A Song of Ice and Fire III: A Storm of Swords

War still rages in the Seven Kingdoms. Robb Stark seeks revenge and turns his back on his mother's wise counsel. Tyrion Lannister strives to maintain authority and honor, but is undermined at every turn by his own sister and father. Sansa Stark is trying to find a way out of captivity in King's Mine, and her sister Arya is making her way through the vast wilderness. It's getting more and more dangerous on the Wall. Jon Snow and his men are threatened by an army of wildlings and supernatural, terrifying creatures. Far across the Narrow Sea, fourteen-year-old Daenerys Storm-Born satirizes the slave cities with the fire of her dragons and advances safely toward the Iron Throne.

The battle scenes are astonishingly real, the characters are carefully profiled, but what draws us irresistibly to this story is the tragedy of the Starks. On the other hand, even more intriguing is the Lannister house, their wickedness and meanness emanate from their every word, and every warm word they say actually means deceit and thirst for power.

Martin took upon himself the task of making fantasy as realistic as possible. And he really succeeds in that. The naive romanticism characteristic of fantasy has completely disappeared from this story. There is no honesty, especially in the world of Western Countries, where loyalty lasts no longer than the blink of an eye, true love exists only in songs, and the wrong people die. However, every line of Martin's series is laced with hope, so we continue to read expecting justice.