Rating: 
Summary: Just heaping more praise
Review: Just a quick note to add my voice to the chorus. So far this entire series is wonderful. It is well written and action packed with many surprises along the way. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: SUPERIOR FANTASY
Review: I am not going to give a plot summary, because there are any number of other reviewers who have done so and I cannot condense this large and intricate story any better than they have. I normally am not a big fan of fantasy. I reluctantly bought A GAME OF THRONES because I was tired of all my friends telling me what a great book I was missing.I was under the misapprehension when I pruchased volume one that the series was going to be a trilogy. After getting hooked on volume two, I discovered there were going to be at least three and possibly five more volumes. This is really upsetting. About 20 years ago I got roped into reading Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe thinking it was a single novel. It turned out to be a tetralogy that was so good that I was dying of impatience for each volume to come out. The same thing is happening with this series. A CLASH OF KINGS is one of those rare series novels where the second installment is superior to the first. I do not know how many volumes Martin can keep me hooked, but he is going to get at least one more out of me which is one of the reasons I am upset, volume three is not yet in PaperBack, and I am normally loathe to pay that much for a book. I think I will have to. One of the reasons the book is so good is that almost all of the main characters are finely drawn and most of the secondary characters are also well drawn. In the first novel, I found Sansa Stark, to be an insipid, prissy, little girl. I really did not enjoy reading her sections at all. Martin has her, and most of the other characters grow and learn. Much to my amazement, by the end of this volume I was empathizing with her. The same is true of her mother, Catelyn. In volume one I found her cold and distant. In this volume I came to a better understanding of her and had more sympathy for her. My favorite character in both books is Tyrion. He is very reminiscent of Hugo's hunchback in that he is considered by most to be a monster because he is a dwarf. Martin makes the same point Hugo did, that humanity has nothing to do with external appearances. Tyrion is certainly the most interesting of all the characters. My least favorite was Theon Greyjoy, who was a ward/hostage of the Starks in volume one. I think Martin went a little too far in showing the weakness of his character early on to justify what happens later on. It felt contrived to me. My second least favorite was Daenerys, the Dragon Queen, mainly because I could not stop wincing every time she said, "Blood of my blood." Unfortunately, she said it too often. I can go on and on about even the secondary characters. Peter Baelish [Littlefinger] Varys, the eunuch, and Cersei, the Queen Mother were all wickedly enjoyable. Sandor Clegane, the Hound, was all too brutally human. Tyrion's quips and self mockery throughout the book are one of the reasons I kept reading it. In one scene he intercepts a letter to Cersei, reads it and then delivers it to her. Cersei, thinking herself to be in charge, asks why she did not get it first to which Tyrion replies, "What else is a Hand for, but to hand you things." Cersei is depraved but at times extremely funny. While she constantly ridicules Sansa, the point of the ridicule is to show this naive little girl how to survive. "Do you want to be loved, Sansa?" "Everyone wants to be loved." "I see flowering hasn't made you and brighter," said Cersei. "Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is a poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same." Equally sharp and witty is Lady Olena. She is affectionately known as the queen of Thorns. Of Renly the would be king, she says, "Gallant, yes, and charming, and very clean. He knew how to dress, and he knew how to smile, and he knew how to bathe, and somehow he got the notion that this made him fit to be king." The prose and characterization are excellent. The action was realistically portrayed. Martin is masterful in depicting scenes that give insight and emotional impact. To give two examples, Arya gets captured and brutalized and realizes that she is not a "fierce little boy with a sword, but just a grey mouse of a girl with a pail." Or Varys for reasons he himself does not know, tells Tyrion how he came to be castrated. While not all the pieces have come together, the hints given throughout both books when finally understood give a richness and a texture to it, and in some way makes the magic more believable. Fantasy normally does not suspend my disbelief. These books are exceptions and exceptional. At 900 plus pages, it cannot be called a quick read, but it moved along briskly. I had quite a few very short nights and finished it in 4 days. This happens to me rarely.
Rating:
Summary: Keeps you absolutely riveted, enthralled, engrossed....
