A Storm of Swords

alright, i've joined the hype train

Wordt echt beter elke keer ik het lees.

I'm not sure why I'm reading this.

A Storm of Swords est le troisième volume de la saga “A Song of Ice and Fire”, publié en octobre 2000, quatre ans après le tome A Game of Thrones et moins de deux ans seulement après son prédécesseur, A Clash of Kings. Moins de deux ans seulement car George R.R. Martin, l'auteur de cette série, nous a ensuite habitué à de longues attentes : nous avons ainsi attendu cinq ans, d'octobre 2000 à novembre 2005, entre ce troisième volume et le quatrième, A Feast for Crows.

Je préviens tout de suite tout de suite que ce billet risque de dévoiler des éléments majeurs des tomes précédents : j'invite donc ceux qui n'ont pas encore lu « A Game of Thrones » et « A Clash of Kings » et ont l'intention de les lire à ne pas poursuivre la lecture de cet avis.

Le récit de A Storm of Swords reprend là où il s'était interrompu à la fin de A Clash of Kings : défait à King's Landing par l'alliance des maisons Lannister et Tyrell, Stannis Barathéon a rejoint son fief de Dragonstone ; ses forces tout comme ses prétentions au trône sont affaiblies. Plus à l'Ouest, Robb Stark continue de remporter bataille sur bataille face aux Lannister, mais il a perdu Winterfell, la siège de la maison Stark. Au Nord, de l'autre côté du Mur, une armée de « sauvages » menés par Mance Rayder se dirige vers le Mur pour envahir les Sept Royaumes. De l'autre côté de l'océan, Daenerys Targaryen continue sa quête de pouvoir pour préparer sa reconquête de Westeros.

Outre le prologue et l'épilogue qui sont respectivement relatés à travers les personnages de Chett, un membre de la Garde de Nuit, et de Ser Merrett, un chevalier de la famille Frey, A Storm of Swords comprend dix narrateurs différents :

- Lady Catelyn Stark, veuve d'Eddard Stark et mère de Robb Stark, le nouveau Roi du Nord

- Sansa Stark, fille d'Eddard et Catelyn Stark, otage de la famille Lannister à King's Landing

- Arya Stark, fille d'Eddard et Catelyn Stark, qui a fui King's Landing après l'exécution de son père et continue à parcourir le continent au gré de ses mésaventures avec ses différents compagnons de route

- Bran Stark, fils d'Eddard et Catelyn Stark, présumé mort après la prise de Winterfell par Theon Greyjoy mais en réalité en fuite dans le Nord en compagnie de Jojen et Meera Reed, les enfants d'un vieil ami de son fils

- Tyrion Lannister, nain défiguré lors de la bataille de King's Landing et fils de l'homme le plus puissant du royaume, Tywin Lannister

- Jon Snow, fils illégitime d'Eddard Stark, membre de la Garde de Nuit infiltré dans l'armée de Mance Rayder au-delà du Mur

- Samwell Tarly, membre de la Garde de Nuit, disciple du Maître Aemon

- Davos Seaworth, ancien contrebandier anobli par Stannis Barathéon, et depuis son fidèle et loyal chevalier

- Daenerys Targaryen, dernière survivante de la dynastie royale, toujours en exil à l'Est

- Jaime Lannister, fils de Tywin Lannister, membre de la Garde Royale, dit le Régicide après qu'il ait assassiné le roi Aerys lors de la Rébellion de Robert Barathéon

C'est ce dernier personnage qui a particulièrement retenu mon attention dans ce tome. Donner la parole à Jaime Lannister, présenté jusque là comme le « méchant » ultime, il fallait oser et George R.R. Martin l'a fait. Les chapitres où il s'exprime nous donnent l'occasion d'en apprendre plus sur ce personnage méprisé par beaucoup. Je dois dire que Jaime est l'un des personnages qui m'intéressait le plus dès le début de la saga, j'attendais beaucoup de ses chapitres et je n'ai pas été déçu. J'ai découvert un personnage plus complexe que les premiers volumes le laissaient paraître. Parmi les fans de la série, il y a des pro-Jaime et des anti-Jaime (qui ne lui pardonnent pas le chute de Bran dans le premier tome). Pour ma part, j'ai apprécié d'avoir sa version de l'histoire et je reconnais que le personnage me plaît beaucoup. Sans aller jusqu'à parler de rédemption, son évolution dans ce tome est tout à fait intéressante.

