Reviews

A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow by George R.R. Martin

Only show reviews with written explanations

sminismoni's review

3.0

Slow to start but got better towards the end. Without concurrently watching the TV show, I suspect my investment in what happens to the characters would be much less. One of the few cases where the TV version might be better than the book.

francescomartini's review against another edition

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5.0

-Sono nato. Sono vissuto. Sono colpevole di essere un nano, lo confesso. E non ha avuto alcuna importanza quante volte il mio buon padre mi abbia perdonato, io ho perseverato nella mia infamia di esistere.-
Senza ombra di dubbio e con un grande distacco rispetto agli altri il più bel volume della saga. So far, s'intende.
NB: la recensione si riferisce al volume di "Tempesta di spade", quindi a tutti e tre i libri con cui è uscito in Italia.

E' il libro che ha consacrato definitivamente la mia passione per questa saga (e il libro che ha rovinato i miei appelli d'esame di Gennaio). Attenzione: provoca dipendenza e nuoce gravemente alla vita sociale.
Da un punto di vista stilistico, i romanzi di Martin si possono dire, io credo, tutti egualmente validi. In particolare non c'è libro che non valga la pena di esser letto già soltanto per i dialoghi. Ad ogni modo, un elogio particolare va a mio avviso alla sezione in cui è contenuto l'estratto con cui aperto la recensione, e chi ha letto il libro sa sicuramente a cosa mi riferisco.
Tuttavia, ciò che distingue questo libro dagli altri (senza che alcuno di essi sia, sotto questo punto di vista, pessimo) è la costruzione. Martin in questo caso la orchestra alla perfezione, e ogni intreccio è sviluppato perfettamente rispetto agli altri, risultando meravigliosamente tangente, secante o parallelo, ma mai sconnesso.

Insomma, decisamente valeva la pena di impegnare così tanto tempo nel costruire il background per poter apprezzare al meglio questo volume. Un po' meno vale la pena, in generale, di affezionarsi ai personaggi.

lauraeydmann82's review

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5.0

Awesome next instalment of this series… if you haven’t read any of the other books in this series, don’t start here! If you have, you’ll be pleased to know that in my opinion, the series goes from strength to strength.

If you’ve not read these books, and you like fantasy, you should. They are up there with the best – I would rank J.R. R. Tolkien, Robin Hobb and George R. R. Martin as my 3 favourite fantasy writers by far. If you’ve seen the TV series you know that the story doesn’t pull any punches, and I would say there is more sex, swearing and violence in the books than the TV series.

The characters are complex and well developed, and over the course of the books there is plenty of time to keep them this way. Main characters die, and when you first pick up the books you will probably be a little overwhelmed by the amount of characters, but just let it all wash over you, you’ll remember the important ones, and Martin is very good at introducing characters and helping you remember/discover who they are. The story lines and plots are intricate and intertwined, and have kept me interested throughout, and the technique of having each chapter told by a certain character is a fantastic way of helping tell a story spread across a whole kingdom, and several years.

Spoiler

So, now for a little bit of spoilers… Jaime and Brienne are released by Catelyn to trade for her daughters, Robb marries a Westerling, destroying his betrothal to the Freys, and Arya meets the ‘Brotherhood without Banners’. King Joffrey decides to break his betrothal to Sansa and marry Lady Margaery Tyrell instead. Sansa instead has to marry Tyrion. Jon Snow goes beyond the Wall with the Night’s Watch and hatches a plan to spy on the Wildlings by pretending to become one of them. Daenerys is working her way through Slaver Bay freeing the slaves and building an army.

We learn more about Jaime in this book, he is less of an arrogant prince and becomes more likeable as we learn more about his choices, and he becomes more humble. His relationship with Brienne is something I particularly enjoyed throughout this book. As always Tyrion seems to be the only character with any sense, compassion and intelligence, but still ends up being ridiculed and hated by his sister and father. Arya is becoming more of a warrior and less of a ‘lady’, which I like, Martin writes some good female characters!

So, if you’re working your way through the series, this doesn’t disappoint, if you’ve not read any of these yet, start at the beginning, and enjoy!