A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin

Fantasy. Audio from Random House Audio. Published in 2000. Recorded in 2004. Read by Roy Dotrice. 46 hours and 42 minutes. Purchased from Audible.com.

Third in the series A Song of Fire and Ice. If you are familiar at all with the Veggie Tales movies, you'll be familiar with the phrase "I laughed; I cried; it moved me Bob." spoken (in all seriousness) by Larry the cucumber in reference to story told earlier in the show. I could say the same for these books. This series has got me hooked. Now comes the agony of waiting for the rest of the books to come out.

This is not a PG-13 series, and you will not enjoy it if you expect the heroes to all live to the end. When he killed off some of my favorite characters (main characters) in this book it took me quite by surprise and really shook me up. When situations come up where there are choices to be made by the characters, I'm never sure what path Martin will take them on. I think I'd be emotionally drained if every book I read was like this, but a roller coaster ride of a book occasionally is okay by me.

If anyone out there in cyberspace has read this series, I'd love to hear what you've thought of it so far.

Publisher's summary:
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world....

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .

To buy from amazon.co.uk, click here: A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)
from amazon.com, click here: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)