Series: Book 2 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series
Rating: ***
Tags: Fiction, General, Alchemy, Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Epic, Imaginary Places, Imaginary Wars and Battles, Fiction - Fantasy, Fantasy - Epic, Kings and Rulers, Civil War, Fantasy - Series, Lang:en
Summary
How does he do it?
George R.R. Martin's high fantasy weaves a spell
sufficient to seduce even those who vowed never to start a
doorstopper fantasy series again (the first book--
A Game of Thrones--runs over 700 pages).
A Clash of Kings is longer and even more grim, but
Martin continues to provide compelling characters in a
vividly real world. The Seven Kingdoms have come apart. Joffrey, Queen
Cersei's sadistic son, ascends the Iron Throne following the
death of Robert Baratheon, the Usurper, who won it in battle.
Queen Cersei's family, the Lannisters, fight to hold it for
him. Both the dour Stannis and the charismatic Renly
Baratheon, Robert's brothers, also seek the throne. Robb
Stark, declared King in the North, battles to avenge his
father's execution and retrieve his sister from Joffrey's
court. Daenerys, the exiled last heir of the former ruling
family, nurtures three dragons and seeks a way home.
Meanwhile the Night's Watch, sworn to protect the realm from
dangers north of the Wall, dwindle in numbers, even as
barbarian forces gather and beings out of legend stalk the
Haunted Forest. Sound complicated? It is, but fine writing makes this a
thoroughly satisfying stew of dark magic, complex political
intrigue, and horrific bloodshed.
--Nona Vero
The second novel of Martin's titanic Song of Ice and Fire
saga (A Game of Thrones, 1996) begins with Princess Arya
Stark fleeing her dead father's capital of King's Landing,
disguised as a boy. [...] In between [the beginning and the
end], her actions map the further course of a truly epic
fantasy set in a world bedecked with 8000 years of history,
beset by an imminent winter that will last 10 years and
bedazzled by swords and spells wielded to devastating effect
by the scrupulous and unscrupulous alike. Standout characters
besides Arya include Queen Cersei, so lacking in morals that
she becomes almost pitiable; the queen's brother, the
relentlessly ingenious dwarf Tyrion Lannister; and Arya's
brother, Prince Brandon, crippled except when he runs with
the wolves in his dreams. The novel is notable particularly
for the lived-in quality of its world, created through
abundant detail that dramatically increases narrative length
even as it aids suspension of disbelief; for the
comparatively modest role of magic (although with one
ambitious young woman raising a trio of dragons, that may
change in future volumes)... Martin may not rival Tolkien or
Robert Jordan, but he ranks with such accomplished
medievalists of fantasy as Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson.
Here, he provides a banquet for fantasy lovers with large
appetites—and this is only the second course of a
repast with no end in sight. Author tour.
Amazon.com Review
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.