Book Review – George R. R. Martin’s “A Storm of Swords”
Today we’re taking a look at A Storm of Swords, the third book in A Song of Ice and Fire series written by George R. R. Martin.
A Storm of Swords correlates to seasons three and four of the HBO series A Game of Thrones.
This third installment immediately follows the action told in the previous book, A Clash of Kings.
As we remember in A Clash of Kings, the kingdom of Westeros had erupted into a civil war since the death of King Robert Baratheon in A Game of Thrones. Prince Joffrey assumed the Iron Throne and declared himself king whereas Lord Stannis Baratheon and Lord Renly Baratheon each saw themselves as the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms as Joffrey was really Robert’s illegitimate son. He’s not an heir to the throne.
Renly and Stannis prepared to fight each other, but just prior to the battle an assassin killed Renly. Most of Renly’s army then defected to Stannis. Stannis Baratheon lead his army against the Lannisters at King’s Landing, but they were ultimately defeated thanks to the efforts of Tyrion Lannister. While this was taking place, Robb Stark, the King of the North, continued to battle the Lannisters and win engagements, proving to be a formidable opponent despite his youth.
Onward to book number three, A Storm of Swords.
Like the previous books, the action in A Storm of Swords primarily takes place in three areas: The Wall, Westeros, and the East.
WESTEROS:
The action in the Seven Kingdoms begins in Riverrun as Catelyn Stark releases Jamie Lannister from captivity. Of course he’s not really released from being held prisoner. Catelyn is sending him to King’s Landing in exchange for her two daughters, Sansa and Arya Stark. Catelyn is still stricken with grief after learning about the deaths of Bran and Rickon and the fall of Winterfell. She’s now lost her husband and two of her sons, and she desperately wants her girls back. Brienne of Tarth is assigned to escort Jaime to King’s Landing, and then return with the girls.
Brienne is able to keep Jaime out of trouble, but the two of them reach a breaking point with each other. Jaime and Brienne have a sword fight that continues until they’re both captured by a band of mercenaries called The Brave Companions. While taking them to Harrenhal, Vargo Hoat, the leader of The Brave Companions, orders for Jaime’s right hand (his sword hand) to be removed. It’s a move to disable him as well as hopefully ransom Jaime back to his family.
Things change though in Harrenhal and Roose Bolton allows Jaime to continue on his own to King’s Landing in exchange from informing them about Vargo Hoat. Jaime insists on taking Brienne with him, and they two of them begin to bond as they travel to King’s Landing.
Meanwhile, King Robb Stark makes a critical error of breaking his vow to the Freys and marrying a different girl. He marries Jeyne Westerling of the Crag family. Robb’s mother is furious when her son informs him of the news, but there’s nothing that she can do. Hopefully Robb can still find a way to make amends with the Freys.
While at Riverrun, Robb learns that his army, under the command of Roose Bolton, suffered from a major defeat against the Lannisters in the Battle of Duskendale. It’s later learned that Robb’s defeat was actually orchestrated by Roose Bolton, and Bolton’s troops actually survived while Robb’s troops were killed. It’s also learned that the Greyjoys have been conquering the north including the area around Winterfell.
Robb has a plan to regain his home lands, but he’s going to need the help of the Freys to raise another army. After the death of Hoster Tully, Catelyn’s father in Riverrun, a messenger from the Freys brings word of a truce. If Robb Stark is to personally apologize for his actions, and Catelyn’s brother, Ser Edmure Tully, marries one of the Frey daughters, then all will be forgiven. King Robb accepts the offer and his army heads to the Twins to meet with the Freys.
In King’s Landing, King Joffrey has agreed to marry Margaery Tyrell, the young widow of King Renly Baratheon. The city welcomes Margaery with open arms and all is calm as the king prepares to marry the young lady.
Sansa Stark is equally thrilled as it means that she no longer has to marry Joffrey. Now she’s off the hook. All she needs to do is find a way out of the city and find her way back to Winterfell. But the Stark family is still powerful and her marriage could solidify a different alliance. The Tyrell ladies quickly propose for Sansa to marry one of the Tyrell men.
Word of that arrangement reaches Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King, and he’s determined to stop it. His solution is simple: Have Sansa Stark marry his son, Tyrion Lannister. As Hand of the King this order is carried out. There’s a ceremony as Tyrion marries Sansa. Tyrion respects his young wife and refuses to take her to bed, keeping her around as basically a companion instead of a wife for birthing children. This annoys his father but there’s nothing that Tywin can do about it.
