And being a star in this book will not save your life. For anyone who has read the first two books in this series, these changes in fortune should come as no surprise. After all, we've seen the fall of three kings (Robert, Renly and Viserys), the Hands (Jon Arryn, Ned Stark and Tyrion Lannister), along with many others great and small.

THE MIGHTY FALL:

Two more kings fall in this book. The fall of King Greyjoy of the ironmen is only presented in reports to the other players. His fall puts in question the ironmen's conquest of the North as well as which brother/son/daughter/uncle will take his throne.

King Robb Stark's fall begins with his moral decay. In breaking his sworn word to his men, I think he opens the doorway of his doom. And then in trying to set it right, he walks through the door and embraces it.

THE MEEK RISE:

We see the rise of Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen Across the Water. We see how she is consolidating her power and get some insight into what kind of ruler she wants to be. And maybe into what kind of ruler she will become as the two don't alway coincide.

Lord Petyr Baelish's plans are starting to come to fruition. He's been named the Lord of Harrenhal, a haunted castle which King Robb's men have possession of. An empty honor to most of the small council but it brings his status high enough to win the hand of Lady Lysa Arryn, widow of a former Hand of the King and overlady of the Eyrie. The Eyrie has yet to declare a side in the war but are now in good position to do so. Which way they will jump is harder than ever to say since Petyr took Lady Sansa Stark when he left.

REBIRTHS AND GROWTH:

Martin added chapters from Jamie Lannister's viewpoint into this book. From the beginning he's been called Kingslayer behind his back while being shown respect to his face as a sworn brother of the King's Guard. Not only did he kill the king he was supposed to protect, he threw Brandon Stark, a young boy, out a tower window. Now we get a glimpse of what made him like that. It's enough to turn him from a monster into a sympathetic monster. But he does have his own brand of honor and his struggles come from trying to live within its confines.

To my mind, the prize for the second most growth would go to Samwell Tarly. He's a young man, disowned by his father for being a coward, and sent to "take the Black" and live out his life guarding the Wall. He came to the wall a craven boy, afraid of his own shadow and unable to function. Here, he fights his way back from beyond the Wall, facing the Others (kind of like very cold zombies, only meaner and faster). His killing one of these creatures wins him the title "the Slayer". Not only does he make it through, he does it while protecting a woman and infant. Now that's character growth!

For a calmer growth, there is Brandon Stark, Bran the Broken. He's lost the use of his legs after being thrown from a tower (see Jamie Lannister, above) but is now moving North to find someone to teach him to use his gifts. His way is not so dangerous as some but does take a kind of courage we don't often see.

CLOSING:

In defense of Martin's braided story style: I just don't see how he could have written these books any other way. The storyline is to broad with too much action in widely separated places. If there was only one viewpoint character, we'd miss out on over half the action or spend the whole book reading messages sent by crow.

We'd also miss out on the thoughts of the other characters. This is one of the ways Martin shows the internal reasoning of his characters. Without it, we wouldn't believe that Jamie Lannister would go back to save Brienne once he was away and safe, but knowing how he thinks of honor makes it more believable.

Recommended: Yes