The More is NOT the Merrier...

A Clash of Kings by: George R. R. Martin

Have you ever wondered what would happen if there was a kingdom with multiple Kings??? Yeah, me either, but apparently there are some people who think about this very subject and write books about it. The second book in the Song of Ice and Fire chronicle is about that very subject. There are six fractions of the Seven Kingdoms that are going to war to battle for the Iron Throne which the product of Incest sits.
This book is full of magic, battles, love, and of course I have some theories of what is to come. With this only being book two, it is hard for the audience not to wonder, what’s to come. Now, just a warning, I can’t talk about this book without ruining the outcome of what happened in the first book of the series A Game of Thrones, so if you are somewhat interested in reading this chronicle, then please don’t read this entire post. Know that I highly recommend it and I have been borrowing the books from the local library so you wouldn’t even have to buy it if you didn’t want to. There is your spoiler alert, read on by your own discretion.

This book was a great sequel to A Game of Thrones and continued the story as if no break had taken place. There were a few added characters that we could see what was going on around them. The first one was Davos “the onion knight.” I enjoyed his character because he was a realist. He knew what was going on around him and had common sense about his next moves. He was a knight under Stannis Baratheon, the eldest brother of Robert Baratheon, therefore he is the rightful king since Robert did not have an heir to the throne. Ser Davos was once a smuggler that spent most of his life on a ship making his living by being a pirate, and that is actually how he earned his Knighthood, by smuggling food into Stannis’ castle when they were going to starve to death. I believe that this is why Davos is a great character because he wasn’t high born and therefore learned a lot of great life lessons by living an adventurous life. To bring this to life for me, I bring this point back to my own life. I’ve always said that everyone should work in a restaurant. I’m not kidding, you see people how they really are when you work for a restaurant, they come in hungry, which usually makes people more irritable and therefore they blow up on you for no good reason, just because an eighteen year old said your wait was going to be 20 minutes and you’ve been waiting for 25 minutes doesn’t give you the right to thrash the poor child until she cries. I learned more life lessons from working at Applebee’s in Hot Springs Arkansas than I have anywhere else in my life. All of my children will work in restaurants so they can learn the same great lessons that I did. All of that to say, that is why Davos has great advice, and great thoughts, is because he has been through life circumstances and is easy to relate to.

Another new character in the book was not new to the pages, but we have not seen through his eyes was, Theon Greyjoy. This was a young man that was Robb Starks, the king of the North’s, steward. He has returned home and declared his father King of the Iron Islands and since he is the only living son, he has declared himself heir. This character went from saving Bran’s life in the first book to doing some horrible things to the Stark family in this book. I cannot relate to Theon’s character in this story, he is horrible and never redeems himself. He is selfish and self serving. Everything about his character upsets me and I didn’t enjoy reading this thoughts.
In this 969 page novel, there was so much to like and dislike. The writing was fantastic and I have no negative thoughts on style, grammar, or cadence. He has a great story line and plot and is true to his style. I know that he knows how this story is going to end, he’s not afraid to do what must be done to come to that ending. The one complaint I have is that it is taking me a while to get through each book, but I also have a lot going on, so it is not bothering me to take my time.

My favorite characters are still Jon, Arya, and Dany. I enjoyed all three story lines and was thankful that Martin hasn’t killed any of these characters off (yet). I think I like Jon and Arya even more now than I did before. I get real excited when his or her chapter is coming up.

I’m sad to say that I will have to end this blog abruptly because I’ve been so busy that I wrote this blog weeks ago and now I’m started the third book in the series and can’t really remember what took place in this book. So, stay tuned for the third book, A Storm of Swords. It’s been really great so far. Leave me a message and let me know what you thought about this blog or this book! Happy Reading!