A review by thetomatowriter
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

3.0

It took a couple hundred pages before I felt really invested in the story. The last few books I've read had been such easy reads, and it had been over a year since I'd read A Clash of Kings, so for a while it seemed really daunting and kind of dragged. The other thing is that while I love GRRM's characters and his plot development and world-building, his actual writing style feels very plain and boring to me. But once the story really started to move, it didn't stop, and it was almost hard to keep up with but definitely thrilling to put all the pieces together and watch these big parts play out. I had already been told about the Red Wedding so much and in so much detail (plus I saw the show's version), that it didn't really elicit the response from me that I think it does most readers, but that's more the internet's fault and my own fault than the book's. The Mountain v. The Viper really upset me, though, because there's so much buildup, and then it just crushes you (...sorry, no pun intended). The women really grabbed me the most in this book: Danaerys, Brienne, all the Star ladies POVs were gripping. I know a lot of people talk about how Jaime was probably the most standout character in this book, or Tyrion, and they were great and I understand that, but this was probably the deciding factor for me that made Brienne my favorite character in the series. Great arc on Tyrion's part, though, great cliff-hangers, all around pretty exciting. I will say that for the first half of the book, basically until the attack, the stuff on the Wall or Beyond the Wall just moved so. slowly. It was kind of like whiplash to read a really exciting chapter and then go straight back to the wall where the cold and starved atmosphere and the length of the chapters really just slows you down. But that does get better as the story goes on, as well.