While all of that is taking place, Arya Stark is still on the run with Gendry and Hot Pie. They try to make their way to Riverrun to hopefully meet her mother and Robb, but they’re ultimately captured by a group of men called Brotherhood Without Banners. The brotherhood is led by Lord Beric Dondarrion, a man who worships R’hllor.
At some point the group captures Sandor Clegane (a.k.a. the Hound), now a rouge warrior, and they offer him a trial by battle to prove his innocence. The Hound kills Lord Beric in combat and is allowed to go free. Arya is shocked when several moments later Lord Beric is alive again. Beric’s priest is able to use the powers of R’hllor to resurrect people, but it has its limits.
Arya ultimately gets frustrated with the brotherhood when they lead her away from Riverrun, so she escapes. She’s promptly captured by Sandor Clegane. The Hound visions a large reward for returning the girl to her family, so he keeps her prisoner and takes her north to her mother. He learns of the Starks going to the Twins, so that’s where they go.
Robb’s army arrives at the Twins, and Robb makes his formal apology to Walder Frey, the Lord of the Crossing. Edmure Tully then goes through the marriage ceremony to wed one of the Frey girls. It’s a joyous celebration until soldiers disguised as musicians suddenly attack Robb Stark’s army. It’s a bloody massacre known as the Red Wedding. Robb Stark is heavily wounded and Walker Frey himself stabs the young king in the heart, killing him. Catelyn Stark is also killed and her body is dumped into the river. After Robb’s direwolf is killed, Frey has the wolf’s head mounted on Robb’s body in a mockery to the former King of the North.
Arya and Sandor arrive at the Twins that night, but they’re too late. The attack is already in progress. Sandor knocks Arya unconscious and flees with her away from the danger. Later, after Sandor is wounded after fighting some men in a tavern, Arya flees him and sets out on her own. She makes her way to a coastal town and finds a ship bound for Braavos. Arya shows the ship’s captain the coin she received from Jaqen H’ghar and says “Valar Morghulis.” The captain replies with “Valar Dohaeris” and allows her a cabin on his ship.
In King’s Landing, there’s a celebration as news of Robb and Catelyn’s deaths reaches the king. Not long after that is the wedding ceremony between King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell. The two of them are wed and a massive feast follows. Near the end of the feast King Joffrey suddenly chokes and dies. The king is dead. Blame quickly points to Tyrion Lannister as he was pouring Joffrey’s drink at that time, and he must have poisoned him. Cersei Lannister orders for Tyrion to be arrested for the murder of King Joffrey.
Sansa Stark is able to slip out of the city with the help of Dontos and is taken to a ship with Lord Petyr Baelish (a.k.a. Littlefinger). Dontos is quickly killed and Littlefinger’s ship sails away to the Eyrie to, hopefully, woo Lady Lysa Arryn, Catelyn’s sister, into marriage and gain control of House Arryn.
Jaime Lannister returns to King’s Landing with Brienne just after the murder of Joffrey. He’s a different man with the loss of his sword fighting hand. He rejects Cersei’s advances and refuses to return to Casterly Rock as heir to the Lannister’s home. Jaime returns to the Kingsguard in his former position as Lord Commander.
Joffrey’s younger brother Tommen now inherits the Iron Throne though he’s still too young to actually rule the kingdom. Cersei acts as queen of the kingdom, and she and Tywin both heavily influence Tommen as puppet masters.
Tyrion is placed on trial for the murder of King Joffrey. All of the evidence and witnesses go heavily against Tyrion’s claims. He’s definitely going to lose the trial. Tyrion instead chooses to have a trial by combat with Lord Oberyn Martell of Dorne to fight in his place against Cersei’s champion, Ser Gregor Clegane (a.k.a. the Mountain that Rides). Martell uses his skills to dodge Gregor’s blows, and he manages to stab him a few times with his poisoned blade. Just as Martell is about to win, Gregor gains the upper hand and kills him even though he’s badly wounded himself. Still, Gregor is the winner of the battle and Tyrion is sentenced to death.
Before his execution, Jaime Lannister visits his brother deep in the dungeons of King’s Landing. Jaime believes that his brother is innocent of his crimes, and he helps him escape. Before Tyrion is freed, Jaime reveals Tyrion’s first wife really was a crofter’s daughter and NOT a prostitute as his father, Tywin, made him believe. This infuriates Tyrion and he swears revenge against Jaime, Cersei and Tywin.
