I can’t stop! I’m entirely hooked on A Game of Thrones, now. I’m sad that I’m not currently reading one, and that’s right after I finished A Storm of Swords, a true behemoth. I’m also ahead of HBO! Having never actually seen the show, I figured the third season covered the third book (like the first season the first book, and so on), but I was wrong! HBO’s third season only covered half of the third book! Which means that now, I’m a season ahead. Which also means that this post will be irretrievably *full of spoilers*.Because, with the exception of the Red Wedding, most of the interesting stuff happens in the second half of the book.
Like I said when I reviewed A Clash of Kings, I’m not giving a proper summary because there’s no point. You’re either caught up, or you’re not. Or you’re halfway caught up because you’ve been watching the show.
I gave up and started reading this one because HBO’s third season just wouldn’t go away. I knew about the Red Wedding and figured that terrible things happened at Joffrey’s wedding. I also saw something about “Arya’s Revenge” and assumed that it had something to do with her family. I was right on both counts, but not like I thought I was. Because the Red Wedding wasn’t Joffrey’s. It was the other one, in which Catelyn’s brother, Edmure, has to wed a Frey, and the Freys are pissed off because Robb broke a promise to marry another Frey. So everyone shows up at the wedding, thinking that everything will be okay until just after the ceremony, when the Freys slaughter Robb, Catelyn, and Robb’s direwolf. Whaaaat? At that point, I figured that Joffrey’s wedding couldn’t be all that interesting, especially since he wasn’t marrying Sansa, but I was wrong there, too, because Joffrey gets poisoned and dies miserably. I was hoping that he’d be flayed, that it would take a little longer, but I was glad to see him dead because, well, ugh. I’ll at least have to watch that episode when it makes its way to TV.
I guess those were the major highlights. Other surprising things certainly happened. I felt really badly, though, not knowing that HBO only covered the first half, when I told Palmer that I knew why he likes Margaery’s grandmother so much: because she killed Joffrey! Palmer said, “Joffrey is dead?” And then I spoiled the rest of it because I couldn’t help myself. Payback, maybe, for “Spoiler alert! It’s about vampires!” No. I honestly thought he was up-to-date.
So, as I’ve said, I’m hopelessly addicted. I’ll be on to the fourth one soon, then the fifth. It appears that there might only be seven, and when I get to the end, I won’t know what to do with myself. I assume it’ll be along the lines of “Everybody dies!” which seems to be George R.R. Martin‘s goal. I said after the Red Wedding that Martin has killed off so many characters I liked that I don’t really care anymore, and I stand by that statement. That said, I’ll be keeping up from now on because, well, I can’t help myself.