Evidemment, A Storm of Swords ne se résume pas aux aventures de Jaime Lannister, loin de là. Les événements majeurs qui s'y déroulent sont mémorables et bouleversent totalement l'ordre des choses, bien plus encore que les diverses batailles qui s'étaient déroulées dans A Clash of Kings. Ici, les intrigues et les trahisons sont au rendez-vous et ont une influence incroyable sur l'histoire. Difficile de ne pas être tenu en haleine du début à la fin par la richesse du récit, même si certains chapitres et certains personnages restent plus faibles que d'autres. Dans les derniers chapitres, les événements s'enchaînent à une vitesse phénoménale, devant les yeux ébahis du lecteur.

A Storm of Swords est un troisième volume absolument phénoménal par son intensité. J'ai rarement vu un auteur qui bouleverse à ce point son « univers » en un seul roman et c'est exactement ce que fait George R.R. Martin dans ce celui-ci. Là où c'est remarquable, c'est qu'il réussit à le faire avec style, crédibilité et cohérence. C'est un tome qui m'a marqué la première fois que je l'ai lu et qui ne manque pas de me remuer chaque fois que je le lis, alors que j'en connais pourtant par coeur les péripéties. C'est sans doute la marque d'un très grand roman.

stone cold classic.

What an unbelievably awesome book and series.

Oh, man. George R. R. Martin isn't afraid to kill off characters.

Amazing storyteller. Martin makes this medieval fantasy world believable. There will be no doubt from description this world is false.
Martin makes it is easy to get emotionally involved with the characters and he seems to find ease in putting the characters into great danger. His has a wonderful handle over the intricate plot and never seems to lose his way. He has eliminated clique story lines making it a complete mystery what will happen next. Very few portions of the book dragged on but overall pace was well planned out. A very exciting read. Recommended.

This installment in the series took a little longer to hook me than the first two oh but when it did I was a goner! My only complaint was that some chapters didn't have me as invested in characters that weren't my favorites like before. However one chapter in particular was so heartbreaking I couldn't breath after and I'm sure everyone who had read it knows what chapter I mean.

This was the best book in the series so far

Great book!!

A slow first half to this book, but the end makes up for it!! So so so GOOD!

One of the best fantasy books I've read.

ASoS is full of twists and turns while continually building out each character where you are fully invested into their story.

Even though I watched the HBO show first, GRRM had me guessing at what was to come next.

Review to come later.

I think I've been too harsh on this series because I'd already watched the drama. Now that I've passed the point of HBO, I find the story a hundred times more compelling and two hundred times more frustrating.

The most frustrating aspect about this installment was just how close the characters are at every turn, at every bend. They just need to take one step further to be reunited with their loved ones, to find a true ally, to achieve some goal. Sometimes they physically are that close, but they are stopped by pride or foolishness or blatant misunderstanding. Bran is so *close* to Jon at the wall, Brienne is so *close* to Arya on the road, Sansa is so *close* to Tyrion who could be a real, true ally. I just wanted to smack characters together and say, “She's RIGHT THERE!” a thousand times.

This frustration is only compounded by Martin's love of killing people which I'm going to say is worse than Joss Whedon's. He sends me into a frantic state of mind whenever the novel turns hopeful or peaceful. Any time things seem to be going well, I know someone is going to die, probably horrifically. I was a bit sad about Robb though more because it felt like dropping the plot than any actual caring for him. He lost that right when he got married for no reason. I see why HBO changed that plotline up. Catelyn I was almost happy about because I found her chapters the hardest to read. Interested to see what that sequel is going to mean. I'm sure I was singing "Ding Dong Joffrey's dead with the rest of the crowd, but that was compounded by knowing my happiness at one thing spelled someone else's doom. Sure enough, Tyrion. Oh my Tyrion. I hope there is more in these books for you. They don't actually "say" that he died yet, but I flipped through the chapter listing of "Feast for Crows" and he's no longer narrating. That is sad enough for me. Likewise I know Lysa dying, sweet as that was, probably spells Sansa's doom.

The compelling part though is that I don't think an author has ever made me wish so hard for the wrong thing. Most of the times when reading a story, you see the protagonist's choice clearly outlined with an easy choice and a right choice. They are crystalline and the hero is obviously going to make the write choice. Martin regularly presents his characters with a wrong choice and a worse choice. Melisandre is a good example. Martin spends half her descriptions convincing me she's is soulless, pretender harpy. Then he spends the rest of the time making me wish she wasn't. I end up as confused as Davos and Stannis, and I think that's brilliant.

I'm not sure how people made it half-decades between books. I'm very pleased with the next move for Arya, Brienne, Bran, and Jon, whose chapters are finally becoming interesting. I'm deeply saddened that Sansa cannot catch a break, but I look forward to seeing what happens next. As for the Lannisters... what can I say about the Lannisters? Debts! Debts to be repaid all around, I think. Also zombies. I look forward to lots more zombies.

I realize I've about forgotten about Dany, just like the rest of Westeros. I think that's also part of Martin's intention, saving her for book five. Then again, Martin never does what I think he's going to do, so why do I try?

