Book report: A Storm of Swords

Continuing my reread, I've now finished "A Storm of Swords", and once again, I won't assume you need any kind of synopsis and quickly delve into the analysis. In the first book, my main theme was early installement weirdness, and in the second book, I focused on the expanding scope of the story and the developing of some themes. "A Storm of Swords" continues along these lines, but the two major aspects I want to discuss is the flurry of endings and what they're purpose is, namely setting up the five-year gap.

If you'd poll the readers of ASOIAF, you'd likely arrive at the wrong opinion that "A Storm of Swords" is the best book of the series. It's easy to see why: While being the longest of the books, it also has the quickest pace, with resolutions to plot lines arriving close together, giving the book a bit of a breathless nature.

 

This contrasts decidedly with the two following volumes, the "Feastdance", which will move at a much more deliberate pace, frustrating many readers, but leading to a much more satisfying experience in terms of depth and theme.

 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Instead, let's first see who graces us as new POV. We have a net win of one, since we gain Jaime and Samwell and lose Theon. Theon's arc resolved nicely in "A Clash of Kings", so there's no need to revisit it here (and it did come as a shock when he came back in "A Dance with Dragons"!).

 

Speaking of shocks, Jaime's introduction as a POV was the major splash that "A Storm of Swords" made, at least until the Red Wedding rolled around. Jaime was the undisputed bad guy, and in "A Storm of Swords", he embarks on a character arc that has the fandom arguing ever since. Is it a redemption arc? Is it not?

 

The quick answer is "no". Jaime is definitely not the undisputed villain he was in the first two books anymore, because Martin does his usual, great trick of bringing him down to his lowest point, forcing us to accept his humanity, and making him understandble. See also Grejoy, Theon. Jaime is incredibly well written, and his chapters are a joy.

 

Our other new POV, Sam, usually doesn't garner the same enthusiasm. Too often the fandom judges him as too whiny (a ridiculous charge, but that's fandoms for you sometimes). But Sam, aside from his own character arc of becoming Sam the Slayer, Sam the Friend to Magic Stuff and finally Sam the Electioneer, is also a vital camera on the events north of the Wall (and in the end south of it). Ironically, his last chapters in "A Storm of Swords" also show why Martin had to ship him to Braavos and then Oldtown first thing "A Feast for Crows", because you really don't need to Night's Watch POVs at the Wall.

 

That leaves Davos, who unexpectedly returns from the dead and emancipates himself from "the guy that shows us what Stannis is up to" to his own character arc of religious extremism (with his aborted terror attack on Melisandre) and the tenure as Hand to rescuing Edric Storm, because what's one boy against the fate of all humanity? Exactly, everything. Davos' chapters are engrossing, incredibly well written and on the whole a marked improvement over "A Clash of Kings".

 

Now, that leaves our existing case. I talked about a flurry of endings, and let's jump through them. Catelyn's arc ends rather tragically with the Red Wedding. I don't see the need to talk about how well it's done, because that's done to death. The Red Wedding leaves the Riverlands and the North in shambles, in an ideal position to gloss over five years and say "and then, our character comes and does X" in the following volume.

 

The same is true, of course, of Bran Stark, who ends his adorable journey through the North with another magic mentor, the mysterious Coldhands, from which a jump of five years is easily executed. The same is true of the Stark sisters: Arya travels to Braavos to start her assassin training, and Sansa is in the Eyrie, well positioned for same flashback in the next book of what happened then.

 

Jon is much more tricky. He's Lord Commander now and has to content with Stannis, who could conclude his northern campaign about four times in the next five years with a book's worth of plot to spare. Here, we see the Five-Year-Gap breaking apart already.

 

It's not as bad for the Lannisters, since Jaime settles into being Lord Commander, ideally suited for some bitter flashbacks on Cersei and the court. Unforunately, there's no world in which Cersei would just rule a bit and twiddle her thumbs for five years, so this can't work at all. It's better for Tyrion, who could conceivably be hid away at Illyrio's and only re-emerge five years later, but come on, this would not be interesting at all.

 

Aside from the Starklings, Dany's arc concludes the clearest with the gap in mind, because Meereen could have been dealt with in flashbacks then (which large parts of the fandom, being wrong, would have doubtlessly preferred).

 

But none of that came to pass in the end. However, the need to wrap everything up for this time jump to come into effect forced Martin to use an ungodly pace for the plot in an already very thick book, which makes the pacing overall worse than in "A Clash of Kings" and "A Game of Thrones". "A Storm of Swords" is still the superior book, no question, but some things would have benefitted from a bit more breathing space.