Review: Martin's first foray into the Song of Ice and Fire set the stage with a very good set of characters and a very intricate plot. However, it only gets more interesting in this second book of the series. In this book, the War brewing between the contenders for the Throne explodes, with well scripted battle scenes as well as the behind the scenes pre-battle intrigue. Off over the sea, dragons have been reborn, and magic is slowly returning to the land with sometimes comical results. To top it all off, that one underdeveloped character in Book one we all knew somehow we couldnt trust, (Theon), proves us all correct in one of the most heart-rending examples of betrayal I have ever read. Characters seemingly on the sidelines in the first book come to the fore, adding their own well developed personalities and ambitions to the already tempestuous brew. Magic and Sorcery rear their (so far) ugly heads, as a mysterious female priest of the Red God enters the picture and begins to tip the scale in the early stages of the War in favor of one of the conflicts main participants. Tyrion, the deformed genius, steps to center stage, and he turns out to be a likeable rogue whose blemishes aren't all physical, but who demonstrates he has a heart and soul under all that scheming, Lannister exterior. Jon takes a bit of a back seat in the action until the end of the book, while his brothers receive more character development. Sansa, the most annoying character, stays annoying, though perhaps a little wiser.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome Characters and Plot
Review: A Clash of Kings is the second book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. This book has much less magic and a lot more political intrigue than normal fantasy. The cultures of the people in this book are very rich. It takes place largely in a country called the Seven Kingdoms, which is run with a feudal system like in medieval Europe with lords, ladies, knights, and kings.
The characters are very complex, realistic and numerous. The author gives you a good understanding of the people by writing each chapter from the point of view of a character. This allows the reader to understand many characters very well without the author explaining them to you directly. One thing that makes the characters realistic is that they aren't completely good or completely bad. One example of a good and bad character in A Clash of Kings is the ten-year-old girl Arya. In the first book in this series she had a loving heart, and just wants to have fun. In the second book many bad things happened to her and her hatred against people that have hurt her becomes a very strong part of her life. She starts praying every night for those people who were cruel to her to die. In comparison most books have a hero who is really good and a villain who is really bad. A Clash of Kings like the other two published books in this series has an unpredictable yet conceivable plot. The story is really a composite of many subplots that draw a complex picture of an overall plot. A huge fault in most fantasy books today is that the main characters repeatedly go through life threatening circumstances but don't die. One way the story in A Clash of Kings is realistic is that good central characters in it die. But the bad side of this is that when a character who you love dies you'll feel numb for a few minuets or you will just want to lay down in bed and cry. At least those are some of the things that happened to me in this book and the ones before and after it. A bad thing about this book is that the sex is very graphic. I would advise not giving this book to a child or a young teenager because of it. If you read the book yourself I recommend skipping ahead a page or two every time you encounter a sex seen. The first and third books in this unfinished series have a lot of sex in them too. Religion seems to play a major part of this book. There are three major religions that the characters believe in. The first, the tree religion, is the predominant religion in the northern part of the Seven Kingdoms. Practisers of it pray to weirwoods, a type of tree that has white bark, red sap and carvings of a mouth and eyes. The trees answer back by how the wind moves. They are referred to as the "old gods". The people in the southern part of the Seven Kingdoms believe in the "new gods" and worship and pray to them in temples. The third religion, which is common in several regions outside of the Seven Kingdoms, believes in one god called R'hllor. This god seems to be much more powerful than any of the other gods in this book and also much more evil. One reason I think R'hllor is an evil god is because his religion has evil practices in it. One example is that R'hllor's followers throw people on bon fires to give their god glory. After reading all three published books in A Song of Fire and Ice I believe that this series is not Christian. As a Christian and an avid fantasy reader I look for Christian fantasy books but I haven't found many. The Chronicles of Narnia (a great series for all ages) by C. S. Lewis, the Oneprince by Bill Hand, and Children in the Night by Harold Myra (one of the most imaginative of any of the fantisies I've ever read) are the only Christian fantasy books I've discovered. I really wish there was more available. To sum up A Clash of Kings the people and plot of this book are interesting, realistic, and complex, but there is too much sex.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Wordy - But I can't resist coming back for more
Review: Overall I enjoyed most of the book quite a bit; however at several points I considered quitting the series because I think some details should have been cut out to move the story along quicker. The story line with Daenerys hardly made any progress during the book, yet we keep coming back to it. I thought a lot of the details of the Arya story line were excessive also. These are probably the two biggest examples, but I really think this problem permeates other areas of the book as well. Having said all of that, one of my favorite scenes, which actually made me laugh out loud, involved some of the details of Theon's return to his native land, which others might view as unnecessary. There was also a scene with Daenerys in a magic house that could easily have been left out with no damage to the plot, but it did make for interesting reading. I guess this work must be a challenge to edit. I do find myself caring about several of the characters. Tyrion is by far my favorite. Arya comes in second (although, as I mentioned before, I feel there is far too much detail provided on her situation). I always enjoyed coming back to the Tyrion story line and found the interaction between Tyrion and Cersei to be amusing, interesting and suspenseful - you just never know when one is going to make a mistake that will put him/her at the mercy(?) of the other ! The Kingslayer also shows some promise as being an interesting character. I look forward to reading more about him in the next installment. I finished Clash a few days ago and initially considered laying off the series for a while; however I have to admit that I miss getting my daily updates on the progress of the characters during my train commute - so I think I may need to get it sooner than expected !
