A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Paul
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/26
date added: 2011/08/26
shelves: fantasy, novel
review:
George R. R. Martin gets some heat for his writing prowess, or perhaps, lack thereof. I think this is overstated not because Martin is terribly dynamic with his wordcraft (which he isn’t) or because his narrative voice is particularly noteworthy (which it isn’t), but because where Martin may occasionally struggle to embroider a tale, he excels at crafting one. His skill lies not with the embellishment or wordsmithing but with forging a macro-level tale that explores all the various motivations and mechanisms that lie behind the butterfly effects of both emotional response and the best-laid plans.
By this point (book two) in A Song Of Ice And Fire, most readers will probably have their favorite characters picked out. Fans of swordplay and valiant high fantasy-laced action will probably gravitate toward Jon Snow’s exploits along the Wall. Travelogues will likely appreciate Daenerys Targaryen’s wandering toward an unknown destiny. Those with a soft spot for the underdogs will lean perhaps toward poor broken Bran Stark or puppet of fate Theon Greyjoy. Personally though, I find the scrappy Arya Stark and the wily dwarf Tyrion Lannister to be the most enchanting characters in A Clash of Kings.
My affection for the two characters comes in part from the best of Martin’s writing: His ability to foreshadow remarkable feats based on no other information than the fact that he chooses to dedicate pages to a specific character and his knack for weaving tension and outright excitement from political maneuverings. There is something remarkable about Arya because in spite of her not having much to do throughout book one (A Game of Thrones), and even with several check-ins early in A Clash of Kings, the sense that she is destined for something marvelous is tactile in her chapters. Meanwhile, though Martin includes plenty of military scenes and fights throughout, none are as frantic as the sizzling sequences where a politician-gamer like Tyrion plays at a different kind of swords, the swords of power. These fight scenes—including a particularly memorable one fairly early in the book where the Imp slowly reveals a treacherous decision to a placid captain of the royal guard—waged with tongues instead of blades are as thrilling and deadly as any of Martin’s battle accounts.
Martin still relies far too heavily on certain pet phrases, introducing here “half a hundred” to the others he revisits from A Game of Thrones and too many interesting events in this volume happen off-page, only referenced by other characters as they hear of them (Robb, for instance, has scarcely any time devoted to him despite his war efforts having ripple effects on the POV characters). The bigger issue in A Clash of Kings is that the story begins to careen out of control in terms of scope and characters. Where A Game Of Thrones was sprawling and complex, for the most part it was navigable. Kings, on the other hand, drives forward into a morass of new and minor characters, introducing two additional principal POVs in Theon Greyjoy and Davos Seaworth, both distinct from the scattered points of action previously established. Where the first volume was admirably able to present spatial and human relationships in such a way that maps and character appendices weren’t strictly necessary, Kings begins to read like epic Russian literature in which certain locations or individuals suddenly pop up as vital to the plot where previously they may have been assumed to be of little importance.
Martin challenges readers to keep up with him which I both admire and kind of resent. In a big way I don’t know that the story would be as successful as it is if it were easier to keep up with, if it were smaller as it were. The fact that it is big and ugly and convoluted and no one (least of all the reader) can be entirely sure of what is really going on everywhere at once make the saga dance with a life that rings authentic. Real war and politics and strife is messy and hard to fathom, so why shouldn’t this be as well? Still, it would be nice not to feel like I needed a detailed Wiki to make sense of the dozens of minor lords, hedge knights, lesser houses and geographic relationships just to understand the significance of certain military maneuvers.
I mentioned in my Game of Thrones review that it had restored my faith in the fantasy epic and while A Clash of Kings is a worthy successor, I started to see glimpses of issues I had with other series creep in: Prophecy and meaningful dreaming plays a much more significant role here than in book one, plus magic (deliciously rare in Thrones) plays a bigger part and is hinted at being elevated still. Additionally there are a number of much slower segments in this novel compared to the first. It never truly bogs down to the point where the book becomes tedious, but it does take a bit too long for each of the three major plot threads (Dany, Jon and the war around King’s Landing) to set themselves up for their climactic scenes.
However, when A Clash of Kings is done carefully aligning the dominoes the toppling climax is dynamic and utterly gripping. The final quarter of the book is as intense and readable as any potboiler, in some cases made more so by the grand scale of the thing so meticulously orchestrated to that point. Additionally, I can’t help but praise and admire Martin for his willingness to resist the temptation of many authors (especially fantasy authors) to create overly-convenient macguffins or descend into deus ex machina. It makes the conflict more visceral and the danger more vivid when there isn’t a hope of some magical protector sweeping in at the last minute. In a welcome nod to realism, characters in A Song of Ice and Fire live and die by their resourcefulness and fortune alone.
I do wish this installment was of the same overall quality and relative brisk pacing as its predecessor, but I do grant middle entries in trilogies (though I know this series has expanded beyond the original three volume set) some leeway since they mostly serve to facilitate a drive toward a grand finale. Still, Martin is crafting a powerful tale and the strongest praise I can grant this book is that it has me earnestly looking forward to volume three.