Reviews with content warning for War - A Clash of Kings

Reviews tagging 'War'

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

74 reviews

suneaters's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Get shadow babied. A very entertaining, well-paced book that had me interested in each POV and not dreading or disinterested in any of them. I liked the new POVs, though you spend a lot of time feeling bad for them both honestly. Theon definitely gets more insufferable as the book goes on and whenever there's a woman involved. Very funny of Asha to do that to him, but she should have honestly made him leave with her.
Tyrion's chapters are kind of like watching a train crash. He reminds me of Stannis in the opposite. Neither can be courteous even though it would help them a lot, earn them less enemies, and probably save lives. Where is female socialization when you need it, I tell you! But wow, that shadow baby thing was so horrific and disgusting from the Davos POV, even though it's so brief. It was really disturbing.
Littlefinger must have been doing some wizardry to get that Tyrell marriage pact, but I suppose they probably felt like this was the winning side. Somehow I feel like they're doomed. Any side you think is winning is probably doomed. I expect that Stannis is the safest because he seems doomed anyhow. And he's got them shadow babies.
The Stark kid chapters are alright too. They're a relief because you know this kid hasn't committed any human rights violations yet. Bran's were probably the most interesting, but I liked hearing from Arya and Sansa as well. And it was funny watching Dany try her hardest to get that ship! And then Barristan with the funniest fake name ever shows. Arstan Whitebeard, that's good. She got robbed at the House of the Undying, where was all this about the secret dragon language? Also, I wonder if she went the right way because Pyat says the first door to your right, and in one she takes the rightmost door, which sounds like the farther right. Who knows, maybe the prophecy is all a crock anyhow.

Content Warnings

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