George R.R. Martin has become like a horse run away without the cart. An
epic of Robert Jordanesque quality appears to facing us. Suffice to say,
overlong, overdull, and overexpensive.
This is the third in the series, which looks liable to run for at least two
(if not more) further books. It clocks in at over nine-hundred pages (with
another forty or so of appendix, and four maps for our delectation.) I must
stress that I'm not going to review the setting, as it's really just
continuing the first two, and I'm certainly unwilling to leave spoilers for
those who haven't read them.
Martin's world is typical fantasy, with little imagination to differentiate
from any other. The basics are that there's a civil war in the land of
Westeros, dark and malevolent forces encroaching from the north and the
daughter of a deposed king working to reconquer the realm on another
continent. It appeared initially to just be a story about who gets the
kingdom. But this book gives me the horrible feeling there may be a Dark
Lord (tm) hiding in the background, with great magical powers. Magic is
certainly coming from the virtual ingsignificance of the first to a major
force by now.
Intrigue and war are the cornerstones of this series. The last book was
very much war, whereas this is very much intrigue. Martin continues his
tactic of telling the story from a succession of character viewpoints. It's
workable, although none of them really supply much flavour to their section
to make such a big deal of it, which I consider a missed opportunity. I
might point out that Martin is more brutal than most - expect some people to die you may be surprised about.
The first two books charge valiantly off at their task. The third however
is so keen to race that it starts stumbling at the hurdles. Martin is so at
pains to make it 'gripping', that he feels the need to constantly drop his
characters in deep trouble. As a result, there are some plot 'developments'
which stink like a ton of rotten fish - Contrived, awkward, cliched, and
unrealistic.
"Why will evil always triumph? Because good... is dumb."
In that old fantasy staple, good characters are not allowed to enjoy or be
competent at scheming, even for a better world. What seems disappointing is that almost all the scheming seems to work, and the more outlandish the
better. Hence part of the problem in the above paragraph - it's like
espionage with no counter-espionage.
In short, this book is grossly weaker than its predecessors, which were
above average fantasy fare. This however is straining, and becomes tiresome.
Soon, I fear, this horse will die and end up being flogged.
This is the third volume of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire sequence and the sequel to A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. I believe that this is intended to be a quintet and I think the series so far has shown itself to have enough material to carry across five books. After all, in terms of wordage, it's not really any longer than Peter F. Hamilton's recent science fiction trilogy. Any more than five books and I might start to have doubts but so far Martin has shown himself to have and end in mind, and although it's taking him a while to get there, the time has been generally well spent.
I've had a few doubts about this volume since I'm starting to feel that I'm losing interest in certain plotlines and Martin's commendable willingness to kill off characters becomes a little menacing in this book. I wonder how attached he is to any of them and while I can appreciate that his is honing his cast (reducing it to a few who will be there for the final battle) I occasionally fear that he is so willing to inflict catastrophe that I don't dare become attached to an individual character in case they also bite the dust.
What really bothered me about this book is that we gain knowledge which contradicts earlier events in the series. This is acceptable in terms of the fact that some of the political characters naturally know more than others o the events in which they are intimately concerned. The rehabilitation of Jaime Lannister, for example, works especially well. But I am left wondering not only whether the 'truths' we have been told in this book will be overthrown later but if Martin intended these new interpretations from the beginning or is rewriting his plot as he goes along.
At the moment this series could go either way. I'll give Martin the benefit of the doubt and Hang on for the conclusion but I have a lot of stamina for the epic. I also want to know how he intends to work out a plot in which the dead are now beginning to rise (shades of Peter F. Hamilton again here) and precisely who will make it to the final battle dead or alive. Or undead.
I rate A Storm of Swords as 6/10 with the usual caveat for this series that no one who dislikes fantasy epics should attempt to read it and of course everyone should begin with the first book. I'll also add that the titles are increasingly lame and Martin should try to do better with the next.
