George R.R. Martin - A Storm of Swords (Part II)

Check out Part I of my review here.

Okay, I get it.

I see why so many of you point to A Storm of Swords and call it the best of The Song of Ice and Fire so far. Maybe I wasn't quite so sure of the novel's direction 534 pages in, but it only took about another 60 to see where it was heading.

Simply put, A Storm of Swords is the game-changer: the book where everything you came know and to expect from the previous two volumes is turned on its head, setting the stage for territories completely unknown. I suspect George R.R. Martin must have been laughing as he cranked out the final couple hundred of pages - any doubts I may have had about his unsure of the path he wants the series to were obliterated. Major characters die...MAJOR characters. Characters who seemed lost and without direction are suddenly granted purpose. Characters you love are reduced to slaves, prisoners, or worse, and characters you've come to loathe show a breadth and depth you swore was never there.

That Martin makes these changes in behavior work without feeling overwrought or purely in service to the plot is a wonder. That he makes the final 600 pages fly faster than the first 500 is just as big a compliment. I don't want to ramble on too long since my first half of the review last week was a bit of a whopper, so I'll close by saying that A Storm of Swords is a major accomplishment in the historical fantasy Martin's trying to weave, and a wicked harbinger of things to come.

I for one can't wait.