Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords
By: George R.R. Martin
Hi. My name is Frannie and I’ve been slacking on the reviews. I’m sorry – please don’t hate me. I have two (semi-acceptable) excuses:
- I’ve been really busy lately and haven’t been reading as much as I normally do
- I’ve been mired down in the first three books of the Game of Thrones series
So even though I haven’t been reviewing anything in the last month and a half, I’ve still read about 3,000 pages worth of books. Also, these books are a little hard to review on their own. So here I am, a kind-of slacker.
I have been enjoying the books, which I guess is pretty obvious since I cranked through three of them already. That said, George R.R. Martin and I will be taking a little breather from each other now. I need to inject a little non-fiction into my reading life. Or just something non-fantasy-related.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just give you some of my key observations:
- The first book lays the foundation, but still covers some good ground. The second was good, but in the words of The Bearded Misfit, things get “cray cray” in book three
- There are a TON of characters in these books – use the family trees included in the back of each book
- Similarly, there are a lot of different story lines going on, so it takes some time to get a good sense of who each character is and how they fit into the bigger picture – stick with it though
- Martin is clearly not attached to any of his characters, because he doesn’t hesitate to kill people off. Even the good people
- He also writes some kick-ass female characters. They’re all really strong and they’re featured pretty prominently in the series. I regularly found myself thinking, “Get it, girl!” while reading the books
- He also, also writes some totally crazy (male and female) characters. Cersei Lannister, I’m looking at you
- I really want a direwolf
I’ll keep you posted as I make progress on the two remaining books, but this is looking like an effort that will stretch through the summer, at least.
In a nutshell: Overall, I’d give the first three books 3.5 stars. I’d probably up that to 4 stars for the third book on its own.
Seriously, someone should get me one of these. My birthday is coming up.
Hah! Frannie I love reading your reviews:) I hadn’t even considered this series, as I’m not usually a big fantasty reader….but now I’m intrigued. Will have to add to my (ever growing) list. I don’t get a chance to read near as much now that I don’t have a train/bus commute:( Hope all is well!
Hey Tiff – Hope you’re doing well! A certain friend of mine was talking them up to me and even lent me all five books, so I had no choice but to read them. They’re a pretty serious undertaking, but they’ve been good so far so I’ll stick with them.
Only you, Frannie, would consider reading 3000 pages of anything in a month and half slacking! By the way, if Keller was shaved and we straightened out his tale, he’d kind of look like a dire wolf.
Finley has a little work to do before he could reach direwolf status…
Thank you, thank you thank you. I did not know they had the family terees in the back. That is so helpful!