A Clash of Kings (1998)

Wish I would not have waited so long to continue reading the series. So many characters I got confused. There is so much political machinations going on, that I have become bored with the brutal, crude, selfish and egotistical boy kings. Their emotions and impulses allow them to make mistakes that create some dangerous enemies that will come back to bite them. I am not sure if I like any of them and I’m not sure if they would survive anyway.

I checked this out from the library and I don’t know if I will continue the series or not.

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The second instalment in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings starts out where the prequel has left the readers. The battle for the seven kingdoms of Westeros is underway and there are currently four men proclaiming themselves king. First there is Joffrey, officially the son of the former king Robert Baratheon but actually the son of Queen Cersei and her brother Jaime Lannister. Then there are Renly Baratheon and Stannis Baratheon, both brothers of Robert. Finally there is Robb Stark, heir to Lord Eddard Stark who was killed at Joffrey's command, who proclaims himself king of the north. The novel is largely about how all those people plot and fight their battles for the throne. One should however not forget Daenerys Targaryen, who actually has a rightful claim to the throne that was stolen from her family when her father was murdered by Jaime Lannister before Robert Baratheon became king. In another strand of the plot Jon Snow, bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark, and the men of the Night's Watch, try to protect the whole realm from seemingly undead creatures that live north of the wall, the only protection between them and the realm of the seven kingdoms. As one can see there is a tangled web of characters which makes for a multi-faceted story.

As with the first instalment in the series I like the structure of the novel, that is that each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the characters. As a reader you get a more or less omniscient view on the story and this makes the otherwise probably slightly complicated plot more easy to follow. The character (and hence the chapters) I like most is Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Queen Cersei and Jaime the Kingslayer. Although he is part of a family that is highly unlikeable I find him easy to identify and sympathize with. Shunned by most members of his family, Tyrion slowly and cleverly makes his way to the top and is quite successful in making the best out of his life.

I would recommend reading the novel only if you have read and liked the first one in the series. Otherwise it would probably be too many pages of incomprehensible relationships and a story that is simply unfollowable. ( )

GRRM is one hell of a good storyteller. I read the first ASOIAF book and loved it before the show began years ago, but never continued with the rest of the volumes. I've always thought the second season is the slowest-moving, but was necessary to approach it like that so that the rest of the series could move along briskly. I feel the same way about A Clash of Kings. The character development is first rate. I disagree with any reviewer who bitches that GRRM isn't a good writer. His style may not be that of James Joyce, but it's clear, crisp, natural, and contains some of the best dialog a reader can encounter (more impressive since it's written in Old World parlance while the author is American). I highly appreciate the way GRRM is able to take on drastically different viewpoints and view his world and events through the eyes of different characters. There's something of To Kill a Mockingbird's Scout in Arya, albeit grittier and more fantastic.

Despite the fact that I highly recommend it, I do feel that I need to mention my annoyance with GRRM's handling of medieval religion. I'm a religious guy myself (a liberal, Obama-type rather than a conservative fire-and-brimstone type), and I've become sensitive over the years to misrepresentations or sloppy and stereotyped presentation of religion and religious people. GRRM does a good job of presenting analogs of true medieval religious life to his world. The Faith of the Seven and the Great Sept capture Thomist theology and Vatican City, the religion surrounding the Lord of Light captures Christian witch-burning (while simultaneously reflecting the so-called witchcraft itself), the Night's Watch takes on the role that monasteries played in medieval Europe, and the divide between the Old Gods of the North and the New Gods of the South captures both the Presbyterian-Anglican divide on the isle of Britain and the Lutheran-Catholic divide on the continent. The North's rebellion has analogs in Reformation politics.

What GRRM doesn't do well is capture the character of the religious mindset of medieval times. Every single point-of view character expresses nothing but pure doubt when it comes to religion. Every single point-of view character seems to witness some awful tragedy, and then reflect by suggesting that no gods actually exist. This is at odds with the reality of medieval records, and I'm going to go on to say that it's at odds with the reality of humankind. People who more often face tragedy and atrocity (such as medieval Europeans) are more likely to believe in deities because it helps them digest the shit-smelling reality of the nasty world we live in. It's modern society, with its air-conditioning and 24-hour entertainment and 40-hour workweeks and cheap clothing and dishwashers and universal literacy and long-distance communication, that is more likely to turn from religion. Modern, spoiled mankind doesn't deal with tragedy in the quantities that it used to, and therefore doesn't do as well handling it as ancient or medieval mankind. Therefore, when GRRM goes off on his tangents having his characters denounce gods, he is placing a contemporary mindset on medieval peoples. There are other anachronisms as well (most children appear to survive childhood, people live into old age, venereal disease doesn't seem to exist), but these don't recklessly contribute to irresponsible public perceptions of a subgroup of society. I am in every way a religious individual, but I also have the right to demand that I not be categorized along with the Mike Pences and Jerry Falwells of the world. The only character whose religious dimension GRRM presents responsibly is Ned Stark, but that guy's dead in this volume.

Aside from this one concern, I highly recommend this book and this series. I'm looking forward to starting Book 3. ( )

Things started to change a bit from the series, so it was better than the first, but still not there. ( )

The second book is significantly more engaging than the first. While the first was primarily focused upon War of the Roses style political intrigue and the like, the second book delves into the actual battles and the motive behind much of what has been happening. In this book, we finally range beyond the Wall and into the Haunted Forest. We encounter wildlings, get Theon centric chapters, and learn just what Stannis has been up to all of this time. Further, we are introduced far more in depth to the lore of ASoIaF. We even, for a brief moment, spot the horror that is the Boltons. What is not to enjoy?

This book was a faster read than the first, and with the exception of the Battle of Blackwater Rush was pretty difficult not to enjoy. Blackwater Rush was a bit of a letdown for me - for while it's gorgeous on screen, the action in the book is split between Tyrion and Sansa centric chapters that mars the overall grandeur of the fight. On the bright side, the Dany chapters were far more compelling than her plot in the second season the show, and even involves a prophecy that has had fans scratching their heads for ages... and wasn't present in the show at all. Oops.

This book didn't blow me away, but the Theon chapters were fantastic and by far the best written out of everything [a: George R. R. Martin|346732|George R.R. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1351944410p2/346732.jpg] has set down. I look forward to finishing the series soon and then being deeply disappointed as the wait for [b: The Winds of Winter|12111823|The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire, #6)|George R.R. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465341854s/12111823.jpg|6570035] continues to stretch on.

Oh well. ( )