Varys is part of the escape plan and he helps lead Tyrion through the secret tunnels underneath King’s Landing. Tyrion uses the tunnels to climb into and infiltrate the castle. He has some unfinished business. Tyrion sneaks into his old chamber of Hand of the King and discovers his lover, Shea, lying naked in Tywin’s bed. He kills Shea for her betrayal. Tyrion then uses a crossbow and kills Tywin as he’s in the privy. After his father is killed, Tyrion escapes with the help of Varys.
After helping free Tyrion, Jaime Lannister also frees Brienne from her prison cell. He gives her a strong sword forged from Ned Stark’s sword and orders her to go rescue Catelyn’s daughters and return them to Winterfell. Jaime also tells Brienne the real reason why he betrayed his oath and killed King Aerys. It turns out that King Aerys was planning on burning all of King’s Landing and thus slaughtering everybody there to keep it out of Robert Baratheon’s hands. Jaime killed the king to save the lives of the innocent people.
In the Eyrie, Littlefinger seduces and quickly marries Lysa Arryn. They take Sansa with them to Lysa’s castle home. Lysa is psychotic and believes that Sansa (posing as the illegitimate daughter of Petyr Baelish) is trying to seduce Petyr. She tries to kill Sansa by pushing her out the “Moon Door.” Petyr stops Lysa and saves Sansa. He then quickly pushes Lysa through the door and makes the woman fall to her death. Her death is quickly blamed on a blind musician.
While being with Petyr Baelish, Sansa Stark discovers that Petyr had a hand in Joffrey’s death along with some of the Tulleys, and that Tyrion was being framed. It was also Petyr who convinced Lysa to poison her husband, Jon Arryn, and write a letter to Catelyn, blaming the Lannisters for the murder.
In the epilogue it’s revealed that Catelyn Stark has been re-animated and brought back to life by the Brotherhood Without Banners. She’s decayed and mutilated, but she’s alive again and looking for revenge against those who betrayed her. Her vengeance begins with overseeing the lynching of two members of the Frey family who were present at the Red Wedding.
WESTEROS – DRAGONSTONE:
After the failed Battle of Blackwater in King’s Landing, Davos Seaworth washes up on a small, deserted island. It’s a death sentence until he’s miraculously rescued by a passing ship and returned to Dragonstone and King Stannis. Davos lost two of his sons in the attack, and he blames the red priestess Melisandre for the defeat.
Word quickly spreads of Davos’s intentions of murdering Melisandre, and he’s taken prisoner and placed in the dungeons at Dragonstone. Some time later he’s finally released and taken before King Stannis Baratheon. Davos has faith in Stannis and agrees to be his new Hand of the King even though he cannot read or write.
Although Stannis trusts Davos, he still seeks guidance from Melisandre and her magical ways. He allows her to complete a couple blood rituals to awaken “stone dragons” that supposedly guard Dragonstone. Both of the rituals occur before the deaths of King Robb and King Joffrey. Did magic have a hand at helping to kill the kings?
Later, Davos teaches himself to read and goes through old letters and dispatches. He soon learns that they had received messages from the Night’s Watch at the Wall, warning of Mance Rayder and begging for assistance against the Others. He takes the letters and convinces King Stannis to use his army to crush the wildlings. They can then move south, gain support, and re-grow their army to take back King’s Landing.
THE WALL:
While Jon Snow has temporarily defected to join the wildling army and King-Beyond-The-Wall Mance Rayder, the rest of the Night’s Watch expedition is attacked by the Others. Most of the Rangers are killed by the supernatural beings. When one of them tries to attack Samwell Tarly, Sam uses the obsidian (also known as “dragon glass“) blade and discovers that it’s fatal to the Others. He survives the initial attack and makes a retreat to Craster’s Keep.
At Craster’s Keep there’s a mutiny where both Craster and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont are killed by the Rangers. As the Rangers pillage the residence, Sam escapes with Gilly, one of Caster’s daughters / wives, along with her newborn son. He flees with her and manages to escape and ultimately reach the south side of the Wall.
Meanwhile, Jon Snow is allowed to join the wildlings, and he grows a relationship with Ygritte. The two of them develop a close bonding. Jon is reluctant to have a relationship with her as it means breaking one of the vows that he took to become a member of the Night’s Watch.
