A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3 Part 1): The bestselling classic epic fantasy series behind the award-winning HBO and Sky TV show and phenomenon GAME OF THRONES Paperback – 7 April 2003

Steel and Snow is the first part of the third volume of the saga, A Storm of Swords. So far it has lived up to the expectations created by the climatic ending of A Clash of Kings, but this review feels incomplete because most of what happened in Steel and Snow is a build-up to the second part, Blood and Gold.In the aftermath of the Battle of the Blackwater, the losers are licking their wounds while the victorious are capitalizing on the momentum by building new alliances, so expect more politics and less warfare. Unfortunately we get less of Tyrion, whose role is hampered by the arrival of his father to King's Landing, but his chapters are enjoyable as always. Even though the Starks keep winning in the battlefield, their position has never been more fragile.North of the Wall, Jon Snow joins the wildlings to learn everything he can about them, but will find out that living as a spy is even harder than he supposed it would be, not because of his wary enemies, but because of new unexpected friendships. We also get some chapters from the point of view of Sam Tarly.In the East, Daenerys continues her struggle to raise an army capable to get her throne back.In my opinion, the first half of A Storm of Swords makes me believe it will be the best book of the saga so far. The War of the Kings and Jon Snow storylines keep up the high standards we got used to. However, the Daenerys storyline really kicks off, as the last Targaryen shows the world she is no longer the naïve princess that was presented to us in Pentos. But the real surprise for me was the addition of Jaime Lannister as a point of view character. His chapters were absolutely stunning, showing us a lot more than a simple minded villain who only cares for his sister or fighting.+: Jaime Lannister added as POV character; Daenerys finally rises as a real menace to those who oppose her-: Tyrion being pushed to a more secondary role=: This first part really sets high expectations for Blood and Gold; all storylines are compelling from the start, which is something the previous two volumes lacked; less Tyrion is fully compensated by much more Jaime and Daenerys

I'll just review both parts of book 3 as it's a bit ridiculous to review half of a book fairly. Trust me, you'll be reading part 2 anyway - although the smaller book saves the wrists.This is probably the best of the series and the set up of "book 2" is paid off and then some. Despite it's length there isn't a single page wasted. Many of the character's stories are driven forward significantly especially for favourites Daenarys, Jon and Tyrion. The war beyond the wall and the war of the iron throne also have some major developments.This book can also be pretty downbeat and if you thought one of the key events in "A game of thrones" was shocking, you may want to brace yourself for this one, with one of the most powerful chapters in fantasy. It's a scene you'll never forget. For many books that scene would be enough but there are at least another half dozen equally satisfying scenes to enjoy.The new POV characters Samwell and Jaime are ok, but not outstanding although they seem to have clear character arcs; Sam is becoming the strong bold man from the coward and Jaime is trying to become the noble hero after being, well, an utter bastard.In many ways this book feels like a finale as there are so many key points and revelations and the majority of characters make huge turning points in their arcs. Despite this there are still many questions and arcs that are unresolved and I can't wait to see them (although it looks as though i'll have to wait quite some time). With this book GRRM confirms that he is the most important voice in fantasy since Tolkien and it is clear why so many new authors are influenced by him. GRRM has singlehandedly created the "grim and gritty" sub-genre.

I have given this book only four stars and I am guessing this goes against many of the reviews here. Before I give the reason for the good, rather than excellent, rating of this book it is worth pointing out I did read and thoroughly enjoy the two pervious books.The book itself is very well written and does continue in the same manner of the pervious two books. The story itself is very clever but I have an issue with the way it is still being told now. The author continues to tell the story in the same way it was told in the pervious two books. That being each central character as specific chapters dedicated to their perspective of the unfolding events. In the first books I actually quite liked this idea but I found it somewhat, for want of a better word, irritating. The reason for my irritation was that each and every chapter seemed to end somewhat abruptly and invariably on a cliffs edge. It then took many chapters later to pick up this particular part of story. This is all fine and well in the opening books but into the third book I found that there wasn't an overall story as such but many smaller stories split into chapters that to be honest never flowed into one another. It seemed as though chapters were just followed on almost in a random fashion and the next chapter had very little bearing on previous chapter.I noted in a previous review that somebody had stated they felt that maybe the author had over stretched himself and on balance I tent to agree. As I read through this book I could not help but think there could be no conclusion to this saga. I feel that there are far too many subplots going on and the central characters seem to not being going very far. It is a shame because some of the characters actually could have an entire book dedicated to them. All in all I did enjoy this read but I am left with a somewhat bitter taste in my month that it is not being told as a complete story. In my opinion and this is only my opinion anybody who reads this book must have read the first two, it is simply impossible to understand it if you had not, I expected better. I wanted a complete storyline, not a fragmented mishmash of random chapters.Please do not be put off by my somewhat down beat review, this book is a still a very good read but please be warned, although each chapter is well written do not expect a comprehensive storyline. What started out as quite an original idea of each character having their own chapter really didn't do it for me this far into the saga and to be honest I don't really see myself reading the fourth book.