Author: George R.R. Martin
# of Pages: 969 (paperback)
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: A comet the colour of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk at 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, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.
Review: If you want to get technical, it took me over a year to read this book.
The details are more revealing: I started this book in July but only made it about 300 pages in before putting it away because it was too tedious to read. I was able to read (on and off) remaining 600-700 pages in 3-4 months. It's probably one of the longest times I've spent reading a single book, and the thousand pages it is made up of is no excuse.
I found it is a lot easier for me to keep up with the numerous characters by watching the HBO series, although watching the story beyond the book made me less interested in reading the book, so be weary of that. Overall, A Clash of Kings is probably as good if not better than A Game of Thrones, but due to the extended amount of time I spent reading it, it is difficult for me to compare.
Everything I've said in my review for A Game of Thrones still applies; although each character has an interesting perspective on the main plot, the third person POV switching is disruptive as some narratives are more interesting than others. The writer's style, especially of the battle scenes, are often overly descriptive and make it difficult for me to follow and stay engaged with the story.
If you like the first book, you will like this one just as much. If you did not like A Game of Thrones, I would advise you not read the second.
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