A Storm of Swords

A Storm of Swords  by George R. R. Martin              Audio Book:  46 hours, 48 minutes      Paperback Book: 1,216 pages      

Book 3 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.   OMGosh!   I am so addicted to this series.   There is so much going on in book 3 your mouth will drop open!    My favorite characters are all up to so much in this story it is unreal!   If you are a fan of the series you will LOVE this book.   Some folks get their just desserts in ways that are so deliciously vengeful you will yell YES!   George R.R. Martin literally charms you with the way he delivers his tales of knights and ladies, kings and queens and the battle to be the one ruler of the seven kingdoms.    I am blown away by how he will kill any character at any time and the reader will never see it coming.    His characters are so real and he paints such in depth word pictures that it is like you are standing there among them.    I actually get chilled when I am reading about the happenings with John Snow at the wall.  Mr. Martin’s words make such vivid mental pictures that he can make you feel the warmth of the sun on your skin after a drenching rain or douse in a river he has just described happening to one of the characters.    The way he describes in such detail the smells of meat cooking or a person who hasn’t paid attention to his/her hygiene or a body decomposing, that the reader actually gets a sense of that.   I have wrinkled my nose right along with the people attending funerals in the book and how one group carry roses with them from the bouquets they leave to cover the putrid smell of the rotting corpse.    You get that sense memory of the smell of a rose.   It’s amazing.     When he talks about the ice for an instant you do feel that cold or the cold metallic feel of the blade of a sword he is describing.   This series of books is like being in sensor round.    It is not just a read, but, akin to a virtual reality experience, only you see it in your mind without the need for special goggles.     I would love to go into all the things that happen, but, I don’t want to give it away, however,  you will be awe struck I promise you by the things that happen to all the main characters and the changes that come over some of the characters as they adapt to their situations.   I hope George R.R. Martin continues writing about the seven kingdoms for the rest of his days that is how long I want to continue hearing about the lives of all these larger than life people who have become so much a part of my reading.    I think Mr. Martin has put a mesmerizing spell on his books because I seriously cannot get enough of them.    He is the Garrison Keillor of the Seven Kingdoms bringing all of us readers who are hungry for more news on our favorite people and creatures the scoop on life in the Seven Kingdoms and who is where in the Game of Thrones.    I LOVE IT!!!!!