A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold is the second half of the complete a Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I'm not sure if the book is available in two halves everywhere, I don't remember seeing any complete ones here in Ireland, only the two seperate halves, the first being A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow.
Anyway, in terms of where the book is split, this one starts off with Daenerys, everyone's favourite Khaleesi, as she is preparing to take the city of Yunkai, whilst the last chapter in Steel and Snow belonged to Jon, ending when he leaves the wildlings to warn the brothers at Castle Black of their approach and is shot in the leg with an arrow by Ygritte.
I need to say right now that this book is DEFINITELY my favourite in the series so far. We get so much action, so many insane things happening and so much character development that I really felt like good old George was spoiling me. The thing I love (and hate) about him is that you can tell that he writes whatever he wants because he knows it's his story, it's his book. If he decides that your favourite character is going to die, that's just tough luck for you, pal, deal with it. He makes you love him and hate him at the same time. I love that literally anything could happen; for all we know Hodor could end up as king of Westeros. This is also a thing I hate, because you have no idea who's going to die on the next page. I almost feel desensitised to it now, though, because I can remember back when I read A Game of Thrones being so shocked when Ned dies. WHAT??? How DARE he kill the main character!!! Now, though, I'm just scared for everyone, because I know that any of them, no matter how important, could be next.But I love this, because it engages you completely and utterly in the story, it makes you really, truly care about these characters which, in my opinion, is what every good book should strive to do in one way or another.
In terms of crazy things, the Red Wedding left me scarred and I still feel a bit sick when I think about the way they sewed Grey Wind's Head to Robb's corpse *shudders*. But on the other hand, I felt my spirit soar when Joffrey died. I had to put the book down for a minute and flail. But what with everything that's happened to Tyrion because of it, it almost hardly seems worth it and it has made me hate Cersei about ten times more. I also think I'm in love with Jon Snow; I was terrified for a minute when I thought he might take Stannis' offer and be made lord of Winterfell and have to abandon the Old Gods, but never fear, he always makes the right decision. Speaking of Jon, Ygritte's death was heartbreaking and I never saw it coming. I was so, so hoping things would end up ok for them and she really was a brilliant character, but it's a classic George move, I suppose. I was and still am intrigued by Sansa's plot and I've really grown to like her. I want to see her grow up and realise that her life isn't a song and start playing the game, so I'm excited to see how she developes.
Then we get a tonne of character development on top of everything else. I love the relationship that has formed between Jamie and Brienne and I love how it's shaped Jamie as a character. In the beginning we see him only as the horrible man who shoves Bran out a window and has sex with his sister, but we really get to understand him more in this book and even see the beginnings of a conscience. I also found the relationship between Arya and The Hound really interesting and, even though she leaves him dying at the end, I feel like they formed some kind of wierd mutual respect for one another. It certainly made me see The Hound as an actual 3D character rather than just a bad guy.
I love the writing in these books. Yes, they are very long, but the writing style is so natural that you don't even notice you've flown through half the book in just a few days. It's descriptive without being heavy and it just sort of has a flow to it that makes it so easy to read. I feel like it's almost easy to overlook the writing because it's so subtle and so natural that you don't even really notice it. It doesn't distract you, it just does exactly what it's meant to, which is make you feel like you're really there with these characters, feeling what they're feeling and seeing what they're seeing. It's how I wish I could write.
Overall, I loved this book. I don't know if there's anything I can find fault with in it. Maybe Arya's chapters were a little on the not so eventful side until the very end, but it took absolutely nothing away from the rest of the book. I'm sure I've left stuff out that I'll think of later, but suffice to say that you should read it. Read it read it read it. You will not be disappointed.
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