Book Review – A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons

Well… The title probably says it all – once I started reading A Clash of Kings, I just couldn’t stop. And in these modern days where buying a book is done from you own couch, I could not stop reading. So I just finished all the available “Game of Thrones” Books: A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast of Crows, and A Dance with Dragons.

George R.R. Martin develops a great story that twists and turns, leaving the reader hungry all the time. The plot is divided into a number of sub-plots, each one of them with a central character. The sub-plots sometimes combine, mix up and re-split into new sub-plots, with some characters dying along the way, and new characters taking up their places.

And talking about death, Martin has no pity for his characters. No matter if they are good or bad, no matter if they are central to the plot, no matter what they have previously done in the story, he never minds killing them, even in the most brutal and horrifying way. Sometimes this is very demoralizing for the reader, but on the other hand, it keeps the story very real, and very gruesome. There are both heroes and anti-heroes, queens and sluts, knights and thieves. Many gruesome (and probably real) details on what happens when a realm is plagued with war. Nothing is saved from the reader, and the imaging is done so well that I can sometimes imagine the scenes and makes me kind of sick.

And this is what makes this series so great. The end is always near, but at every turn, it just keeps moving.