Rating: 
Summary: More Intense
Review: I found this book to be amazingly good. Martin demonstrates his ability to tell a story without being burdened by a need to preserve well-liked characters (I don't think that's really a spoiler; there are a lot of cool characters, and many people die in these books all the time), a failing which has rendered the work of Robert Jordan into unreadable drivel since there is no longer any focus on characters. Martin, by contrast, keeps the reader in a mobile viewpoint in a dynamic world where sometimes people die (shocking as that may be in a world populated by well-armed and powerful individuals). Plot twists abound, and my verdict is it is superiour to the previous volume. Though the previous volume had more of a chore as well, as it had to establish setting from nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking.
Review: The continuing tales of the Starks, the Lannisters and the rest is told in the same rich style as the first book. The war has taken the land, there are ominous happenings in the North, and dragons have returned to the world. The knot in my stomach only got bigger by the end of the book. Whenever things looked hopeful, something went wrong. Great plans came crashing down. The heroes are not all heroic, the villains not all villainous. Once more, there isn't a clean division between the "good guys" and the "bad guys." This series is written in such a way that each new chapter takes you to the stroy of another of the main characters, and so you follow everyone's story alongside one another. Often in this style of writing, I get frustrated when leaving one of the "good" storylines for one of the "so-so" storylines. I feel like I'm waiting it out until I get back to the interesting characters again. Not so here. By the second page of each chapter, I've forgotten about everyone but the current character. The story is dark and at the end there is no resolution. Not even a small one. This series was meant to be read as a series and the books don't stand on their own. This is fine with me.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as engaging as A Game of Thrones
Review: A Clash of Kings contains many of the elements that made A Game of Thrones so enjoyable to read; most notably the quality of its writing, the depth of its characters, and the plausibility of its dialogue. However, while A Clash of Kings amplifies the epic quality of the series, so too does it amplify many of the more minor faults from A Game of Thrones. Martin's mechanic of focusing on a different character in each chapter continues to entertain, but several of the plot threads remain as extraneous and dull as ever. In a series that, so far, has concentrated on the battle between Lannisters, Baratheons, and Starks for the right to rule the Seven Kingdoms, the characters of Jon Snow, Dany, and Theon Greyjoy are of dubious value, particularly when more pertinent and engrossing characters such as Brienne, Varys, and Ser Rodrick remain underdeveloped. True, A Clash of Kings is only the second book of a six-part series, but it is unreasonable to include so little plot convergence within over 1500 pages of material. Dany's subplot, in particular, remains not only irrelevant, but also exasparatingly devoid of new developments, and her most intriguing chapter (a meeting with the warlocks' guild) is uncharacteristically muddled at best. Some segments of A Clash of Kings display the same brilliance of A Game of Thrones. The chapters involving Arya and Ser Davos Seaworth, in particular, are a joy to read. However, Martin jettisons the methodical and logical plot progression found
in most of the book in favor of bizarre and indulgent sequences at times. This is particularly infuriating as regards Stannis' red priestess and Tyrion's late heroics. As a result, A Clash of Kings consists of long intervals with no plot development interspersed with small segments in which the entire story is changed instantaneously. Perhaps the book's greatest flaw is the ever-increasing despair attendant to the surviving characters of House Stark, who might be considered the story's protagonists. I am not naive enough to expect comedy in the midst of warfare, but by the end of A Clash of Kings an overwhelming amount of tragedy has engulfed the Starks, often abruptly and without sufficient explanation. Such prolonged hopelessness was certainly also utilized by Tolkien, but whereas the three books of the Lord of the Rings were released simultaneously and totalled approximately 1500 pages, The Song of Ice and Fire Series seems destined to exceed 4500 pages and a decade of production time. A more minor problem with A Clash of Kings is the more frequent inclusion of explicit sexual situations. Adult material is not necessarily inappropriate in many books, but Martin's use of such situations is both sporadic enough and graphical enough to appear gratuitous, while still causing me to be seriously reticent to recommend the series to an adolescent or even to my parents (doubtless they would be equally uncomfortable recommending it to me). Therefore, while Martin's writing remains as technically flawless as ever, and while A Clash of Kings merits reading simply because the rest of the series is predicated upon it, the wonderfully engaging quality of A Game of Thrones is much rarer in a Clash of Kings. The series must improve to warrant continued interest.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal conflict
Review: After setting the stage in A GAme of Thrones, Martin has removed the wals and conflict sweeps over the World. A brisk pace of writing doesn't fail to be deep and original. The black and white is fading to gray and I am interested in how it will continue.
