Rating: 
Summary: Your jaw will drop
Review: This book is the best in the series, which is saying a LOT. I could hardly believe the ending. Simply amazing.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding addition to a remarkable series
Review: I can accept that some people will not like A Song Of Ice And Fire, after all this is a matter of personal taste, but what has confused me somewhat are reviews from those who profess to have loved the first two books in the series and yet find A Storm Of Swords a disapointment. To my mind it faithfully follows the course set by Martin in A Game Of Thrones and I can detect no drop off in the quality of the series. Some has critized the lack of resolution in the book to which I can only point to the fact that, while certain subplots are resolved, three more books have yet to come in which there will be plenty of space for resolution. Others have marked the book down because of the affect certain scenes had on them, I would argue that it is a testament to the quality of the book that it can evoke such a powerful responce in the reader.In the end I can only offer my opinion for what it's worth that this is one of the most remarkable series around at the moment. If your tired of the usual conventions of the genre it's a breath of fresh air and I cannnot recomend it highly enough
Rating: 
Summary: Good prose. Otherwise I would have given it one star.
Review: Martin knows how to write. He knows how to create living, interesting characters. But he doesn't know how to finish a plot, at least not in this series. "A Game of Thrones" was a really good book, "A Clash of Kings" wasn't, and "A Storm of Swords" was a terrible disappoinment altogether. Nothing is finished. At the end of the book, everything is a mess, plot threads going everywhere. Also, the quality of both plot and prose is declining steadily, making me think that Martin was in a hurry, had lost interest, or both.
When I had finished the book, I wished I had never read it. All it did was show me terror and cruel fate, killing of or destroying a number of good characters with hardly a shred of hope and light.
Also, it irritated me that the amount of sorcery, dragons, gods interfering et cetera increased all the time. In "A Game of Thrones", I was happy to read a fantasy that wasn't based on the regular concept of magic and religion. But at the end of "A Storm of Swords", I found myself in a typical Conan-like environment where the human choices mean less because of magical or divine forces that influence the outcome of every decision.
If Martin started to write this series with a plan in mind, I sure wish he had stuck to it. Instead, he has managed to write a series where the fabric of the world he has created slowly comes apart. It's tragical.
Rating:
Summary: I don't know what book they were reading, but
Review: This whole series has been extremely long winded, ill edited, and an attempt at either soft porn or fantasy, and coming up short on at least the fantasy aspect. The story line is good, however, it is lost in a deluge of side stories that does nothing but water down the story line. A good editor could have pulled the same story together in 1/2 the pages. Martin must of been getting paid the old IBM programming way- by the line. Better then Tolkien? I think not.
Rating:
Summary: I would give it a six if I could.
Review: Intrigue, action, wonderful characterization. What more could you ask for? For Mr. Martin to write faster, that's what!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The series just keeps getting better!
Review: After reading some of the reviews on this page, I fealt a sense of dread as I picked up this book. I had been led to believe that this third book was nothing but a bloodbath where all my favourite characters would die gruesome deaths. I was completely misled.
This book is, I think, the best yet. The action and plot twists never stop as Martin provides us with new viewpoints and plot developements.
I would have to say that about 50 percent of the book deals with actions around The Wall, which is great, and the book really developes Jon's character alot more. But there are some interesting developements down south as well, Jaime's perspective on things really makes the book interesting, and you may find yourself beginning to like the incestuous kingslayer. The Hound(hooray!)and Tywin Lannister both make appearances as well, but the character who I am beginning to like best in the South is Littlefinger, he does some really devious things in the book.
Across the sea, Daenarys is still away from the main plot, but I found her chapters much easier to read in this book, because of really interesting characters and increased action. Bran is still kind of boring, but he isn't really in the book all that much.
There are characters killed, make no mistake, but thats just part of the realistic way Martin portrays the world, and just makes the book all the better, and not nearly that many die (some reviews make you think that everybody dies, and the last 100 pages is just their funerals)
I really loved this book, devouring its 1000+ pages in less than a week, but don't worry about the length, the chapters just fly by. Martin is definitely continueing to put out amazing work and I am eagerly awaiting his next novel.
~Richard S. Deem
(by the way, you must read always read series' in order, 1.The Game of Thrones 2. A Clash of Kings 3. A Storm of Swords 4.(coming soon, hopefully)A Feast for Crows.
Rating:
Summary: Just keeps getting better.
Review: The best of the three novels. They only get better as they are written. Keeps you hanging on for the next novel! Great read.
