Book Review: A Clash Of Kings; George R.R. Martin.

It has taken me far too long to get through this book. It was very long and I have had so little time to get through it. Finally I've managed it however, and I'm excited to review this one! I will enter this into the Monthly Motif challenge too as I have been meaning to get round to reading this one for a good long while!

SOURCE: Gift
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: A Clash Of Kings
AUTHOR: George R.R. Martin
SERIES: A Song Of Ice & Fire (#2)
PUBLISHER: Harper Voyager
PAGES: 873
GENRE: High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Adult

RATING: 4.5/5 Stars

Blurb:

Throughout Westeros, the cold winds are rising. From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding lands of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms stake their claims through tempest, turmoil and war. As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky - a comet the colour of blood and flame - five factions struggle for control of a divided land. Brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night.


What I Liked:

• George R.R. Martin's writing is just so phenomenal. I loved it in the first book, but truly came to appreciate just how complex it was in reading this one. His understanding of political intrigue is just fantastic and I have never read such thorough writing! His writing is just so rich and he really gets into every nook an cranny of the plot.
• I really liked the characters, as I always do with this series. There are some fantastic new ones (I was a big fan of Stannis related chapters) and the old ones were as good as I remember them (Tyrion and Arya most notably). I found it a lot easier to follow them this time too.

What I Disliked:

• At times I felt that the book moved far too slowly. There is so much to this story and as I said, Martin goes into a lot of detail. However with that detail naturally comes slow progression. The climactic battle more than made up for this however!

Overall Conclusion:

This series is amazing. There is so much detail within the plot, Martin writes fantastically and I like his characters a lot. Yes the books are long and a little slow, but they make up for it by being both rich and complex. I can't wait until I get round to the next one, though it probably won't be for a while yet!