Song of Ice and Fire: Book 3 - A Storm of Swords

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world....

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .


FINALLY! 

This is an insanely long book. I like to think of myself as a reader, but man, this book made me question my conviction. This book took me a month (A WHOLE MONTH!) to finish, and I am horribly embarrassed by that fact.

That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it. I really did. I read it at almost every opportunity. But it is a FREAKIN' long book. Some people aren't intimidated by 1200 page novels, and I think after reading this book I might be in the future. At least the next one is only, like 800 or something.

This book is almost as good as the first book, and better than the second in my opinion. I have enjoyed them all, but so much happened in this book, and it solidified the "no one is safe" platform that was established in the first book with the death of a major character. 

I found myself almost rushing to get to the part about "The Red Wedding", which was spoiled for me by a magazine article about the TV series. I knew about a bunch of things that were going to happen, not from reading the article, but just by flipping past the pictures in the article (I've read it now though, after I got to that part, so that nothing more got spoiled). Interestingly enough, I found that the things that happened after that were FAR more interesting and I told more than one person who watches the TV show or is currently reading that book that "Shit gets bananas after the Red Wedding" (I wrote this to my brother in a text message, and his response was "We are not talking about this" HAHAHAHA! I am so evil)

The 3rd season of the show is actually only about the first half of this book, so it's made me REALLY start looking forward to the 4th season of the TV show! Unfortunately, it's not coming out until the new year. Phoo... ;)