Forget Everything You Think You Know about A Game of Thrones

(#2) Read 25 Books

1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
    A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
    A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
5. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
6. The Shack by William Young

Book three will Blow.Your. Mind. I do not use this phrase lightly.

Remember how devastated you were when (SPOILER ALERT) Ned Stark was killed in book one? And how that changed the entire trajectory of the series?

Yeah, book three is a whole lot of that.

Throughout the book you have no idea how certain elements are going to turn out. Is Tyrion Lannister going to accept Catelyn Stark's deal and return her daughters? Is Arya Stark EVER going to make it to her mother? How is Robb Stark going to make up with the Frey's? Are the men of the Night's Watch going to make it back to the Wall in one piece?

You think these are the important questions for several hundred pages. As it turns out, though, these questions are irrelevant. Because what actually happens changes the meaning of basically everything else that has happened to this point.

As I said in my review of Clash of Kings, what I love about this series is that Martin develops characters so complex you can literally never predict their next move. This still holds true. The most evil characters turn out to be the ones you are rooting for, and ones you had high hopes for turn out to be quite useless, for one reason or another. And the question of who really should be King of the Seven Kingdoms turns out to have an even more complicated answer than you originally thought.

Also the fantasy elements really become central to the plot in this book, and things get really freaky. I expect more of the same in book four.

Basically what I'm saying is if you haven't started reading this series yet, what the heck are you waiting for???