This is the third book (Part 1) of A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, and I’m so hoping he finishes writing the last two books of the series soon. First of all, I watched the Game of Thrones series and started reading the books after, and they’re still extremely interesting though I know the major plot-line apart from few deviations. And *SPOILER ALERT* if you haven’t watched the series/read the books yet!
A few character’s storylines in this book are a bit dragging, like Catelyn Stark’s is pretty much the same – sorrow and mourning; while other character plotlines are super exciting like Danerys and her iconic dracarys scene, Jon Snow North of the wall, Sansa finally not betrothed to Joffrey but getting married to Tyrion instead.
The ending was at a crazy cliff hanger: Jon escaping from the wildlings south of the wall, and being saved by a certain direwolf – just the idea that he was so close to Bran and they didn’t meet; so cruel.
I love how the writing style changes when they jump from one character to another (each chapter is a short story of what’s going around a single character). It’s good that they explore the story from every character’s point of view, reaching depths that the TV series could never achieve.
The best part of this series is the politics, the subtle making and breaking of alliances, the cruelty towards your favourite characters, and the picturization of every scene. So even if you’ve watched the series, I would highly recommend reading the books. I thoroughly enjoyed reading bout the characters in depth.
Happy reading. 🙂