Book of the Week #12: A Clash of Kings

This week I read the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, more familiarly the books that Game of Thrones the show is based on, called A Clash of Kings. This is the first book of the week that I really had a hard time plodding through. I figured that after three months of smooth sailing, it was time to hit a snag or two. It’s long, at about a thousand pages, but feels longer. A lot of the scenes are long, and tend to drag. I didn’t like that. On the other hand, this book was thick with adventure and foreshadowing. Throughout the book, you could tell that something was going to happen soon, but you don’t know what.

The book follows four plot lines. One line follows the civil wars and the battle for the throne that is taking place in the kingdoms. Since the king died in the last book, there’s this huge battle for who is really the king, since young Prince Joffrey is crazy. This is the plotline that I found the most boring, to be honest. The only really redeeming factor was the occasional sharp with of Tyrion Lannister, which is one of my favorite things in both the books and the show.

Another plotline follows Arya around since her escape from the capital in A Game of Thrones. She meets some pretty interesting people, and risks death every day, which keeps her story moving rapidly. Arya is another one of my favorite characters, mostly because she does tend to inject this life into the scenes that she’s in.

The third plotline is what is happening in the north to the guys on the Night’s Watch, who are still protecting the south from…something. There’s some business with weird northern tribes that I didn’t follow very well, even when I read over it a couple of times. A lot of the foreshadowing took place in this part of the book, so I feel like if you decide to read this novel, you should pay close attention.

Lastly, my most favourite part of the book is all the happenings in the East with Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. After a little bit of stumbling around in the hot desert, Daenerys and her followers get to a city. There are warlocks, and a love story, and of course the dragons are really important! I didn’t think there were any boring parts to her story, which made it the most fun to read.

Altogether, this book was not as good as Game of Thrones, in my opinion. It’s also told from nine points of view throughout the novel. The series in general so far has a huge number of characters, and I honestly have a tough time keeping track of all of them. Because of that, and because it was a combination of boring and complicated, I give it a 4/10. I still like the concepts of the story, so I’m going to keep working through the series, but I hope it gets better!