abused.
I don't mind any slashing and killing and torture - but damn, when it comes to the eyes, I freak out.
It was something like that with Jaimie's hand. I still get goosebumps when I think about it.
And now, Sam - again. Finally I understood how he saved Gilly. And when they met up with Bran's little group I was really relieved. I read about Sam's "adventure" and crying and being frightened and stuff for almost the whole length of the book and I was getting annoyed at it (even though his whining wasn't as bad as Davos' or Cat's for some strange reason).
So when he first managed to see Bran and then get back to the wall, I was relieved.
And then he did something even better: he manipulated a bunch of people so Jon could become a captain. I knew that Sam will do something cool sooner or later - and quite frankly, while he whined and cried all along, he did more than Davos and Cat did together.
And then Jon - I can't leave him out now, can I?
Jon getting it on with the wildling girl wasn't that surprising, but then I didn't really expect him to actually get back to the wall. Not that I'm not glad for it - I love the thought that he is the captain over there now (even though, when it wasn't sure yet who will become the ruler over all those people, I was actually hoping for him to take what Stannis was offering him. You know, because I want him on the side of the winning side, and at the moment it seems to me that Stannis is the winning side).
All right, who else should I talk about next?
Oh, maybe the Hound! Damn, I hated that guy in this book so much - and when he showed up at the place Arya was, I really, really wanted him dead.
I'm not even sure why, because he DID try to take the girl to safety, whatever his reasons were for it (money, mostly).
And when he told Arya that he was taking her back to her mother I was a bit relieved. And at the same time I knew that it won't end that way, because right when Cat and Robb arrived for the wedding and the wolf started to act strangely, I knew that something will happen.
Wasn't sure what - and I really didn't expect it to be so bad, actually- but I knew something WILL happen, and I didn't want Arya to be there when it did. Thus, when the next chapter after the killing spree Arya got an ax in her head I nearly screamed.
I almost expected her to be wiped out of the story too. Thus, I have to admit that I cheated a bit, because I quickly rolled along the next pages, trying to find a chapter title with her name on it. I was absolutely relieved when I found one, because that meant she wasn't dead after all.
And then, when the plans changed and the Hound wanted to take her to her aunt, for a moment I actually hoped that she will get together with Sansa finally. But then, when I saw how crazy Lysa is, I was grateful that it didn't happen. And now I wonder what will happen with her once she gets to the wall (when she got to the ships and took out the coin, I hoped for a moment that she was going to meet up with the old shapeshifter, but oh well, this sounds promising too. I just hope that the next book won't be full with stories about how she is bored on the ship).
Oh damn, I almost forgot the most hilarious thing that happened in the whole book.
Joffrey dying.
I actually laughed out loud when he seemed to choke on his food - even though now we know that it was poison, I still like the chocking idea better.
I actually never expected for him to die, because he was also so insane, I adored hating him - and I thought that he will be kept around for quite some time still, just for the rage.
And then, when Tyrion kills his own father, I once again wanted to laugh in the face of the Lannisters. What a year for them! Two crippled, two killed! Hurray!
So what did I think about the book all in all till now? It was AWESOME! The best till now by far.
I hope that it will be even better from now on.
And to close up this post, here are some thoughts/suspicions/wishes/questions for the next volumes.
1. Though we saw more ice zombies, we still don't know much about them. The questions I had about them in the last book still apply.
2. What will happen now that Jon is the captain? will he still work together with Stannis? I sure hope so, because they are still winning.
3. Who was the guy on the huge elk? I have a feeling he will become really important soon. He seems to know quite a few things about the North.
4. Who is the three eyed crow?
5. Will the Stark kids finally learn to use their powers?
6. As I said, Stannis seems like he is winning. At one point he seems to be obsessed with the fact that he doesn't have any powerful magical beings to aid him in the war - what will happen if he gets proof that Dany has dragons? Will he kill his wife so he could marry Dany? Will he want to kill Dany and take the dragons that way? WILL THE DRAGONS GROW UP ALREADY?
7. I loved how magical creatures are slowly introduced to the storyline. Giants? Huge elks? What will be next?
8. Will Cercei take the throne now until her son will grow up? Or will she bring her daughter back home?
9. Where will Tyrion go now? To the Wall? I don't think so.
