Warning: A Storm of Swords is the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, therefore this review will contain spoilers for books one and two. In case you haven’t read A Game of Thrones (the first book) and A Clash of Kings (the second book) yet, I recommend you to not continue reading this review. You might want to check out my review for A Game of Thrones or A Clash of Kings instead.

What is this book about?

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords…

Review:

Did I read this book in January? Yes. Am I writing this review ten months later? Maybe…

A Storm of Swords was my first read of 2023 and I knew I would love it because the previous two books already had me falling in love with the characters, so I couldn’t wait to spend more time with them and to find out how their story continues. Turns out, it even managed to exceed my expectations. In the meantime, I have finished the series (well, the remaining books that are already published…) and while all the books in the series were 5-star-reads for me, A Storm of Swords remains my favourite out of the five, so in case you loved the previous two books, I can highly recommend this one.

If I had to describe this book in one sentence, I would say: No matter how terrible you think the situation is, it can always get worse. If you are this far into the series, you probably know that George R.R. Martin has no qualms about making bad things happen to his characters, and this book definitely continues down that road. Does that mean that everything that happened in this book was terrible? No. There were some happy moments and rays of hope sprinkled throughout… but if you are in the mood for an uplifting read, this is not it. Stay far away from this book!

This review might sound a bit contradictory. First, I tell you how much I loved this book and that it is my favourite in the series, then I go on to tell you how everything goes downhill. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always hope for my favourite characters to get their happy ending and I shed quite a few tears while reading this book because something bad happened to them. But in my opinion, if a book transports me into another world and I feel an emotional connection to the characters, that means it is a great book. And something about this particular book hit especially close to home because the emotional impact certain scenes had on me was something I have rarely had with other books before. My experience reading the ending of Mockingjay will probably come closest to it (if you know, you know…) but even then, A Storm of Swords surpassed this slightly. To avoid spoilers, I won’t go more into detail about this topic for now. Once you read the book, you will know what I am talking about.

But even if you are unlike me and more of a “rational” reader (in other words, you do not care so much about the emotional aspect but rather about whether a story is well-crafted), this book will deliver on this aspect too. The conflict reaches new dimensions, more players are introduced and there are quite a few twists and turns, steering the war in a whole new direction. Our favourite, and not so favourite, court members are scheming again and if you are an attentive reader, you are sure to be rewarded for picking up on the subtle hints (just so you know, I am not one of those readers… every plot-twist in this book hit me unprepared). To me, A Storm of Swords represents a cut, separating the first two books from the following ones. I have heard quite a few people say that they prefer the first three books over the later ones and while I personally love all of them, I understand where this feeling comes from. In book four and five, the focus shifts to include different characters, different places and overall the atmosphere is different which is rooted in the events that happened in book three. So be prepared for some scenes that will have a great impact on the plot, as well as some iconic moments you might already have heard about when the show was huge (unless you do not have the same problems that I have and actually have the skills to avoid spoilers…)

Other than that, I loved getting to spend more time with my favourite characters and because the number of POV characters is still manageable they did appear quite often. Naturally, there were some perspectives I enjoyed more than others but most of the time when a character’s name appeared at the beginning of a chapter, I was happy to see how their story would continue. One perspective in particular which I didn’t like that much in the previous books actually became my favourite in A Storm of Swords 🙂 And a certain new perspective was introduced… I have to admit I wasn’t very happy at first but I ended up really enjoying the new insights I was given. Once again, the author managed to craft complex characters that are not purely good or evil but something in between. As the war continues our “heroes” are sometimes forced to do things that not always align with their morals while the “villains” also have a human side. While I still love (mostly) the same characters that I loved in book one, it became increasingly hard to root solely for one side or certain characters because sometimes the characters I liked were battling each other… and ones I hated before also committed good deeds at times, making it harder to fully hate them. But then there are also certain characters where no matter how hard I think about it, there is not a single positive thing I can say about them. All in all, I seriously do not know how the author does it, but he got me to care so much about those characters (or in case of certain characters, he made me hate them so much for hurting the characters I like…) which in turn had a massively positive impact on my reading experience.

As for the fantasy aspects, they continue becoming more prominent although the majority of the plot is still rooted in “realistic” events. The main fantasy components come into play with the Night’s Watch and their battle against the dangers from north of the Wall, then of course Daenerys with her dragons, Stannis and Melisandre with the Red God and also Bran with his dreams. Compared to other fantasy books the magic in A Storm of Swords is rather subtle though and it is more of a mystical element that does play a part but the extent of its powers is not always visible. I actually prefer it when the magic is not as straight-forward and clearly defined so this worked really well for me. Especially because while the fantasy aspects do influence the plot and sometimes put certain people at an advantage, for one it was not always clear whether magic was actually responsible for certain developments or whether it was just a coincidence and second, it is not powerful enough to make one side invincible. I was also not under the impression that the author used the magical elements as an easy way out once his characters were caught in an unpleasant situation. The use of magic never came out of nowhere and we were also shown the limits of magic and that not everything can be solved by using it.

In conclusion, the book did everything I expected it to do and did it well. It had a great emotional impact on me but it also tells an amazing and complex story. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who fell in love with the world of Westeros and the characters inhabiting it.

Before finishing this review, I feel obligated to once again say that A Song of Ice and Fire is a fantasy series that is quite dark and violent. There are many things happening in those books that are morally questionable and outright horrible. While most people who read this review have probably already read the first two books in the series and thus should be aware of this, I just want to stress this for anyone who is not. I personally am not under the impression that any of this is shown in a positive light or romanticised, therefore I don’t think there is a problem with those things being included. I do think it is important to be aware of it though, so everyone can decide for themselves whether or not they still want to read it.

In terms of trigger warnings, I am still convinced that for anyone who has triggers this series will not be a great fit since many potentially triggering topics are featured in those books.

Feel free to share your opinion on the book in the comments. I would love to hear what you think about it and whether you liked it!

Please remember to keep the comments spoiler-free or add a Spoiler Alert beforehand so everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the reading experience without already knowing everything that happens.