A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

[lightreads]

Fiction. Third in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. GIBBER! FLAIL! I love this with the quivering adoration of a kicked puppy. Make me love them all! Scare me half to death! Break my heart! And then do it again, pretty please. This is unexpected and twisted and brilliant, and I need to stop talking now because I want to save this series for a post of its own. Except to say that I love the way he contravenes standard fantasy tropes and makes them fascinating or horrible, and I pretty much adore every single one of his characters, including the hateful ones, and I gawp at the way he writes without
flourishes, with smooth simplicity that is spare but vivid (how does he do that?).

Comments

[thymidinekinase.livejournal.com]

contravenes standard fantasy tropes and makes them fascinating or horrible </>

Hee, exactly. It's as if he's saying, "You want patriarchal feudalism? Right, I'll give you patriarchal feudalism!"

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

And then he does, and then all the matriarchs cry. And then all the patriarchs cry. And then I cry.