A Storm of Swords. George R. R. Martin. 2003.
Epic fantasy. High fantasy. Book 3 in the Song of Fire and Ice series.
As a brutal civil war consumes the powerful houses of Westeros, an exiled queen secures an army of freed slaves, while an isolated brotherhood on a frozen wall stands as the final line of defense against an ancient supernatural apocalypse.
There are a dozen POV characters in this epic story and not one of them can be said to be wasted. Martin understands that multiple POV characters are required in order to create the grand perspective necessary for fantasy to feel genuinely epic to the reader.
In A Storm of Swords, Martin uses this grand scale of perspectives to build a vibe of relentless momentum. Each character is caught up in their own arc, their own struggle within a world at war. It is the combination of these geographically widespread experiences that creates the epic scale for which this series is rightfully famous.
AUTHORS – I write short book reviews that focus on voice and vibe. They are useful to querying authors searching for comp titles. There are more like this on my website.
REMINDER – If you follow my reviews, you already know this. I have a policy about reviewing debut novels. Provided I finish them, I always rate debut novels with maximum stars, regardless. When I don’t finish a debut novel, I don’t review it. No exceptions. And I don’t review books I don’t pay full price for.