Review: A Storm of Swords: Blood & Gold, George R. R. Martin

A Storm of Swords (Song of Ice & Fire #3): Part 2: Blood and Gold


George R. R. Martin

Harper Voyager 2011 (2000)

The Starks are scattered. Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa Stark remains their captive, trapped in marriage with Joffrey's deformed uncle, the embittered dwarf Tyrion. Meanwhile, across the ocean, Daenerys Stormborn, the last heir of the Dragon king, delivers death to the slave-trading cities of Astapor and Yunkai as she approaches Westeros with vengeance in her heart.

If Part 1: Steel and Snow was lacking somewhat, this more than made up for it. It's difficult to know where to start with a book so full of twists and turns, but so far in the series this has been my favourite. I felt like some things finally started to come together and make sense - things that have been hinted at previously, or obscured, came out into the open. After Steel and Snow, I was almost reluctant to pick up the next volume so soon, knowing how dense they are, but I'm extremely glad I did.

It's also difficult to talk about without giving much away, but there are deaths aplenty, as is to be expected if you've made it this far. I actually like this about the books, because it's nice to read an author who has the guts to kill of his characters, although having said that I do have two solid favourites that I'd be devastated to see disappear at this point!

The story loosely follows the various "kings" as they all battle for supremacy, but where S&S was all battle and optimism (of sorts), Blood & Gold is almost the aftermath, the realisation that things aren't going particularly well for any camp. As well as this, there's also the ongoing saga of Jon, beyond the wall, and the dwindling Night's Watch, as well as Dany and her army across the sea. There's a lot going on, but I found it easier to follow than I have done in the past, and it was nice to see some movement "beyond" for some of the characters, whether physically or emotionally. I am now desperate to get my hands on #4, A Feast for Crows, particularly given the devilishly intriguing epilogue...

Overall rating: 9/10


Book source: Borrowed from my brother.

The murder was committed by somebody in this room... (Top Ten Tuesday)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a different top ten list is featured. This week, the topic is: top ten books in a genre of your choice.

I toyed with a few different ideas for this, before eventually settling on crime fiction. It's a genre I dip into quite frequently, especially if I'm looking for a quick read. I like a good mystery, and I am a big fan of the Poirot-like denouement at the end!

Here are my top ten crime books:

1. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Poirot is my favourite Christie detective (for some reason, I have never got on quite so well with Miss Marple), and this is my favourite Christie book.

2. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain

Not so much a mystery (!), but still a fantastic read.

3. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

A huge book that I devoured in a weekend, thanks to the overheated setting and the murky mystery, all wrapped up in the adventures of a young girl with a dead brother.

4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Another Christie, another classic. The good old "X people stuck on a island, being murdered one by one", done to perfection.

5. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

At the time I read this, I lived close to where the book was set. Country house mysteries and people being NOT WHAT THEY SEEM. Muahahahaha... etc.

6. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

Featuring one of my favourite fictional detectives, Kurt Wallander. This is the first in the Wallander series.

7. Armadillos and Old Lace by Kinky Friedman

One of my favourite crime authors, I was introduced to Kinky Friedman's books by my dad years ago. Funny, dark and a little bit addictive.

8. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg

More grisly Scandinavian happenings.

9. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I tried not to duplicate too many authors here, by I loved Tartt's first novel, too, about a group of college students who try and cover up a murder.

10. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

Some classic Sherlock to finish!

Recommendations are more than welcome. What's on your list this week?

In My Mailbox #2

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

This week I picked up three books I had on reservation from the library. It's quite a mixture of stuff, but I've been looking forward to reading all of these for a while.


It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

This was a Goodreads recommendation, about a teenager who ends up in a psychiatric hospital.


Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend

This may be the one I am most excited about this week - The Queen And I (1992) is a huge favourite of mine, and Queen Camilla is a kind-of sequel to that, about the Royal Family living on a council estate under a Republican government. I love Sue Townsend's books, so I'm hoping this one will be just as good!


The Laughing Policeman (Martin Beck #4) by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö 

I am a huge fan of Scandinavian fiction, particularly crime, and this is one of the iconic titles that I've been dying to read for a long time.

Of course, I can't start any of these books until I finish A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold, which is getting incredibly tense!


What's in your mailbox this week?

Review: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1), Marissa Meyer

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)


Marissa Meyer

Puffin, 2012

Cinder, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined the handsome Prince Kai's she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation.


Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.

Cinder was my Anna and the French Kiss of 2012: the book that everyone else had already read and already raved about. With Anna, I wish I'd have picked it up sooner. With Cinder... I liked it, but I wasn't blown away.

The concept is interesting. I like fairytale re-tellings, and this one has such an intriguing twist on it: Cinder is a cyborg mechanic, living in a post-World-War-4 world in the Eastern Commonwealth, an amalgam of (what we would recognise today as) Asian countries under one emperor. The setting, however, seemed a little wasted - for great swathes of the novel it seemed like New Beijing could have been absolutely anywhere, just another huge, built up city surviving on advanced technology.