The wildlings march south and Jon and Ygritte go with an advanced party south of the Wall. During a distraction Jon Snow manages to escape from the wildlings, but an arrow hits him in a leg. It’s a serious injury but Jon Snow reaches the Wall and receives medical help. He then warns them of the approaching wildling army and its imminent attack.
Before the wildling army attacks, the advance party that Jon Snow was with attacks the Wall first. They’re hoping to strike a critical area and open the gates for the main army. The Night’s Watch repeals the attack and ultimately kill the wildlings. Ygritte is fatally wounded from an arrow and dies in Jon’s arms.
The main wildling army then makes a series of attacks against the Wall and the Night’s Watch, but each attack is stopped thanks to the Wall’s sheer size. Mance Rayder requests to talk to the Night’s Watch and see if there’s a peaceful solution, so the men of the watch send Jon Snow to talk to the King-Beyond-The-Wall. As Jon meets with Mance, there’s a sneak attack on the wildling army. The sneak attack is lead by Stannis Baratheon and the remnants of his army. They crush the wildings and capture Mance Rayder.
After the defeat of the wildlings, Jon Snow is voted to become the next Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.
THE EAST:
Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, is heading on the sea to Pentos when she learns of slave armies in the towns around Slaver’s Bay, and the ability to purchase them. Her own army of Dothraki people has dwindled down to almost nothing, and she’s in need of a strong army if she’s to conquer the Seven Kingdoms and claim the Iron Throne.
Her first stop is the city of Astapor. The city’s leaders are welcome to the Mother of Dragons and they show off their army of Unsullied, fierce warrior-eunuchs who are immune from pain and fear. However, the Unsullied are very expensive. Daenerys strikes a deal of purchasing the entire Unsullied army in exchange for her three ships, their cargo, and one of her dragons.
It’s a trick, of course. Daenerys would *never* part with any of her dragons.
When the day arrives to make her payment, Daenerys has her dragons attack the slavers. She then commands the Unsullied to rise against their slavers and join her, to which they do. Astapor quickly falls and Daenerys now has a moderate army.
Daenerys then takes her army to the next slave city, Yunkai. Waiting to meet her outside of the city’s walls is an army of mercenary warriors. Before battling them, Daenerys convinces some of the mercenaries to switch sides and launch sneak attack, to which they do. The rest of the defending army is easily defeated and Yunkai falls to Daenerys’s growing army.
The last slave city, Meereen, is the most difficult to attack. The leaders of Meereen are ready for the attacking army and have even killed many of the child slaves to mock Daenerys. She has her army lay siege to the city, but it stands firm.
Daenerys then learns that two of her trusted advisers, Ser Jorah Mormont and Arstan Whitebeard. Jorah has been spying on her for Varys back in King’s Landing, and Arstan is really Ser Barristan Selmy, the former Lord Commander of King Robert Baratheon’s Kingsguard. King Joffrey had dismissed Ser Barristan of his assignment as he thought Barriston was too old for the position.
Daenerys offers both men the chance to honor themselves if they sneak into Meereen through the sewers and then start an uprising. They do so and Meereen ultimately falls to the advancing army. Barristan has acknowledged the error of his ways, and since he completed his mission, Daenerys appoints him to be the Lord Commander of her Queensguard. Ser Jorah still insists that he never spied for Varys, so Daenerys banishes him from her army.
After conquering Meereen, Daenerys learns that the council she left in Astapor had been murdered by a man named Cleon. Cleon had appointed himself as king, and resumes training Unsullied while the rest of the city starves. Daenerys realizes that she’s not ready to rule a kingdom yet, so she decides to remain in Meereen and rule as queen of the city to gain experience.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A Storm of Swords is an endurance run when it comes to reading books. The paperback version has a whopping 1,128 pages.
Despite its incredible length, A Storm of Swords is a fascinating book that tells another great segment of the Song of Ice and Fire series that we’ve grown to love. The characters are great, the twists and turns are surprising, and there’s plenty of action and bloodshed. Once you hit the halfway point of this novel the pace really quickens.
George R. R. Martin hits a high note with A Storm of Swords. One can only hope that somehow this can be carried into the next book, A Feast for Crows.
Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire will be absolutely thrilled with A Storm of Swords. It’s a smooth transition from A Clash of Kings, and the book is full of treachery, action, and thrills. Just be prepared that this is a LONG book to read.