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: The is the second (The first being "A Game of Thrones") in a series that has rejuvenated my interested in medieval fantasy as a genre. The characters are realistic and compelling. The plot is continually surprising. And, it's mature and avoids the usual fantasy mistakes of 30 pound swords and other such rubbish. The general plot involves a reworking of the War of the Roses in a fantasy world, though there is much more happening that doesn't become completely apparent until this book. If anything, this one is better than the first. I cannot recommend this series too highly. Read it at once.
Rating:
Summary: keeps characters and readers on their toes and guessing!
Review: Good and evil, dark and light swirl to gether to be become as gray as the wolf the graces the banners of house Stark. There are characters on all sides who I can't help rootingfore even though they are often on opposing sides. Of course, a character might swich causes at the next twist of the plot- you just never know. It is great!
I also really enjoy the fantastic writing. I hope they put these books on audio *unabradged*!
Rating:
Summary: The KING!
Review: Now THIS is a good series! I was getting so tired of, "oh look, its ANOTHER dragon!" fantasies. This book could ALMOST be real history. The characters (all 11,000 of them) are VERY well developed and I found myself laughing out loud or losing my breath in astonishment. This book hits you like a proverbial ton of bricks. Be warned though, this book is "difficult". The plot twists are intense and the characters are plentiful. Sometimes its hard to keep up. I strongly suggest this whole series to anyone wanting to read a very believable, in-depth story. It might be boring to those fans of "classic" fantasy where a dragon, swordfight, goblin, troll etc pops up on every single page... So mature readers only please. Congratulations, Martin, on one hell of a series...you've become my favorite fantasy writer.
Rating:
Summary: Martin is a Literary Genius!!!
Review: George R.R. Martin is easily my favorite author. "A Clash of Kings" blows almost every book that I've read out of the water because Martin is such an awesome author. This is the second book in the series titled "A Song of Ice and Fire" and picks up right after the first book in the series. This novel starts off with a very riveting prologue and then takes us back to our favorite characters and the events that are taking place. If you haven't read the first book in this series then you may not understand the plot. If this is the case, go to the page for "A Game of Thrones" and you will be familiar with this series. This book picks up after book one and continues the story that started in the first book. Stannis Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, Joffrey Baratheon, and Robb Stark are naming themselves the king of Westeros and war has started. This book has a lot of fighting, political intrigue, wonderful characterisation, suspense, and an awesome storyline. Martin really starts to kill off certain characters in this book and the people being killed will be the people that you would think the least of. By the end of this book many things will have changed from the beginning and you will be shocked by the events that took place. With this book comes more magical things than what was in the first book. Many magical doings take place and are major to the plot. There are no quests and most of this book is based on sword fighting, politics, and a captivating storyline. These things make for a refreshing break from the usual fantasy that you see today. What makes "A Clash of Kings" interesting, and the other two novels in this series for that matter, is the way that the story is told. The story is broken up into chapters told from the point of view of the main characters and because of this you are not stuck with the point of view of one character throughout the whole entire story. In adiition to the characters that survived in "A Game of Thrones" there are two new characters whose points of views are told. Read this book to see who the new two people are. For those of you who think that no other book can beat "A Game of Thrones," you're wrong. "A Clash of Kings" is only better than the first book because the plot develops more and thickens, you'll become much closer the the characters, and George R.R. Martin writes brilliantly. This book should only be read if you have read the first novel in this series. If I were you, I would order both books 2 and 3 of "A Song of Ice and Fire" (asuuming that you've read book 1) because when you are done with this book you are going to want to dive right into book 3. This book is a new type of fantasy novel and should not be missed by any fan of the genre. This book will do everything BUT disappoint. Happy Reading!
Rating:
Summary: Not just good fantasy, a great book overall
Review: Other than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I hadn't really had any exposure to the Fantasy genre, nor did I care to. I'm more into more popular fiction. A couple of years ago a friend recommended A Game of Thrones to me, which I quickly bought, but I never really got around to reading it until about a month ago.
First off, Martin is just plain good at writing. He is able to have 8 or 9 different characters have different storylines at the same time, but it doesn't get (too) confusing. The action, though occasionally bloody at times (though it didn't really bother me), was taut and exciting, with both intimate close combat and vast overall battles portrayed clearly.
Secondly, Martin has a bunch of characters you can actually care about, yet he doesn't favor any particular side. Main characters are as likely to die as any of the supporting cast, and even the "good guys" have some negative qualities.
As I said before, I haven't read much fantasy, but even basing my comparison on other fiction, this really is a great series. Those with patience and a love of great writing should pick this up. Can't wait for the third book to come out in paperback!
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