Well the call of the second book of A Song Of Ice And Fire proved too much to ignore and I couldn’t wait to find out where this epic tale was going next.
In one plot strand a civil war has broken out with various factions vying for control of the The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. In another a scouting party goes to investigate strange goings on beyond The Wall and to find out why the anarchic Wildling clans are uniting. In the third a young Queen tries to gather support to reclaim lands that were stolen from her murdered family.
Just as compelling but a better read than A Game Of Thrones, George R. R. Martin’s A Clash Of Kings continued to rebuild my faith in the Fantasy genre. The characters who made it through the first volume are developing nicely (or nastily in some cases) and continue to hold my attention – even if I do wonder which one might be next to meet a sticky end. Events unfold at a steady pace and there are plenty of cliffhanger moments as perspective moves from character to character.
I’m also very impressed with how vivid the world Martin has built has become. Reading is all the more enjoyable if you can picture the places in a novel clearly and Martin has the world-building skills to make it easy to share his vision. The same applies to his characters as I now have a pretty clear mental image of the main players – I hope those images will remain intact when I get round to watching the tv series.
Anyway, I’ve prattled on for long enough. A Song Of Ice And Fire is an excellent fantasy series and I’m looking forward to A Storm Of Swords, which I’m sure I’ll read sooner rather than later.