Rating:
Summary: Martin is the undisputed King of Fantasy
Review: Everything you've ever heard about Martin is true. He's crafted, hands down, the best modern fantasy series ever. There's really no one even close. He is the heir apparent to Tolkien, and surpassing him in my opinion. There are not words enough to describe how much Martin has completely redefined everything that exists about Fantasy and in fact Fiction, period. Read the rave reviews, read all the critical acclaim from critics who are as blown away as the fans are. There are reviews here that can explain things better than I, I simply needed to add another rave for this incredible work of art know as A Song of Ice and Fire. What's great about the series? Wow, what's not. Martin has by far the best characters, best plot, best dialogue. Above all, his ablilty to be incredibly unpredicable and original is his greatest strength. You will NEVER know where he's going. He NEVER does what you expect. He follows no rules. The good guys don't win, the bad guys usually do. Your favorite characters, and I'm talking MAIN characters will die, with their murderers never being brought to justice. He portrays a frustrating, yet realistic brilliance that will drive you mad, yet at the same time totally consume you. This series is very adult, and very dark... and I mean dark. The suffering and violence and injustice and sadness that takes place in this book is truely heart wrenching. The pure emotional intensity pushes your very threshold of what you can possibly endure as a reader. No other fanasy book will envoke the emotions you will feel during the course of this masterwork of a series. As a word of caution, this series is also extremely graphic sexually and language wise, but not to the point of being gratuitous. It's just a realistic portrayal, and it's not always pretty or fair. More often than not it isn't. This book, A Clash of Kings elevates the story began in A Game of Thrones and follows the the 7 Kingdoms as it begins to fracture and war with each other. The world is beginning to crumble, and evil is gathering. Let me descibe one thing about Martin's writing style that makes it interesting. Every chapter is told through the point of view of one his chosen "point of view characters". For instance in this book there are something like 15. Each chapter will say "Jon" at the beginning, or "Daenarys", or "Tyrion". What this does is allow you to see an event through one person's eyes, form your opinions and judgements, then see things through the other person's eyes in the next chapter and totally crush the opionins and judgments you just formed. Really brilliant stuff. You'll never know who is the good guy and who is the bad.. because they don't really exist. Everyone is flawed. One of the hooks is Martin adds and subtracts POV (point of view) characters each book. It's always exiciting to know who you're going to have the opportunity to look into their core being and see their actual feelings and motivations. This book isn't just reccommended, it's required reading. Don't even think, just buy it. I can only congratulate you at the same time as apologize. You will feel the joy, laughter, and horric agony of the 7 Kingdoms. You'll want to write a raving review just like everyone else. I apologize because you will have to wait in agony like other readers as we wait for Martin to write the next installment. He's almost done with book 4 of this 6 book series. It has taken him over 3 years to write book 4. Waiting 3 years+ for the next installment really is torture, which is why I can only offer my apologies in that regard. The time it takes to write his books gives you an idea of the depth and complexity.
Rating: 
Summary: Test Your Endurance! Can you continue to care?!
Review: Oh, gods... I'm not sure how Martin has bagged such critical acclaim with these books. His stories progress at a glacial pace. This would not be so bad if these were enjoyable characters to follow. They arent. Or rather, the majority of them aren't (Tyrion is a pleasant exception). If he picked a single character, that might make for interesting reading. Or if the characters were dynamic, that would be alright. The characters are too often like pieces of flotsam tossed on rough seas. Life is like that sometimes. But it doesnt make for good storytelling.
The books I'm reminded of most to compare these to are Brin's Galactic Civilization books. He also split the story among many characters. But he did it in cliff-hanger serials with scrappy characters you wanted to like. Martin's characters are an often luckless assorment of not very interesing or fun people with lives that manage to be somehow boring against grand spectacle.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, but a bit slower than Book 1
Review: It was good, yes. Good in the manner that GRRM makes everything he touches into an epic saga of love, war, and grim circumstances. This novel was somewhat slower than the first volume; it covers a lot more politics. We are allowed a more intimate view of serveral characters (refreshingly, not all the perspectives are reprisals of the first novel), but some of it seems rather dry and forced. If you enjoyed the first novel, DO read this one, too. It's worth the hours (and hours and hours) you'll invest in it... to get to the next book, in which the storyline picks up considerably.
Rating:
Summary: Saved by the Bell
Review: It's not surprising that Martin needed magic coffee to write this book; I wish I'd had some magic coffee to read it -- even more devilishly detailed than the first in the series, this book requires some serious dedication from its readers. In the end, one is rewarded with some focused development of plots. The plot thickens, deepens, twists and turns, and takes on new shapes. Many, many people die in this book, but the reader is also introduced to what must seem like a thousand new names. The pinnacle of this for me was the battle in the bay at King's Landing, when we are suddenly required to remember the names of the ships of two entire fleets in order to make sense of the battle (I skimmed this section, needless to say). The battle was confusing - I suppose battles always are, but the story doesn't have to be. A bit more editing ... perhaps? In similar construct to the first book, Martin dedicates each chapter to a character. Some new ones come about, and some more interesting than others. I personally felt that Dany contributed nothing to this second book, and her role could have been reduced greatly (or her plot should have advanced more quickly). But on the other hand, the book has some extremely interesting developments: Tyrion the Imp, for one. And some of the Stark children, such as Jon, Arya and Bran also find new twists of fate. Largely, the book is overwhelmed by names of "sers" and "houses" (as was the last book), and an overdevelopment of the plot. Readers certainly need to be awake to plow their way through this one - no bedtime reading here. What saves the book is that the pace and interest picks up again towards the end, and we can only hope that this will continue in the third book. For avid fantasy readers, and those that like extended sagas and series, this will be a fantastic read.
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Rating:
Summary: Gets better and better
Review: This series keeps getting better all the time. The characters are realistically created, and their personas develop, sometimes in surprising fashion.
As opossed to conventional series, each character can and will surprise you, at the most unexpected moment. For instance,the evil Jaime, turns out not to be so evil after all, the Imp is actually quite honest, once you get to know him, and so on.
As you move through the story, you see that the preconceived notions that you have, are shattered time and again. But the characters remain true to their motivations. It is this consistency that is so hard to create and maintain by most writers. If the character is consistent, then he won't surprise you.
Mr. Martin however can and will keep his characters consistent, and yet, they surprise you, once and again.
It is unbelievable the dexterity with which he does so.
Rating:
Summary: One more 5-star
Review: I have nothing profound to add. Martin is the master of fantasy and this one is no exception. I just wanted to add my own 5-star to help drown out the clueless few who had the nerve to give it only four. I know literary taste is subjective, but I truly cannot imagine how anybody could not love this story (this entire series--thus far--for that matter).
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