A Storm of Swords

A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world....

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others, a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords....

©2000 George R.R. Martin (P)2004 Books On Tape, Inc., published in arrangement with Random House Audio Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Locus Award, 2001

"A riveting continuation of a series whose brilliance continues to dazzle." (The Patriot News)

"I always expect the best from George R. R. Martin, and he always delivers." (Robert Jordan)

Thrilling fantastic literary works.

Now I know there have been so many reviews that I hesitate to add one. I just wish to say I enjoyed these books tremendously. This one is the third of the series "A Song of Ice and Fire", whose title takes more and more ominous tones as the story unfolds. The first two books were "A Game of Thrones" and "A Clash of Kings", and although I haven't written a review of those, I agree with all those who raved for the book. I loved them all. How else could you listen to this third volume (38 hrs?!?) So I assume I am preaching to the choir here. If by any chance, you haven't listened to the first two, you really need to start with GoT (as the first volume is called amongst fans). Absolutely.

For the fans, I just wish to say that the fourth installment comes in November. I've already asked Audible when they plan to provide the audio version. I find these books more immensely enjoyable in audio form, although I recently bought the paperbacks as a reference, esp. when the fourth volume comes out. It'll be handy, and more easily browsable than an audio version.

So there. If you don't know where the web site is, and would like to read the announcement from the author himself, google it or go to georgerrmartin.com. In a previous page (now defunct, I wonder why) he explained that his choice for "A Feast for Crows", as the fourth tome is going to be named, is to take apart the book he'd be writing and only keep the part about the Seven Kingdoms (yeah! my favorite!) The part about Daenerys and the Isles is going to go into the next installments. This way he'll be able to finish the fourth in time, and in fact it makes more sense to him. And to me too: it was a bit irritating to jump back and fourth between the two continents in two stories which we knew wouldn't come together till much later in the story (perhaps not even in the next two volumes).

For those of you feel same, my favorite character is Arya. Can't wait to hear her story. Yeah!

A master

Martin is the most talented author in the Genre since The Professor made it respectable... it's as simple as that.

If you have not read/listened to these books and you enjoy fantasy, you owe it to yourself to do so. Solid multidimensional characters, deep plot, good imagery (not Tolkien level but good nonetheless)... these books have everything. The most annoying part of the books is that you get so deep into each character that when he switches to a different one you get mad, only to get into that character and get mad when he switches back. Then of course there's his propensity for killing off main characters... don't get too attached to anyone!

Another Goal For Martin

This book is simply the continuing of an excellent and genius story. The action and the plot twists combine to create an absolute gem of a story. I can't wait for the next book!

Captivating

Martin writes characters so realistically it was a chore to come back to the real world from Westeros. The talent in making some of those characters we've previously seen as bad guys as sympathetic characters awes me. As in life, nothing is so easily defined as black and white...and there are various shades of gray.

As a reader, Ray Dotrice does an excellent job of embodying the characters and I've thouroughly enjoyed his performance.

Mr. Martin has me firmly under his spell and I'll be reading and rereading these volumes for years to come. I'm eagerly awaiting the next in the series.

Another epic story living up to hopes

Again the the story lives up to the epic story line, unfortunately the story telling is lack luster.

The story gets 5, the narrator gets ZERO

Everyone with a television knows that GoT is probably the best story next to Harry Potter that’s ever been written but wth hired this narrator? I’m on book 3 and I literally cringe with the some of his characters but I’ve never read the books because multiple sclerosis has screwed up my vision so I can only listen to books. I’m grinning and barring because it’s the only way for me to “read” the books.

I wouldn’t suggest listening to this series if you have a choice. Unless you know what a fantastic story it is and horrid voices don’t bother you.

There are at least 3 characters that you can you feel your own nose being be held shut, that’s how he’s doing some of the characters. Horrible!

I loved this story.....

Breathtaking.....gripping. Best audio book I have listened to in three years. Strongly Recommend! Brilliantly written and imagined, well narrated.

A Treasure

loveeeeeed it so much, a perfect trilogy but thank God George r r martin gave us so much more!!

Wow, what a great series!

What did you love best about A Storm of Swords?

The unexpected twists and turns just keep coming. Just when you decide it's getting a little tedious, something momentous happens.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Storm of Swords?

Too many to name here and I don't want to ruin it for anyone else

What about Roy Dotrice’s performance did you like?

Very good! The only criticism is he makes everyone sound older than they really are in the book.

Intriguing tale but wordy

As the other books in this series, the story is very gripping, yet good and bad things often happen to the "wrong" people, i.e. evil folks are sometimes rewardedk and the good are sometimes killed prematurely.