Tuesday, July 09, 2013

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

(pb; 1999: Book Two of A Song of Fire and Ice)


From the back cover:

"A comet the color 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 in the 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:

All the elements, plot-twisty action and characters that made A Game of Thrones a great read structure and set the tone of this first sequel.  This grim, bloody, whimsical and sometimes surprising (but always character-consistent) series continues to wow; it has made me excited to be a reader, in a way that I haven't been in a long time.


Worth owning, this - as is its source novel.

Followed by A Storm of Swords.

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The events in Clash are the basis for the second season of the first HBO/cable series, A Game of Thrones.  The series's first episode originally aired on April 17, 2011.  HBO recently aired its Season 3 finale, with a fourth Season set to air next year. 

Given the many characters in this series, I'm not going to list the characters, nor the actors who play them.  (I have a busy schedule.  Maybe later, when I have a little more time, I'll list those who have worked on the series.)


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