Reviews

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

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hannahreadsawholelot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This novel was a very interesting read. The story kept moving, switching between different storylines, but I felt that this one was more cohesive as a whole and made more sense than the first novel in the series.

melirryd's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

absenttraveller's review against another edition

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4.5

Captivating. Expands on and delves into the possibilities of fantasy and excels with flying colours.

btlitell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

But the world preferred to forget that men who knew how to heal also knew how to kill.

There was so much that happened in this book. Some things only furthered my opinions toward characters that formed with the first book. Tyrion continues to be the only Lannister that I tolerate, let alone actively root for. Cersei talking with Sansa gave her the briefest moment of humanity, but then she thoroughly ruined that during their huddling in Maegor's Holdfast. Jaime can stay in that cell for all I care, especially after how he talked to Catelyn while chained up and in a dungeon. His arrogance is astounding. Theon Greyjoy has joined my list of characters who need smacked in the mouth (well, he needs a lot more than that, but we'll start with that). I am really hoping he gets what is coming for him, but I suppose we'll see. I do wish that there was more of Robb Stark's POV in the book, but hearing about his deeds from others worked really well and probably helped build up the image of him as king of the north more than if we saw it on paper.

Wildfire is a horrid concoction that I can only imagine will show up again later. The entire Battle of the Blackwater was really interesting until the green flames appeared and it immediately turned into a chaotic mess. I really appreciated that Tyrion reflected on that and, at least to himself, admitted that he and Stannis were both responsible for the horrors that the wildfire caused.

Do you hear them shrieking, Stannis? Do you see them burning? This is your work as much as mine.

His admission of this only added favorably to Tyrion's position in my mind. Jaime, Cersei, Joffrey, none of them would have said anything like this while seeing men burning in flames they can't extinguish.

I can't wait to start the next book later today.

tiffanyd98's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

onyxisalive's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this.
This book has changing POV's, but, surprisingly, they are all super engaging and fun to read - I love how much character progression we got to see with this one (especially the female characters), it is really awesome to see them starting to become more independent and mature.
I really like the characters they picked to be the POV characters. By doing it the way they did it really shows how big the world is - however, there are a few events in the books that I would have liked to see happen, but it makes sense why we did not.
At certain points the descriptions felt a little long, but it never got so bad that I stopped enjoying reading the book.

The sack of kings landing felt a lot more weighty in here compared to show which I really liked. The battle of the blackwater was really good, but there were points, in my opinion, that it dragged a little, but was overall very awesome to read.

The characters actions felt very consistent with everything we had seen of them in the book.

This book, despite all the action felt very character focused, much of the combat happens off screen despite being called a clash of kings. However, as a very character driven person I did not mind this, and as I was already attached to all the characters because of the show I really enjoyed this one. On the other hand, it would have been nice to see some more of the events happen on screen, but I did like that it focused more of the impact of the events on the characters rather than the events themselves, for me, it made it a much more engaging read.

All in all, I really enjoyed this. Never at any point did this book feel really boring, I was engaged the whole way through. I could see some people struggling with this due to how character focused it is, especially in the middle.

Content Warnings

ellipsiscool's review against another edition

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4.0

Interesting characters. It doesn't seem like very much happened in 70 chapters except looootttsss of character development. However, I don't mind that. Great characters make a great book.