A Storm of Swords

As the third novel in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords relies heavily on the reader’s familiarity with the major events and character arcs of the first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings.

A Game of Thrones begins when Eddard “Ned” Stark, Lord of Winterfell, is invited by King Robert Baratheon to become his Hand, or key advisor. Years earlier, Ned and Robert fought together to liberate the realm from the tyrannical King Aerys Targaryen. Ned accepts the offer, but soon uncovers a conspiracy: All of Robert’s children with Queen Cersei Lannister are actually the offspring of an incestuous relationship between Cersei and her twin brother, the Kingsguard knight Jaime. Ned tries to bring Cersei to justice, but is foiled when Robert suddenly dies and Cersei’s eldest son, Joffrey, ascends the throne. Joffrey orders Ned’s execution, provoking Ned’s heir, Robb, to declare war. To facilitate the Stark army’s passage south, Robb forges an alliance with Lord Walder Frey, promising to marry one of Walder’s daughters. During an early victory, Robb captures Jaime, which boosts the Northmen’s morale.

A Clash of Kings sees the expansion of the war into a contest for the throne of Westeros. With Joffrey’s lineage in question, Robert’s brothers, Stannis and Renly, each push forward their own claims. The Lord of the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy, who staged a failed rebellion against Robert, also seeks to conquer the North. The result is the War of the Five Kings. Stannis employs the magic of his priestess, Melisandre, to assassinate his brother Renly. Stannis then attempts to launch a naval invasion of King’s Landing, but he is foiled by Cersei’s youngest brother, Tyrion, who leverages the city’s resources to destroy Stannis’s fleet. However, Tyrion’s father, Tywin, is credited with saving the city after he arrives at the battle with the Lannisters’ new allies, House Tyrell.

Concurrent with these events are complementary storylines that take place at a northern border structure called the Wall and the eastern continent, Essos. Ned’s son Jon Snow, who was born out of wedlock, swears an oath to become a Night’s Watch ranger, but is conflicted because of his emotional attachment to the Stark family. One of Jon’s ranging missions beyond the Wall leads to the discovery that nomadic armies of peoples called wildlings—and, more alarmingly, undead warriors called the Others—are massing to assault the Wall. Jon is given a new mission: Infiltrate the wildling armies and gain the trust of their king, Mance Rayder.

On Essos, the last surviving descendants of King Aerys, siblings Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, live on the kindness of various benefactors. To build an army for their return to Westeros, Viserys arranges Daenerys’s marriage to a nomadic chieftain named Khal Drogo. Drogo subverts Viserys’s intentions: He elevates Daenerys to queenly status above her older brother, kills Viserys when he complains, and then dedicates himself to Daenerys’s cause to reclaim the throne of Westeros. When an assassin tries to kill her, Drogo sustains an injury, which develops an infection that eventually leads to his death. An act of magic at Drogo’s funeral pyre causes Daenerys to acquire three dragons, which were considered extinct for centuries. With the help of allies Strong Belwas and Arstan Whitebeard, Daenerys, her protector Jorah Mormont, and her band of horse warriors board ships and sail to acquire an army.