A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin {Character Analysis)

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Last night, I finished reading A Storm of Swords, the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. This won't be a review really, more just a collection of my initial thoughts after finishing the book. There will be spoilers, certainly for the first two books, and probably for this one as well, so be warned. If you're watching the TV series, this goes beyond what has aired so far, so there might be spoilers for that too, though I'll try to avoid them. If you are worried about spoilers, DON'T READ THIS.

My Review
I was really impressed by the character development in this series, but particularly in this book. For example, take Sansa. In the first book, I really didn't like her. I found her irritating, and a little flighty. In the second book, I started to feel sorry for her, but in this book, I really began to respect her. She went through incredible things for someone her age, and made very difficult choices, but stayed strong through it. By the end, I felt so, so sorry for her, but also really liked her. Another example is her sister Arya. I have always liked Arya, but in this book, I began to feel like she's gotten a little detached. By the end, I was almost a little afraid of what she would do. Her circumstances would have made her become that way, and George R. R. Martin created that change in her perfectly. Warning, possible spoilers in the following paragraph.

This book was a little shocking. With a number of major character deaths, a few weddings, and more shocking revelations, it was quite a page turner. There were a number of points where the thing that happened was the one thing that I was absolutely sure could not happen. Here are some of my opinions about characters as of the end of the book. My thoughts of them change all the time, so I think its interesting to record who I do and don't like at the end of each book. Warning: Spoilers may follow.

Arya and the Hound.

Some characters who I like now, but didn't before, or didn't expect to like, are Jaime Lannister (I love his relationship with Brienne), Sansa Stark, Ygritte (in a way, she was really a good thing), and sort of the Hound. I didn't really like him for sure, but my respect for him grew a lot during the last half of the book. Other favorites (but not new favorites), are Tyrion Lannister, Bran Stark, Samwell Tarly, and Jon Snow. Some that I am less sure about, but once liked (and don't really dislike), are Arya Stark (she's gone through a lot, and it's taken a tole), and Daenerys (she scares me. She's gone through unimaginable things, and she's kind of gone crazy.). I straight up don't like Cersei, Melisandre, Tywin Lannister, and Joffrey Baratheon.

The most interesting part of the series to me is the way the characters change, and how my thoughts on them change. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these people too (though please, no spoilers for anything beyond A Storm of Swords).

As usual, I should mention that while I personally love these books and would highly recommend them, they are NOT books intended for young readers. They include quite a bit of sex, swearing, and violence. Keep that in mind when choosing whether to read these books.

A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin

I finished reading A Clash of Kings (the second Song of Ice and Fire book, the sequel to A Game of Thrones) this morning, and I decided I'd do my review now, while I'm still thinking about it. This review will have spoilers for the first book, and some mild ones for this book, though I'll do my best to keep it to a minimum. Consider yourself warned.

Summary
In this thrilling sequel to A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin has created a work of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination. A Clash of Kings transports us to a world of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare unlike any we have ever experienced.
 
A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel . . . and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

My Review
Since I already reviewed the first book in this series, I'm not going to talk much about his writing style, or how exactly I liked the way he developed the characters or plot. Basically, I really love these books. If you want more, go read my review of the first book, in which I talk about these things a lot more.

My feelings about the various characters changed a LOT while reading this book.This is partly because you see different amounts of different characters, but also because the characters themselves have changed. Tyrion Lannister was a character I enjoyed, but didn't really like at the end of the first book, but is now one of my favorites. Sansa Stark I actually disliked in Book 1, but now I really like her. She narrated chapters in this book (did she in book 1? I can't remember), and she has a pretty terrible time of it. I felt a lot of empathy for her in addition to sympathy, which helped. She, at this point in the series, is the character I can best relate to (not that I can relate to everything she's dealt with, but certainly more that someone like Daenerys), and I always tend to like characters I can relate to. Some other characters like Theon Greyjoy, who I didn't have strong feelings about before, I now strongly dislike.

This book really ramped up the fantasy. There was actual magic happening, which definitely changed thing up. There are also dragons now, though they weren't much more than a trading commodity in this book. Some parts of the book, particularly anything involving Daenerys and Jon, seemed to really be setting up something else that never happened. I assume this will come to something in an upcoming book. The most confusing part of the book to me was Davos, the Onion Knight, who was narrating some chapters. I never really understood who he was (other than that he worked for Stannis Baratheon), or if he is actually important or not.

George R. R. Martin definitely has lived up to his reputation for killing characters, though some things happened at the end of this book that made me question a lot of the other things I had read. This book also really ended on some major cliffhangers. Almost every character's final chapter ended dramatically, and wasn't properly resolved. I can't wait to start A Storm of Swords!

