A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3)

I had a very hard time turning this one off… I\’d find extra house-work to do or look for traffic jams on the way to work just so I could keep listening. The narrator, Roy Dotrice, is fantastic. The characters in this book are amazing… We see the bad parts of the good guys, and the good parts of the bad. We get an understanding of what motivates both, and it\’s not always what we think. And, just as in the first two, G.R.R.M. has no problems setting people up with opportunities to win or escape or get out of whatever mess they\’re in…sometimes they get out, sometimes they die – no matter how important a character they\’ve been… This is not a kids book. This is not the usual \”you are special and need to save the world\” drivel with hollywood happy endings we usually feed on… This one is more…real. The story keeps moving, plenty of action, laugh-out-loud funny parts, hardship, and surprises. Anyone who says G.R.R.M. was only trying to make the book long, probaby wasn\’t paying attention.

This was the first time I listened through an audiobook in this series, having finished the first two through e-Books. I can\’t really say I enjoyed \”reading\” this part overall, because the book was so long, as well as each chapter, that I can\’t truly remember everything I listened to since I started it back almost two years ago. In addition, I had a very hard time listening to the narrator, between he\’s three voices for practically every character: 1) Toothless & Senile, 2) Deepthroated and Mumbling, & 3) Generally British.

As I sat and listened to the book I found myself once again at the edge of my seat almost. The book seemed to be moving too slowly and yet too fast as I read it. Too slow in that you get impatient wondering what is going to happen next yet everything seemed so relevant and then too fast in terms of when you do reach the end you are left pining for more. George R. R. Martin did a superlative job with every character in the book. This particular book has one of the most startling twists yet, one of those twists that make you think \”What the?!?!\” I remember listening what happened and for a VERY VERY long time wondering \”Did that really happen?\”. He spares no one in these books I find and I have now come to expect the unexpected. Roy Dotrice…. What can I say? There is little I can say about his performance except this… just plain exceptional.

The story and narration are excellent, but is it too much to ask for the audio book to be constructed properly? The chapter breaks do not align with the actual chapters and the parts will end in the middle of a paragraph. Very sloppy and unprofessional. For a $50 audiobook I would expect more.

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!

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member