Rating:
Summary: Damn it...I was so shocked I couldn't sleep
Review: It was late at night, I was just past the halfway point in the book and decided that I needed to get some sleep. I told myself that I would read a few more pages then put the book down. A few pages later Martin, who was consistantly shocking me, turned up the voltage and really put the taser to me. I had just got to the "Red Wedding". Throughout the series, characters that I thought I would be reading about until the end were dying faster than I could turn the pages. I had, I thought, become used to it. Then GRRM tells of the "Red Wedding". WHAM! BAM! There goes a few more (not-so) main characters. Anyway, my night was shot. I could not get my mind off the book. I was now wide awake and would be for a few more hours. I was cursing Martin for losing sleep and loving him for his "A Song of Ice and Fire". The following morning I was re-telling everyone how much I loved the book and series. What a great series! I have been reading sci-fi fantasy for over 25 years this is the best I have ever read. Besides being Varys-well written (mis-spelling intended), the story is completely unpredictable. The characters are not your basic run-of-the-mill good guys and bad guys. All the characters are fallible, nasty, nice, caring, curt, apathetic, pathetic, heroic, self-serving and of course compelling. I imagine that if those of us that live today were to be teleported into GRRM's world and became part of the story, Martin would not have to change a thing. His characters are essentially real people acting and doing what real people do. Over the years I have grown used to the bad guys being evil and the good guys being saints, never the two will mix. I'm sure Martin laughs at that cliche. In his world people act like...well, people. I believe that that is Martin's genius. We have gotten so used to science-fiction being a black and white genre. GRRM has just introduced us to the color gray (or in redards to the "Red Wedding" the color pink) I HATE it. I LOVE it. "A Song of Ice and Fire" is the drug I am addicted to. I want to stop, but I can't. It hurts so gooooood. READ THIS SERIES. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Rating:
Summary: Too much pain.
Review: 2.5 stars. Yes there is very good prose and very good characterization. Yes it's something fresh with a very comlex plot. These were the things that made me love this series(and the reason for the 2.5 stars), but now there's the Red Wedding, which is by far more painful than anything he's written in the first two books. I know that I've never read anything more upsetting in my life. I'm not one to shun realism or bad things happening in books, but there is a fine line to walk, and here George Martin crosses that line. We must all remember that the main purpose of reading fiction is for ENJOYMENT, and really, what is left to enjoy after the Red Wedding? It seems that in ASoS Martin is more inclined to showing us the gritty realities of medieval times than writing something enjoyable, and to me that's not fiction, that's a documentary. There are other authors -like Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, and Tad Williams- who manage to lace their books with enough realism and pain WITHOUT GOING TO EXCESS. In those books, when something bad happens, you of course grieve and fill bad for a little while, but then you move on, and what's more, it makes the book more enjoyable, not less. Not so with this book. I actually had to stop and read another book before I could finish this one. To me that's not good fiction, because good fiction is supposed to HOOK you and not let go. Fiction is, after all, supposed to be fiction. This is, after all, supposed to be fantasy. It's not supposed to be completely real. I loved the first two books and would hate to not know what eventually happens to all these characters I've come to love, but I don't think I could suffer another Red Wedding. George Martin has told me that he doesn't know if anything he writes will be that painful again, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I know that this time I'll be checking into A Feast for Crows before I buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Too much pain.
Review: The Red Wedding. I know that I've never read anything more upsetting in my life. I'm not one to shun realism or bad things happening in books, but there is a fine line to walk, and here George Martin crosses that line. We must all remember that the main purpose of reading fiction is for ENJOYMENT, and really, what is left to enjoy after the Red Wedding? It seems that in ASoS Martin is more inclined to showing us the gritty realities of medieval times than writing something enjoyable, and to me that's not fiction, that's a documentary. There are other authors -like Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, and Tad Williams- who manage to lace their books with enough realism and pain WITHOUT GOING TO EXCESS. In those books, when something bad happens, you of course grieve and fill bad for a little while, but then you move on, and what's more, it makes the book more enjoyable, not less. Not so with this book. I actually had to stop and read another book before I could finish this one. To me that's not good fiction, because good fiction is supposed to HOOK you and not let go. Fiction is, after all, supposed to be fiction. This is, after all, supposed to be fantasy. It's not supposed to be completely real. I loved the first two books and would hate to not know what eventually happens to all these characters I've come to love, but I don't think I could suffer another Red Wedding. George Martin has told me that he doesn't know if anything he writes will be that painful again, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
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