The Starks are scattered.
Robb Stark may be King in the North, but he must bend to the will of the old tyrant Walder Frey if he is to hold his crown. And while his youngest sister, Arya, has escaped the clutches of the depraved Cersei Lannister and her son, the capricious boy-king Joffrey, Sansa Stark remains their captive.
Meanwhile, across the ocean, Daenerys Stormborn, the last heir of the Dragon King, delivers death to the slave-trading cities of Astapor and Yunkai as she approaches Westeros with vengeance in her heart.
Rating: 5 Stars
Positives: Oh my lord, just when I thought George R. R. Martin couldn't get any better he goes and pulls this out of the bag. I'd worried that maybe he was losing his touch after the severe lack of deaths in Steel and Snow, especially as the War of Five Kings is still raging, but Blood and Gold certainly made up for that. I'd say the war is all but won by the Lannisters now, but I won't ruin it anymore by telling you exactly who has perished.
With this many notable deaths however I think we can expect to see a noticeable shift in power now, with some rising higher than ever before and others falling so much further. There are some new powers emerging such as the Tyrell family who may pose a threat, and I'm intrigued to see what Littlefinger's end game is.
What I really loved however was the focus on the Lannisters in this book. Not only does Tyrion gain the chance to defy Lord Tywin, but we also get a real insight to Jaime. We don't just see him as Cersei's twin or the Kingslayer anymore, we see the real man and who he is. I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I may have vowed not to get attached to anymore characters but I may make an exception for Jaime. Plus we see how the Lannisters deal with loss, and I'm surprised at how normally they seem to react. There's no real grief there but I guess we'll have to see how things progress.
Negatives: I'm going to go off on a little bit of a rant here. There was one death in Blood and Gold that I really didn't agree with and I'm more than unhappy about it. I understand why we have the fight for the Wall, but did Ygritte really have to be killed off? To me she brought out the best in Jon Snow because she gave him a better sense of self worth. With Ygritte he was no longer seen as Ned Stark's bastard, and I don't think Jon was ready to lose her. That said though his loss of Ygritte may help him to grow even more as a man, and with the war that is coming Jon definitely needs to grow.
Would I recommend this book? Yes I would. But I'll guarantee by the end of it that you'll be cursing George R. R. Martin for at least one or two of the deaths in this installment.
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