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A Storm of Swords-Weakest book in the Series?


King Slayer

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In my opinion, ASOS is the best book in the series. Yeah, there are doors opened to new POV's which are not really useful in AFFC, but still the storytelling in ASOS is the best storytelling I have ever read. The book is brilliant, the pace is good, the characters that we see are really good developed and brilliantly written. The most important scenes of the series tak place in ASOS and the story changes from this book on. Some arcs are closed while others are opened and with the end of the War of the Five Kings, we get to see new characters and new places.



Yeah, I think ASOS is the best book in the series and I don't see how you can find it boring. I thought ACOK was the most boring book in the series, hard to get through, Blackwater was brilliant, but it happened at theend and nothing much interesting before that happened in the book. It was a slow lead up to the clash between Stannis and the Kings Landing crew. ACOK was way more boring than ASOS in my opinion.

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In my opinion, ASOS is the best book in the series. Yeah, there are doors opened to new POV's which are not really useful in AFFC, but still the storytelling in ASOS is the best storytelling I have ever read. The book is brilliant, the pace is good, the characters that we see are really good developed and brilliantly written. The most important scenes of the series tak place in ASOS and the story changes from this book on. Some arcs are closed while others are opened and with the end of the War of the Five Kings, we get to see new characters and new places.

Yeah, I think ASOS is the best book in the series and I don't see how you can find it boring. I thought ACOK was the most boring book in the series, hard to get through, Blackwater was brilliant, but it happened at theend and nothing much interesting before that happened in the book. It was a slow lead up to the clash between Stannis and the Kings Landing crew. ACOK was way more boring than ASOS in my opinion.

Yea I'd say from the Red Wedding til the end of the book is the polar opposite of boring. :lol:

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I think this is the finale to the first half of the story. Quite a bit happens to clear the stage for the next set of players. Given how GRRM doesn't follow through on finishing up plotlines introduce in A Feast for Crows--Euron's ironborn, Brienne and the Brotherhood, Jaime and Cersei, it is almost as if he wants to set up A Dream of Spring as spiritual sequel to A Storm of Swords. As far as being eventful goes, I rank the books as follows (most eventful to least):



A Dance with Dragons


A Feast for Crows


A Storm of Swords


A Game of Thrones


A Clash of Kings


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  • 4 weeks later...

No way!! Everyone has different opinions but.. A Storm of Swords? I dare think not. So much takes place in ASOS, it's a crucial book in the series so it's just as important as it is enjoyable. However, A Feast for Crows it what I hear most people call the weakest of the series.. I agree that's very possibly true but even so, it was still good. They are ALL good... :bowdown: > GRRM


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  • 1 month later...

I'm currently at the point where Vargo takes Jaime and Brienne to Harrenhall to meet Lord Bolton. Until now the book is in swallow waters if you look at the events that take place (the most thrilling moment was the chapter of Catelyn and the Karstark beheading,loved the way GRRM portrayed the untamed youth that Robb fell victim to as expected). In general I'm still skeptical but I'll post again when I progress even deeper in the book and have a more complete view.


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I quite like ASoS as a whole, although I did find Bran's chapters in it to be pretty dull. Wasn't much of a drag on the book as a whole, though, given that he only had 4 of 'em. Might be because Bran's probably my least-favorite POV, but the handful of his chapters just seemed weaker to me.



All in all: yeah, no I don't find it to be the weakest, definitely a solid book despite a few chapters I was bored by.


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I found AGOT, ACOK and ASOS brilliant.



AFFC I was struggling to finish a chapter a night.



ADWD whilst it was a step in right direction from a AFFC it didnt have the same charm to it like the first 3 books.



I've just started my second re-read and AGOT is such a great book.



I stand by my opinion that once the war of the kings was over and the Stark was crushed the tension and expectancy was some what lost. Also the young/old griff reveal story line was ridiculous, it was like he had nothing better to do than add it in.



or were the hints to this and i just missed them as usual!


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I'm in the process of my second complete re-read. I'm in the first part of the ASoS...just prior to the Red Wedding.



I will say that I am picking up on a TON of things I missed the first time...mostly because there was too much information to process and I wasn't sure what I needed to remember.



I can say that I rank ASoS & AGoT as my top two favorite books.



But everyone has their own opinions.


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One reason I think ASoS is my favorite is because of how many major changes occurred during this book.



Red Wedding


Jaime's transformation


Sam the Slayer


The Unsullied


The Hound's "death"


You know nothing Jon Snow


The Mountain vs Red Viper


Tyrion's Revenge on his Father


"Wherever whores go"


Lysa learns the hard way she cannot fly nor should she trust Littlefinger


Coldhands


Lord Commander Jon Snow


Meereen sacked


Lady Stoneheart



and more


Purple Wedding

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Still,only 3-4 out of 15 events you mentioned occur in the first half of the book. I'm at page 630 and until now I've seen less than half of Jaime's transformation, the Ygritte/Jon subplot and Sam nuking the whitewalker. Nothing of the other stuff that happen in the second part of the book (in my country ASOS is divided in two tomes).



