Reading this book was like... Well, it was like being invited to a grand feast only to realize I'd been served a plate of tangled spaghetti, and I'd forgotten my fork.

Okay, maybe that's harsh. Martin is clearly a maestro with words. But, oh boy, does he love to spin a yarn. Or, rather, many, many, MANY yarns. The man's got more plot lines in this book than I've got mismatched socks. And that's saying something.

And whoa, the length of this thing! I'm not opposed to long books, but this one felt unnecessarily drawn out. With 1128 pages, it was a significant time investment, and the payoff just wasn't worth it. By the end of the book, I felt drained. The constant tension and lack of resolution left me totally unsatisfied.

Kudos to the author for attempting something of this ambition and scope. But I will not be continuing with the series. ( )

Definitely speedier on re-read. The broken up POVs hints and slivers of information also come together in a way they won't first time through. ( )

Decent enough, though the writing is starting to suffer. As much as i want to know what happens next, i think three is my limit for this universe. ( )

As a latecomer to 'Game of Thrones' the TV series, having watched the lot in 2021, I'm only now getting into the books.

Like with the previous novels in the series, ‘A Storm of Swords’ hooked me from the get-go. Like the second book, this third one features many differences to the TV series. This makes no difference to the intrigue, drama, or excitement.

The characters are vivid, the plot threads engrossing. The multiple third-person specific narratives work well. Tyrion's, Jon Snow's, & the three Stark children's narratives are particularly good.

I can't pick any faults with the story but did find several style aspects annoying. For instance, stating that someone ‘looked annoyed' or 'looked surprised' is blatant 'telling', which, with little effort, could've been revised to 'show' the emotion.

We also get too much of characters who ‘could hear’ and ‘could see’ something or other. It's obvious in most cases that the characters in question can see and/or hear what's going on, so to inform the reader that someone 'can see/hear' something is a waste of words.

Despite the above style criticisms, this novel kept me engrossed too much for me to rate it below five stars. A magical read. ( )

This is the first of the series I've read where I preferred the tv treatment. The detail in this one gets ploddy at times, and it's unremittingly dark and grim. Even the dwarve's humour seems forced.
Plot twists? Yeah, it's got that in spades. And yeah, it makes up for all the above. ( )