Book Review: 4 Treasure Boxes
A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3
Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (Mar 4 2003), 1216 pages, Language: English, ISBN-10: 055357342X, ISBN-13: 978-1439149645

Imagine a world where there are Kings and dragons and the walking dead. The Wildlings, the humans who live beyond the wall, are all fleeing the north and attempting to cross the great barrier.  There are very few Black Brothers to defend the wall and no one seems willing to send them help. There is war and treachery everywhere. The war of the five kings continues, although the number of kings is declining. However, there does seem to be a couple of honourable people prepared to do what is necessary to save the land. The Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen is continuing to build strength and free slaves as she slowly makes her way west in hopes of reclaiming her crown.

A Storm of Swords is the third book in the series, there are currently four books with book five to be released July 2011. Two more are proposed to be coming in the future; however, since there is a six year span between books four and five, with no information on when any of the other books will be released, we might need to wait a long time for the final books.  This series falls into the fantasy genre and takes place on a fictional world that is similar to that of King Arthur, but it includes magic, strange beings and winters that can last up to 10 years.  The story is told in a third person narrative from the numerous different characters point of view with each chapter bearing the name of the character it is focusing on.

Wow!  A lot has happened in this portion of the story. Many of the players have died, most through treachery, including sorcery and some through war.  Some of these deaths were downright shocking and I gasped as they occurred. Some people are thought to be dead who are not. We learn more about King Stannis and the red god R’hllor, but so far we are unable to answer the question: are they good or bad? The overall story is fascinating and very gripping. At times, I cried over the events our character’s had to live through, some of these were sad and several felt unfair. Once again, not much was resolved but things definitely moved forward and a lot happened. The various story lines continue to build in suspense and there is plenty of action.

I highly recommend this book and series. I am hoping that the series will come to a great conclusion, although we will need to wait a long time for this to occur.  In the meanwhile, the journey is very enjoyable. If you like reading about the intrigues of court and high fantasy, with plenty of action, then you will enjoy this book. But if you haven’t read the previous books in this series, then you need to do so before continuing with A Storm of Swords.

To Purchase: “A Storm of Swords” click here or on picture above