The third instalment of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire picks up the intense drama of Westeros right where we left off after A Clash of Kings and maintains the calibre of excitement we've come to expect through another 900+ pages.
Part of what I love about George R. R. Martin's fantasy saga is his direction. Even though the series spans across several continents and many important parallel plotlines, he manages to make each novel focused. While A Clash of Kings focused strongly on the 5 powers struggling for dominion of the realm, A Storm of Swords more strongly brings in the battle taking place on and beyond The Wall. I personally love the story taking place beyond The Wall and found myself enthralled by the terrors that the wights and White Walkers pose to Westeros.
Much of my thoughts on the third novel echo those of the second. I almost feel like they were written as one novel and simply split due to length. A Storm of Swords has the same beguiling ability to keep you interested and excited. Every chapter left you itching for more and flipping pages to see when that character would be back and to find out what happens to them.
Pathetically, and I know this is completely awful, but for all of the first novel and much of the second I was under the impression that the Daenerys Targaryen storyline was occurring on Tarth. I bought these beautiful, hardcover versions of the books with illustrated maps. The maps, however, only include the continent of Westeros and I just assumed that everything took place within Westeros. Once my brain finally caught up with me I felt completely stupid. Nonetheless I found this gorgeously drawn map of the entire Song of Ice and Fire world which helped me put everything in perspective.
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(Sidenote: What happened to the comet from book two? It seems to just have faded out of both the sky and plot without any notice.)
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