A Song of Ice and Fire – A Clash of Kings (book 2)

Author: George R.R. Martin

**CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE 1^ST BOOK**

A Clash of Kings starts from where A Game of Thrones ended, and it is as good as the 1st book.

9 characters tell us the story now: Catelyn, Sansa, Arya and Bran Stark; Jon Snow; Tyrion Lannister; Daenerys Targaryen; Theon Greyjoy and Davos Seaworth – the latter appearing for the 1st time in the series. The epilogue is told by the maester of Dragonstone.

A red comet, shining bright day and night in the skies of Westeros, is understood by many to be a sign of their own victory, or the beginning of a new era, and so on – everyone in Westeros has a different meaning for it – while a white raven coming from the Citadel brings the news that summer is coming to an end.

In Essos, Danny and her newborn dragons cross the Red Wastes land to arrive in Qarth, where she will try to get help from the merchants of the city to claim the Iron Throne.

On the Wall, a great part of the Night’s Watch goes north in search of the whereabouts of the king-beyond-the-wall, Mance Rayder, and also to learn more about The Others.

In Westeros, war and chaos spread all over the place, in what has been called the War of the Five Kings – yes, AGOT ended with 3 kings and now there are 2 more claiming the right to rule. Alliances are made, alliances fail, there’s battle, blood and treason everywhere. And magic. In this book there’s an increase in use of magic or strange powers, which is ok, considering this is a fantasy series. Truth is, FOR ME, ASOIAF falls more into the medieval category due to its realistic and vivid characters and universe, but if the presence of dragons, these Others and dark powers are only to add more action and mystery, changing the fate of a lot of people – great!

In regards to the characters, we have a few new side-characters that are interesting and hopefully will appear more in the following books, like Brienne of Tarth, Jaqen H’ghar and Melisandre of Asshai. Despite not liking Melisandre, I want to know what’s going to happen to her – and I hope it’s not a good thing. Both Arya and Tyrion have by far the most interesting stories, and as for Jon Snow, I think he was a bit slow in this book. Danny, in Essos, is getting better, I guess, but I still don’t feel sympathy for her. Theon is such a jerk (a terrible one, let’s be honest), and Catelyn made me hate her even more after what she did in the end. And I’m not sure if I should like Sandor Clegane, The Hound, or not.

The book does not have an end – I think the author is building up the story and the characters for a big event that may occur in the next book, but it’s extremely well written (again) and explains a lot more about the whole situation and history and background of people, Houses, the Realm…

The battles are awesome (again) and the political games for power are amazing (again). Sorry, I have to say again and again because the quality of this book remains the same comparing to the previous one. George R.R. Martin definitely entered my list of the greatest and favorite authors.

Buy A Clash of Kings from: The Book Depository or Amazon.