Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #856 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-04
• 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.

Customer Reviews

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 rules. 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.

"Epics" are for holidays
I've picked this up three times now and put it down each time, having been unable to devote the necessary time I feel it needs to get into. Having been off work for a while I gave it the fourth and final chance...and just made it to the end. Someone else makes the point that as a "midpoint" book in a series there are new threads starting and old ones ending but this volume just doesn't seem to go anywhere and having just read and thoroughly enjoyed Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie (The New Wave anyone?) I feel that the days of the bloated "character" driven epic may be numbered as (relatively) short, action packed series may be the way ahead.
I am of the increasing opinion that the propensity of fantasy books to be trilogies at least, and often running into huge long series (Malazan books for instance) lets authors off the hook to a great extent as they can ramble on knowing that there is a loyal following out there who HAVE invested the time and effort to get right into these books. I've made the point elsewhere that War and Peace is somehow seen as an imposing piece of work yet it is about a tenth the size of the Wheel of Time series for example! Go figure.
Having said all that I WILL carry on with the rest of this series as even as I write I am curious as to what happens next, so that's an accolade for Mr Martin...but I'll wait for the holidays before taking up that challenge.