I almost didn't read this book. It sat on my nook, untouched, for several months, a giant albatross of a book. I had spoiled myself, you see, in anticipation of something I had heard about called “the Red Wedding.”

You see, GRRM hit a sweet spot in these books, conflating my loves of period pieces (did you know that these books were inspired by the War of the Roses?! Dear Reader, I Did Not!) and epic medieval fantasy. And that Red Wedding, inspired by an actual event, led to the worst spoiling ever. It almost made me not pick up the book again.

The book takes about four fifths of its time telling backstory. One of my complaints earlier in the book is that instead of resolving anything (and by that I mean, questions that have been sitting there, festering, for TWO OTHER BIG THICK BRICKS of book), the book just continues to unwind, spreading its characters thinner and thinner, and meanwhile my anxiety over my beloved Jon Stark grows, and I wonder where the heck Nymeria is, and will my precious Starks ever meet again??? But.

But.

When GRRM does start answering those questions, he does it with a vengeance. I'd read it again, tension, Red Wedding and all, just to read the glorious, revelatory ending again. I come out of the book, excited about the next one (and I promise not to spoil myself this time).

One quibble: a particular character is credited with a previous mystery. To me, this resolution feels tacked on. I give this character no credit for having any particularly deep inner life, let alone the motivations attributed to him here.

So good I read half of the book in a night. Read it. Seriously. It's amazingly written just like the two previous books in the series.

Probably the best in the series so far. I had started this before but stopped about halfway through when I grew tired of GRRM's tendency to simply use the death of one of his plentiful main characters to move the plot along. That being said, I did come back to this one and did enjoy the book, but simply needed time away from GRRM's world since reading the first two in quick succession and half of the third as such.

Excellent!

I could have done with less Emo Jon Snow, but ohhh that epilogue

Thank goodness for this book or I would have given up on A Song of Ice and Fire completely. It felt like more happened in the first 100 pages of this book than the whole of the previous book, and the hits just kept on coming. I ended up finishing the epilogue at 1am with a “What the Actual Fuck, GRRM” moment (in a good way!). A series redeemer, although I have heard that this installment is actually the best of all of them written so far, so I'm hoping it's not all downhill from here.

Similar than the show, but a different pace.

I finally finished it. I had trouble starting the book because the first part was all about Jamie and I did not like him then. He's changed some and is growing on me. Once I got past that part it was thrilling and heartbreaking and full of surprises.

A Game of Thrones ???????????????A Clash of Kings ???????????????A Storm of Swords: (Part 1) Steel and Snow ???????????????A Storm of Swords: (Part 2) Blood and Gold ???????????????

I am so glad this book was split into two volumes in the UK because I had such incredibly different reading experiences with each volume. The first volume got a three star review from me which translated roughly into a slow moving book with insufficient plot to distract me from the repetitive nature of GRRM???s writing. I wouldn???t give any of the books in this series less than three however because they are of a decent quality when it comes to the technical aspects of writing and plotting.

As you can expect, this second volume really ramped up the plot. I checked, and events which occur in this volume span season three and four of the tv show. Plot points I did not remember or new ones that are ignored in the show have begun to show themselves and I am excited and ready for the next book.

Also this book completes my personal challenge of reading 50% of ASOIAF in 2018, as I was counting each volume individually.

I just finished listening to this book, all 48 hours of it! (I started it on 16 April) It's the third in the series and was utterly enthralling. As with the previous two audio books, this one is read by Roy Dotrice and he does a wonderful job of bring the characters to life.

The scope of this series is huge and it has pretty much become part of my life since I got hooked on the first one after my second attempt. It took me two attempts to get going on the first one due to the sheer number of characters and their various alliances and family histories.

One of the great things about these books is that the author presents ALL the characters in an objective light. Sure, there are “goodies” and “baddies” in a sense, but the lines are blurred and it becomes easy therefore to feel compassion for whomever happens to have the limelight in the tale.

As with the first book, Martin has no qualms about killing off the central characters, although it does still come as a shock at times. It makes the story more gripping though, as there are times when the reader really doesn't know if a main character is about to meet their demise or not. They die when it's not expected, and stay alive when it seems likely that they will be killed.

I won't give away any plot spoilers, so better leave it there.

I just read a few reviews over on audible.com of the fourth book, A Feast for Crows. It's read by someone else and that seems in poor taste to me when I've got so used to Roy's voices and accents (strange that Tyrian Lannister should be Welsh though, when his father, Lord Tywin, sounds like Winston Churchill!) It also seems the case that the content of A Feast for Crows was intended to be included in the next book but was spun off for reasons of size, and so A Feast for Crows is pretty much a filler to pad out the story and does not really follow the main characters. So I'm not quite sure whether to wait or dive right in.