★★★★★ No one gets plot armor

A Storm of Swords

George R.R. Martin

** spoiler alert **

I bought audiobooks A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords 5-Oct-2005. Those were, at the time, all published books of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Not long after (2-Feb 2006, to be precise), I bought and read A Feast for Crows (in hardback). I then decided to quit reading, to resume only if and when Martin finished the blasted series, having been burnt by Wheel of Time. A Feast for Crows made it obvious to me that Martin didn't have a clue how to finish this thing. He wasn't winding things up: we were getting more subplots and more characters, and focusing more and more on relatively minor characters. As of 13-Feb-2024, Martin has still not polished off this sucker, and I still haven't read past book 4.

Of the four I've read, this one, A Storm of Swords is, I think, the best and most important. I suspect I will still think so when the series is finished. I say that because of one event that occurs in it: the Red Wedding. I marked this whole review a spoiler, and here it comes. The main heroes of the first three books (and indeed of the entire series, if the TV series is to be trusted) are the Stark family, rulers of the Kingdom of the North. Ned Stark, who at the beginning is King of the North, is murdered fairly early in the story. His heir, Robb Stark makes war on the Lannisters, Ned's murderers. Robb is quite obviously the hero of the story, the one destined to win against the odds and become king of Westeros.

At a wedding, Robb Stark and his bannermen are betrayed and murdered. Yes, our hero Robb dies. He really dies: there is no mistaken identity trick, no magical resurrection. Robb is killed, and he's over forever. Of course the book series has not yet ended, so it is still possible in theory that Martin will somehow bring Robb back. Nothing like that happens in the TV shows, and I will be very surprised if Robb is resurrected in the final book(s).

This is of course a significant event in the story of Westeros, but it is, I think, even more significant for the story-telling. After the Red Wedding, everything becomes more significant. You the reader know that anything can happen. No one gets plot armor. It's like Real Life. *YOU", reader, could die tomorrow. There is no author writing your story who has decided that your part in the story you're acting in will continue past tomorrow. (Even if you believe your fate has been written by some God, you don't know what he or she has written -- it's entirely possible that your own Red Wedding or traffic accident or sudden cardiac arrest is in tomorrow's script.)

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