Who Should Read This Book

I'm going to say basically what I said last time. If you read and enjoyed the first book in the series, read this one. These books are amazing works of fantasy, and I highly recommend them. However, these are certainly not kids or YA books, and have plenty of adult content in them that you should be aware of.

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin {Book Review}

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12/20/13 Edit: After talking to some friends, I realized that Arya should really be added to the list of characters I liked the whole way through in addition to Jon, Ned, and Bran. The post has been duly updated.

Today I'm finally getting around to reviewing A Game of Thrones, a book I finished about two months ago. I just started book two (finally!), and I thought it was well past time I post my thoughts on this one. I think this pretty much goes without saying, but there will be spoilers. I'll avoid the ending, and that sort of thing, but if you haven't read the books (and intend to read them at some point), you should probably stop reading now.

Before I begin, if you've read the book, definitely go read this review by Forever Young Adult. It's hilarious. If you haven't read the book, and go read that review, just know that it is not at all representative of the book. It's just meant to be funny.

Summary from Amazon.com

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.


My Review

As usual, I am going to start out by talking about the characters. This book has absolutely fantastic characters. There are many of them, and most of them felt very well developed. While there were some that were not as fleshed out, they also never narrated, which I think makes a difference. Despite having so many great characters, I think that there were very few that I truly liked. I liked Daenerys at times, but by the end of the book, I can't say I was too fond of her. The characters who I really did like, all the way through, were Ned Stark, Bran Stark, Arya Stark, and Jon Snow. All in the family there. :) There were characters I enjoyed reading, like Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark, who I didn't really like that much.

I also really liked the writing. There were times when it felt like it was just going on and on describing one scene, but most of the time, I thought it was terrific. I was very impressed with how he switched the POV between chapters seamlessly. There were probably seven or eight characters who narrated, and they all felt unique and well developed. The writing was such that the 800 page book felt much shorter while I read it.

The plot was also good. It was complicated, with plots and sub plots galore, including several which I am sure were just a set up for upcoming books in the series. George R. R. Martin is obviously an author who cares deeply about the story, and is perfectly willing to sacrifice characters for it. He used surprise wonderfully, and there was a point at which I suddenly realized that no character was safe.

Who Should Read It?

This book is one I highly recommend, but there is quite a bit of sex and swearing, and this is (despite the FYA review) NOT a kids or YA book.

Life Update! {More Blog Stuff, School, Books, and the Future}

Today, I'm just here to post a quick update on what I've been up to. I'm going to divide this post into sections for easier writing, and hopefully, reading.

Bloggy Stuff!

Let's start out with some semi-serious stuff. First of all, I'm realizing that a few things about how I've been blogging just aren't sustainable. First of all, Homeschool Fridays have been kind of a bust. I often don't get around to posting them, and I always feel like they are not as well written out as I would like. As a result of this, the "Graduating Highschool" part of my blog is going to become more literal. While I still intend to post about homeschooling related stuff the way I have in the past, I have a whole new format coming up that I hope will work a little better.

This all new Homeschool Fridays, which will be kicking off tomorrow, will be weekly school updates. I'm going to go through each subject (as it makes sense to do so),  and talk a little about what I did, what I didn't do, and what I hope to do next week. If you're a homeschooling family (particularly with younger kids), maybe you can get some ideas, and you can see how a particular curriculum or method works in a real life situation. My main goal with this, however, are a little more personal. I hope that this will help keep me accountable, and I want it to be a record of my sophomore year of high school.

If you're not sure how this is going to work, come back tomorrow to find out. My current plan is to try this out for a month, and see how it goes. If it's not working out, maybe I need to find a different way of doing homeschool posts.

Books

I love writing book reviews, and in fact, it's my favorite part of this blog. This fall, I hope to review every book I read. That might not mean a lot of book reviews, however, since I just started A Game of Thrones on Monday. I'm loving it so far, but it's not a short book. And, when I finish it, there are four more that all seem to be that size, or maybe larger. I don't know how long it'll take me to get through them, but be warned, there might not be a lot of review coming up.

To help compensate, I'm going to try to post reviews (or at least thoughts) on books I'm reading for school.

The Future

Maybe this should have come under the Blog Stuff heading, but I think it makes more sense here. I have a few long term plans and thoughts about this blog at the moment. The first of those is that I have a few sponsored book reviews coming up in the next few weeks, which is a lot of fun. I like doing those, because we (the company and I) both win. While I don't get paid, I get a new book or other cool product free to review, and they get some publicity.

I also have some exciting plans for the blog in 2014 that I might be talking more about soon.

Also, here are some posts to look out for soon:

Two sponsored book reviews.
A writing post (it's been WAY too long since I did one of those).
A HF post tomorrow.
A post about blogs I read.
A review of the tv series Angel.
Some NaNo prep posts (I can't believe it's already time to do those!).