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Summary: Continuing one of the best fantasy series ever
Review: Just wanted to chime in with everyone else. This book picks up where A GAME OF THRONES left off. It continues with it's amazing detail, action, and gritty reality. I love this series and can't wait until "A Feast For Crows" comes out.
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Summary: George R.R. Martin, A Song of Fire and Ice Books 1 thru 3
Review: George R. R. Martin builds well rounded characters. He keeps the reader on the edge with his many twists and turns. All three books were real page-turners. His style of following several characters is made easy with each chapter focussing on one main character's events. I and my teenage son can't wait for the forth book to come out in April 2003.
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Summary: Honk! Bandwagon... coming through!
Review: I know I'm just jumping on the bandwagon at this point, but I love this series so much!If you're going to write a 900+ page brick of a novel and your plan is to plump it out with tedious descriptions of clothing, relentless introduction of characters never to be seen again and annoyingly overused mannerisms, you'll eventually lose my respect as a writer. On the other hand, if those 900+ pages are totally crammed with character development and plot advancement, action and intrigue... you must be George R.R. Martin! How this man does it I'll never know, but he hasn't once faltered. There's never a smidgen of doubt that he is totally in control of the plot, the characters, and the mood. Every novel moves the story forward; every character develops and matures -- unless he is cut down instead. Sometimes a beloved character gets the axe and you have to put the book down till you get past your anger at the author; sometimes a hated character gets his comeuppance and you hiss an exultant "Yesss!!!", disturbing the person sleeping next to you. What never happens is that you get bored and give up on the series. At least, that never happens to me. Write on, GRRM! Five more books? Fifteen? If they're all half this good, I'll be in line to buy them.
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Summary: The battles begin..
Review: "A Clash of Kings" keeps going where Martin's other book "A Game of Thrones" left off. This book, like his others, has plenty of action, intrigue, adventure to keep any fantasy fan hooked. Martin does a wonderful job bringing us to terms with the characters that he has created. His unique character-based chapters don't take away from the story at all, they only succeed in planting the action right infront of the reader. There are now four kings buying for the rulership of the kingdoms. Stannis, Renley, Joffrey, and Robb Stark. All of them want what the others have. But to make matters more exciting, the blood of the old rulers is returning. Dany, Mother of Dragons, is returning to reclaim her rightful place on the throne. The kingdoms seem to be in chaos, who will come out on top. While "A Game of Thrones" seemed more of a precurser to future events. This book actually brings those events to life. Armies meet, kings fall, there is no end to the action. "A Clash of Kings" succeeds in bringing together real life emotions, with everyday horrors. This book moves the epic story along, and some things are solved, while other problems are just beginning. Who will come out on top? What of the problems in the North? And what about those words that should freeze the blood of the battling kings... "Winter is coming..."
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Summary: From epic to dragging
Review: The sequel continues to draw the epic pictures of the wall, the kingdoms etc.. You also find the parallel development of several story line quite interesting - fow a while. But after a while you start wondering
- how many story lines are developped ?
- which are meaningful in the end (there is at least one partial story which does'nt matter at all)?
- would I like to read the single stories if they weren't cut into slices (although the cutting mostly means nothing because when you read the following slice of one story line you more than once find out that the sclices of other story lines you read up to that didn't interfere)?
So after a while you get the feeling that the book starts dragging to an (undefined) end
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Summary: The continuation of a masterpiece
Review: George R.R. Martin's A CLASH OF KINGS continues where A GAME OF THRONES left off. With this second installation of the series, there is no question that A Song of Ice and Fire establishes itself as one of the premiere fantasy epics ever written. For those who enjoyed A GAME OF THRONES, A CLASH OF KINGS is an absolute must-buy. The only downside might be that you will do nothing but read it (which doesn't bode too well for your social life or you personal hygiene). The second book contains some of the same elements as the first: (1) a very realistic world comprised of believable characters, none of which are purely good or evil;
(2) bad things do happen to the main characters;
(3) a captivating and flowing style written from multiple points-of-view, each of which has a unique voice;
(4) more details about the continent of Westeros and the Seven Cities beyond the sea;
(5) the same gripping plot, which once again explodes with unpredictable events (which are still believable!); In short, BUY THIS BOOK NOW if you have read and enjoyed A GAME OF THRONES. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Excellent! No let down...
Review: A friend of mine suggested I pickup George RR Martin during a "downtime" of reading. Boy, what a great suggestion! The first book in the series, The Game of Thrones, was excellent. As is my wont, that tends to make me a little suspicious. After all, with such a high level having been set by the predecessor, it's very difficult to maintain the level of excellence. My fears quickly abated, though, as I delved into this book. It is darker book than book1-- perhaps because, after the success of book 1, GRRM decided to expand the series? No rousing finish here. Instead, the book grimly, stupendously, marches onward hewing characters (*mostly* minor in this tome) as timber. In the process, "major" characters are fleshed out giving life and breadth and breath to their motions, intuitions and actions. Cersei becomes less wooden, Catelyn more human, Sansa less "doll"-like, Arya more rogue-ish (and the perspective GRRM obtains in writing as a "10yr old" is excellent). Jon? Tyrion? The best.... Bottom Line? An excellent edition in an excellent series. Wonderful.
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Summary: A relief in most ways
Review: Of all the things that annoy me in books and movies, probably the one problem that grates on me the most is the fact that main characters never die and that all the evil characters have no motive or real train of thought beyond 'Be evil'. Whereas the good characters will be painfully good. A Clash of Kings was a welcome breath of relief. Main characters die and there were no truly good characters. Most the time I didn't know who to root for though I knew who I wanted dead (Joffrey and Joffrey again). About the sex and violence: Violence I've never minded unless it's exaggerated, unrealistic or pointless. The sex isn't needed but those parts are generally short and can easily be skipped over. This book went somewhere, at least one king and maybe two are disposed of in its pages and I see an end for it closer than the Wheel of Time at least.
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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.
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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.
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