Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2423 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
George R.R. Martin writes sword-and-sorcery which concentrates on the swords. A Clash of Kings is the second volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, the sequence which began with A Game of Thrones and will take another four volumes to complete. The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud; beyond their Northern borders, the men of the Night Watch fight the coming of a great cold and the walking corpses that travel with it; on the other side of the ocean, the last of the Kingdom's deposed ruling house mourns her horseclan husband and rears the dragonlets she hatched from his funeral pyre. This is character-driven fantasy--we see most events through the eyes of the sons and daughters of the Stark family, the once and future Kings of the North, whose father's judicial murder started the war. Martin avoids the cosy Californian cheeriness of many epic fantasies in favour of a sense of the squalor and grandeur of high medieval life; there is passion here, and misery and charm--and a profound sense of moral ambiguity as we learn to like the Richard III figure in this epic as much as the more virtuous Starks. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
George R. R. Martin's superb fantasy epic continues in consummate style as bloodshed and alchemy lay waste the Seven Kingdoms in the second volume of A Song of Ice and Fire. The Iron Throne once united the Sunset Lands, but King Robert is dead, his widow is a traitor to his memory, and his surviving brothers are set on a path of war amongst themselves. At King's Landing, the head of Lord Eddard Stark rots on a spike for all to see. His daughter Sansa is betrothed still to his killer's son Joffrey -- Queen Cersei's son, though not the son of her late husband Robert. Even so, Joffrey is now a boy-king, Cersei is his regent, and war is inevitable. In Dragonstone, Robert's brother Stannis has declared himself king, while his other brother Renly proclaims himself king at Storm's End -- and Eddard Stark's fifteen year old son Robb wears the crown of the north at Winterfell. A comet in the night sky, red and malevolent, the colour of blood and flame, can only be an omen of murder and war. Stannis's child Princess Shireen dreams of dragons waking from stone. And a white raven has brought word from the Citadel itself, foretelling summer's end.

It has been the longest summer in living memory, lasting ten years, and the smallfolk say it means an even longer winter to come...The first rule of war is never give the enemy his wish. But winter will be the biggest enemy. From beyond the Wall the undead and Others clamour for freedom, and from beyond the sea the long-dead Dragon King's daughter hatches her revenge. Robb Stark will be exceedingly lucky to reach adulthood.

About the Author
George Raymond Richard Martin was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Sept 20 1948. He began writing monster stories as a child, and by high school was contributing fiction to comic fanzines. His first professional sale, short story `The Hero', written while he was in college, appeared in Galaxy February 1971.Martin graduated from Northwestern University (BS Journalism 1971, MS 1972). A conscientious objector, he worked for VISTA at Chicago's Cook Country Legal Assistance 1972-4. From 1976-8 he taught journalism at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, and spent another year there as writer-in-residence 1978-9. He has been a full-time writer ever since.He was story editor for CBS's The Twilight Zone series in 1986, and worked as writer, executive story consultant, producer, co-supervising producer, and executive producer on Beauty and the Beast from 1987-90. He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Martin won his first Hugo for the novella `A Song for Lya' (1974). In 1980 he won the Nebula and Hugo Awards for novelette `Sandkings', and a Hugo Award for short story `The Way of Cross and Dragon'. Martin won a second Nebula in 1986 for `Portraits of His Children', a 1988 Bram Stoker Award for `The Pear-Shaped Man', a 1989 World Fantasy Award for novella `The Skin Trade', a 1997 Hugo for novella `Blood of the Dragon', and is a 10-time Locus Award winner.His novels include Dying of the Light (1977), Windhave (with Lisa Tuttle, 1981), Fevre Dream (1982), The Armageddon Rag (1983), Wild Cards VII: Dead Man's Hand (with John J. Miller, 1990), and three novels in A Song of Ice and Fire sequence: `A Game of Thrones' (1996), `A Clash of Kings' (1998) and `A Storm of Swords' (2000). He has several short story collections, notably A Song for Lya and Other Stories (1976), Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977), Sandkings(1981) and Portraits of His Children (1987), and has edited a number of anthologies, including volumes for the New Voices in Science Fiction and the Hugo-nominated Wild Cards series.

Customer Reviews

Gripping but....
Picking up right where 'A Game of Thrones' left off, 'A Clash of Kings' is just as gripping as its predecessor and is a very captivating book. The series main strength is the presence of some fantastic characters, most notably Tyrion Lannister, one of the best anti-heroes I've come across in fiction. One thing that must be made quite apparent though is that one should utterly ignore the ridiculous quote on some versions of his books that George RR Martin is 'the American Tolkien.' Other than the fact that they both have two 'R's' in their name and have books on sale in the 'Fantasy' section of your local bookshop, there is no call for comparison. Tolkien invented modern fantasy and set out a template which far too many authors have simply ripped off (the unlikely hero, the quest, the band of heroes etc.) Martin deliberatley ignores or subverts these conventions and indeed his work is much closer, in the main, to historical fiction. To sum up; there's no reason to suppose a fan of Tolkien's will enjoy Martin's style.

On the positive side: Martin is a very good writer. The plot is intricate and epic, and the dialogue is far beyond the vast, vast majority of fantasy novels. As well as that he's writing for the adult market; there's plenty of adult humour and situations, while there's a goodly, but not gratutious amount of swearing. It all adds to the realism of the book. You really get the sense that you're reading a warts and all account of a bygone era. Too often fantasy writers aim for the young adult end of the market and end up offering up incipid novels in which nobody (even the most hardened warriors) ever curses, has sex or uses the toilet.

On the negative side: Martin is far better at the 'swords' end of the 'swords and sorcery' business, to the extent that the 'magical' elements of the story (such as they are), feel out of place. It's rather like reading a blood and guts account of the Wars of the Roses when all of a sudden a warlock shows up. The sections that involve magical elements are by far the weakest parts of the book.

And one MAJOR gripe I have is that for all his skills with words, Martin's characters seem utterly incapable of using more than two words to describe the male and female genitals (a hint, they're both 'C' words). It's not a matter of prudishness, it's simply that the English language contains an unbelievable wealth of words for human anatomy and yet Martin can't seem to get away from those two terms. In every intimate scene between two characters whether higborn or peasant, male or female etc. they all talk like sailors. Indeed none of the sex scenes in the first two books are very appealing. Rather than offering a tender riposte to the savagery on display in the rest of the book, sex is rough and unpleasant throughout.

That said the good parts far outweigh the bad, and it's a fantastic series of books so far; captivating, well plotted, and well worth investing time in.

Bad books? I DON'T THINK SO!!!
Thoroughly, totally, utterly brillient. The entire set are.


This is all.

Sublime
What a truly brilliant read. Martin's world is perhaps not as large as those you'll find in other series, but it's depth and detail makes this more epic than any other. I believe this is the book 'true fantasy fans' want to read. Don't expect hollywood here, suggestion and understatement rule. Mature, cruel and unforgiving, like life itself you are rarely granted justice for the characters you love, but when you do, you remember why you love this man's work, and why you read fantasy at all. Intriguing until the last page and beyond. Superb.

If you can level one criticism at A Song of Ice and Fire, it's the sheer number of characters, each with their own carefully constructed history and family tree that you simply cannot map in your head until you go back and read it again.