As a character, I liked Cinder, and in particular I liked her relationship with Iko, the android. Prince Kai I could take or leave as a love interest. I found Dr. Erland, who is using Cinder as a test subject for the disease that affects her stepsister and is killing hundreds of citizens, much more interesting, and though his story starts to come out towards the end, I would hope it gets expanded on in the later books.

I found the book as a whole pretty exciting, a fast read that as it got towards the end had me racing through the pages. However, the end is where my biggest problem with the book lies. The "secret" that is revealed is pretty obvious the whole way through (I won't mark out the page where I figured it out, but it was before page 50), and even assuming this is the author's intention... I felt like the clues were too obvious, and by the end I was so annoyed that none of the characters were aware of it that I was rapidly losing interest. I'm all for dramatic tension, but this just made me want to shake the characters.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of interesting elements: the interplanetary tensions, Cinder's battles with her family, the mirroring of the Cinderella story (I particularly liked the old car as "pumpkin"). I enjoyed the book more towards the end, and the final scene makes me want to read the next instalment.

(As a side note: I lost count of how many times characters "craned" their necks or their heads in this book. Odd but true.)

Overall rating: 7/10


Book source: Borrowed from the local library.

Cover Me: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is: top ten book covers.

After compiling this list, I sense a bit of a theme...!

1. The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

... or any of these classic Penguin covers, really. I also liked the cover for The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, which was the same, only green.

2. Death and the Penguin (Andrey Kurkov)

3. Penguin Lost (Andrey Kurkov)

4. Naive. Super. (Erlend Loe)

This is the Norwegian edition, but I much prefer this cover.

5. The Statistical Improbability of Love at First Sight (Jennifer E. Smith)

6. The Sorrows of an American (Siri Hustvedt)

7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Mark Haddon)

8. Mary Ann in Autumn (Armistead Maupin)

9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)

10. The Little Friend (Donna Tartt)

Well, creepy if nothing else!

I'm intrigued to see everyone else's! Happy reading!

Library love

A book I borrowed this week from the university library

As much as I enjoy picking up a brand new shiny book from the bookshop, or finding one in the post, there is something to be said for the journey that a library book goes on before it falls into your hands.

First borrower!

How often do you use your local library?

Review: Twin Spirit (Domino Galaxy #1), Matthew Thompson

Twin Spirit (Domino Galaxy #1)


Matthew Thompson

Domino Galaxy, 2011

Lily is a primitive spirit trapped on Earth, and has been from the day she was born, nine years ago and counting. She can't smell, taste, touch or be heard. Lily wants to experience such sensations. But most of all, she wants her human sister - dead.


Rose discovers her twin sibling in a forest, bathed in moonlight. She and Lily are transported to the afterlife, three billion light years away, within a galaxy called Domino.


On the planet Kiian, the twins go in search of their mother, the key to transforming Lily into a fully formed spirit. However, humans and primitives are not welcome in Domino. Fearless creatures called the Govern seek out the twins to remove them from the afterlife and, in turn, from each other.

By far, my favourite thing about Twin Spirit is the world that it takes place in. As a kid, the books I loved the most were those that made me want to crawl right inside them and experience these weird and wonderful places for myself. This book goes a long way to creating that kind of feeling. The different "sectors" that populate Kiian range from ones based on the Tuscan countryside and a past version of New York, to a sinister rainforest setting, to the Chocolate Kingdom, which was mentioned in passing and I have to say intrigued me greatly!

Against this rich world of the afterlife, twins Rose and Lily are on a mission to find their mother. If Rose is the sensible, slightly wary twin, Lily is all id, impatient and daring and getting all the best lines. As the story progresses, the twins balance each other out, utilising each other's strengths and weaknesses as their adventure becomes increasingly perilous. The supporting characters are equally well drawn: the slightly batty professor, the dangerous bounty hunter brothers, and the "bandits", who, without giving too much away, may have been my favourite of all.

The action is constant, broken up by glimpses into the "living" pasts of some of the characters, which gave some added depth to the story. The majority of the book, though, concentrates on the twins' adventures aboard a steampunk-inspired vessel, attempting to escape their pursuers. The Govern (and the other bad guys) are well-imagined (and pretty creepy), and though there are lots of near misses and skin-of-their-teeth escapes, there are some genuinely dark moments, too.

For me, the final battle felt quite short given the build up, and occasionally I wanted more information of the workings of the afterlife and the wider galaxy, but I suspect that is what comes of being an adult reader of a book aimed at children. There were a couple of instances of jarring words or spelling errors, but these are minor quibbles against a kids' book that has a lot of potential.

Overall rating: 7.5/10


Book source: Bought from Amazon UK


DISCLAIMER: I know the author of Twin Spirit. However, this review was not solicited, and I bought the book myself. This did not affect my review in any way.