What an incredible third volume in the Song of Ice and Fire trilogy! George R.R. Martin has outdone himself. The first book was excellent. The second was still good, which is more than can be said of many sequels. But the third! The third was perhaps the best of the three! Whereas in the first volume the reader is as of yet unfamiliar with the characters, and in the second, events are yet gearing up for major events to occur, the third ends with more cliffhangers than I've yet seen in a fantasy fiction series!

As I've said before, these books lead you to bond with characters because you learn early on of their mortality. The author does not hesitate to kill major characters when the plot demands it. Thus, you worry for characters of which you are fond when their situations grow dire, and you grow even more angry at characters who show themselves by increment to be more and more dastardly.

By the third volume, George R.R. Martin is at last showing some overt magics, and the calamity we've dimly seen coming since the first book is finally drawing near. The Others are nigh.