A Storm of Swords by: George R. R. MartinI’m behind on blogging. I have not completed a blog or thought about blogging in so long that something that had become second nature to me (reading and writing) is not so easy. Since I finished this book a couple of nights ago I have pondered what I should write about in this blog. Since this book took me entirely way too long to finish (somewhere around 12 weeks) I can’t remember what happened within the 1200 page novel. I know what has happened in the series up to this point, but what specific things took place in A Storm of Swords? Well that is a great question.
One word comes to mind when I think about this book and my life for the last 12 weeks. Disarray. Disarray is defined as “a disorganized and confused state.” Me first… in the last 12 weeks I have switched jobs or maybe I should say professions, which brought about a new boss, a new building, new office, new staff, new responsibilities, in short, everything changed. Not to mention that this new change moved my husband to a new location. When you read this, please know that I’m not complaining, my life is good, just a little crazy. Change is hard and for anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a huge fan of change. All that to say, my life has been in a state of disarray. Now, to the book. This book is in a constant state of confusion. Now, hear me in this, I am not saying that the book is confusing, but what I’m saying is that the book’s story line is constant craziness. I would finish a chapter and have to put the book down and say to myself “did that just happen?!?!?” How about an example? Tyrion Lannister (the Lannister family in my opinion are the bad guys) and Sansa Stark get married. Well this is a shock for one, Sansa was promised to Tyrion’s nephew, Joffrey Baratheon who just happens to be the King (well one of them right?), well since her father was dead, mother suspected to have killed a self proclaimed king-Renly Baratheon, brother has declared himself King of the north, which is treason in the Lannister’s eyes. The Queen Regent Cersei decided that she was not worthy of her son or to be queen so therefore she decides that her son will marry the widowed Margaery Tyrell and pushes Sansa aside. Before the royal wedding (Just FYI, weddings turn out very bad in this book), Margaery’s family has figured out a plan to marry Sansa off to Margery’s older brother the future Lord of Highgarden. Well in a turn of events, Cersei tricks Sansa into thinking she was being fitted for a gown for the royal wedding and instead she was taken to the Sept and married to Tyrion the dwarf. I hope that you can read the craziness and confusion in just that one example of my “Oh my gosh, did that just happen?” moments.
When I’m playing around on Facebook, I like to look at flair. I will just search for whatever interests me at the moment. Of course on my list is always Twilight and Harry Potter. Not long ago I decided to search for “A Song of Ice and Fire” just to see what came up. I was surprised to find quite a few buttons. The one that sticks out in my mind said “Every time a fan asks GRRM when the next book will be out, another Stark dies.” I was upset when I read it (The Stark family is who the books revolve around. Most of them have had their own chapters in the books and most of the Stark children are my favorite characters). I knew that something was going down. Throughout the last two books (A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords) most of the Starks have had a moment when they believe they are the only Stark left. Luckily, that has not been true.
Surprise and Intrigue are my favorite concepts of Martin’s books. As I’ve come to expect, there were some very shocking moments in this book. Something that I have enjoyed about this series is that no one is too big a character to die. As I continue on with this series, I have a feeling that more main characters are going to die. The author is such an outstanding writer that whenever I least expect something horrible, that is when, BOOM, he turns the story upside down.
My favorite characters are changing a little. I found that I enjoyed Sansa’s story more in this book than I have in the past. Tyrion’s character has always left an impression on me. His wit and intellect make me smile. Jon’s story just gets better and better. The end of this book on the Wall was fantastic. Sorry if you haven’t read it, you are lost, but for my friends that have read the book, I was so excited when he made his decision not to leave the wall to go back to Winterfell, but instead became Lord Commander. Awesome! A new character that I enjoyed very much was Jaime Lannister. Of course with a name like Lannister you know he’s going to be bad, or is he? Jaime’s chapters were enjoyable and you could see small changes in him as the story progressed that were quite exciting.
I’m not sure what to think about R’hllor the god of Fire and Light. I guess because the Starks worship the “Old Gods” and Catelyn Tully Stark worships the new gods I’ve always thought that the Polytheistic beliefs were the right ones (in the book, people, not in real life). So when this one and only god comes into the picture, I’m not sure what to make of that part of the story. Well hopefully it becomes clearer as the series continues which religion is correct and which is false. Here is a quote from Melisandre the Priestess of R’hllor. “The war has been waged since time began, and before it is done, all men must choose where they will stand. On one side is R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God o Flame and Shadow. Against him stand the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror. Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light.” The reason I share that quote is because of the parallelism between the fight between religion and politics. I love how he throws in the Ice and Fire too.
To sum up another blog on the chronicle A Song of Ice and Fire, disarray is the word of the day. I have one more book in the series and then I’ll take a break from this author until he releases his next book sometime in the fall. I hope that by that time I can read and blog each Harry Potter book and I have a shelf full of books that I’ve been waiting to sink my teeth into.
I know this blog is a little crazy and disorganized, as is life, so I’ll end with this: Keep reading! Let me know what you think. Did you like the blog? Have you read the book or are you thinking about trying it? Comment below!
