People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up
I am taking the reading of A Song of Ice and Fire very slow. The books are very long and I don’t know if like them as much as the tv-series. I thought A Clash of Kings was okay.
Book Review: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Rating:
Title & Author: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
Release Date: November 16 1998
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire
Publisher: Voyager Books
Synopsis
Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who held sway over an age of enforced peace are dead…victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.
As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky—a comet the color of blood and flame—six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard’s son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King’s Landing. Robert’s two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.
A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and wartime. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, brother plots against brother, and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside.
Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel…and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.
I gave A Clash of Kings three out of five stars, because I thought it was not that memorable and it actually rubbed me the wrong way.
Catelyn Stark is still one of my favorite characters. I liked her in the tv-series, but she is also great in the books. While watching the tv series I hated Sansa, because I thought she was spoiled and has the wrong priorities, but in the book I can understand her much better and like her for it.
During A Clash of Kings Jojen and Meera are already introduced and I did not remember that from the tv series (or are they not there yet, I don’t know anymore. I have to watch the series again). But I like them much better during my read than in the tv series.
I still think the books are kind of graphical. The sex scene do not leave much to the imagination and I do not care all that much for books that do not leave room for the imagination. These things bother me always so much.
Overall I think the book is better than the series. But I like the visualisation of the tv series. The show is amazing, should be from the budget alone! The actors do great work, but I like the written, more extensive knowledge of the written word better.
Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!