That is some weak pacing right there.The same thing happened in ACOK when you have minor development in most plots in the first 2/3s of the book and then all hell brakes lose.What about a proper climax?Still I love ASOS but until now I could enjoy a better event distribution all over the book,more.


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Still,only 3-4 out of 15 events you mentioned occur in the first half of the book. I'm at page 630 and until now I've seen less than half of Jaime's transformation, the Ygritte/Jon subplot and Sam nuking the whitewalker. Nothing of the other stuff that happen in the second part of the book (in my country ASOS is divided in two tomes).

That is some weak pacing right there.The same thing happened in ACOK when you have minor development in most plots in the first 2/3s of the book and then all hell brakes lose.What about a proper climax?Still I love ASOS but until now I could enjoy a better event distribution all over the book,more.

LOL That's a joke, right?

I'm re-reading now and I'm at page 300, and already Jaime has had his hand chopped off after he and Brienne were captured by the Bloody Mummers, Sam killed a White Walker and we saw the Battle at the First of the First Men in a flashback, we found out that Robb married Jeyne, he had to execute Karstark for the murder of the two prisoner boys and now he's in deep trouble, Arya met up with the Brotherhood without Banners and we learned their entire backstory, Davos was rescued and then arrested for planning to kill Melisandre, and Tywin decided that Tyrion will marry Sansa. In the next few chapters, and that's just up to page 400 out of 1150, Dany will kill the slavers in Astapor and acquire the Unsullied, Jon will sleep with Ygritte, Sansa will be forced to marry Tyrion, and the Brotherhood will capture Sandor.

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I'm also re-reading ASoS...since I have the 5-book bundle on my iPad, I cannot say what page it is...but I am a couple of pages into Jaime V (Chapter 37).



While I agree with The Bald Man Cries on the fact that a lot of thing happened in the first half (or so) of ASoS...just as much happens in the second half as well.



This book is full of great plots, great twists, great backstories and has the largest change in direction of the series.



My favorite book.



But I guess you can't please everyone.


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I never said that I wasn't satisfied with the first half of the book, but I still think that GRRM tries to build the suspense and tension to break hell in the second half. Annara Snow I guess that having a different opinion is a joke to you? Anyways, I think that some of the events that happen in the first 500-600 pages aren't that significant but still enjoyable.



There are some subplots evolving greatly (Jon Snow and the Wildings, Robb and his continuing downfall) but there are some weak spots too (boring Bran chapters for one more time, Arya meeting with the Brotherhood cause the author needed an insider to explain what they were all about. It could be an insignificant person rather than Arya and we still experience the same things from those chapters. Or you're saying that she is there just to accuse Sandor of killing the butcher's boy and that's it. I was tired of reading how much an ugly cow Jaime thought Brienne was, and how much a disgusting oath-breaker and untrustworthy person she thought Jaime was.And that went on for 3 chapters)


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I never said that I wasn't satisfied with the first half of the book, but I still think that GRRM tries to build the suspense and tension to break hell in the second half. Annara Snow I guess that having a different opinion is a joke to you? Anyways, I think that some of the events that happen in the first 500-600 pages aren't that significant but still enjoyable.

There are some subplots evolving greatly (Jon Snow and the Wildings, Robb and his continuing downfall) but there are some weak spots too (boring Bran chapters for one more time, Arya meeting with the Brotherhood cause the author needed an insider to explain what they were all about. It could be an insignificant person rather than Arya and we still experience the same things from those chapters. Or you're saying that she is there just to accuse Sandor of killing the butcher's boy and that's it.

I don't understand you point here. How would the book be more exciting if GRRM had brought in a new, lowborn POV for these chapters? Why would GRRM do that if he has an already existing POV we've been following from the start? What would Arya be doing in the meantime? Nothing? So you'd rather have a new, unknown POV, while Arya wastes a few chapters just travelling around and meeting no one, and her storyline in ASOS becomes about... nothing in particular? Or she does nothing for half a book and then randomly meets and gets kidnapped by Sandor, while Gendry and Hot Pie disappear? None of this makes any sense. Arya's chapters in ASOS were some of my favorite, BTW.

All storylines progress greatly in the first part of the book, except for Bran, who doesn't really have much of a storyline in the entirety of the book. That's just how his storyline is - it would have been better suited for one book that GRRM planned in the beginning (when the series was meant to be a trilogy). But that's hardly a problem when so much happens to everyone else.

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I agree with you on the Bran situation. What I meant about Arya (maybe I didn't express it correctly) is that in the chapters evolving around the brotherhood without banners, she doesn't have an active role, she's more like a silent spectator that helps us understand the way this "gang" was formed in the first place and how it works through its ranks up to the Lord of Thunder.



I didn't want another useless pov character that would stretch the story even more, but I keep thinking "Even if the character describing all those situations and information about BwB wasn't Arya,we would still learn what we learned when she was in." I would like for her to be more active. It seems that she is dragged around in Westeros being an "extra" in her own arc. Maybe I'm wrong but this is the vibe I get.


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