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A review by liz_ross
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
"People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it's served"
My little, beautiful paradise of lies, betrayals and political intrigue. And yet, this time paradise isn't as perfect as I found it to be when I read A Game of Thrones.
But I think I should start by remembering the good things, which are actually quite a few. After all, those are the ones that make me happy, made me keep reading and have me wanting to read the third book!
After Martin introduced such a diverse, complex and interesting world in the first book, I thought there was no way he could make it richer. He proved me wrong. In this book, Martin takes us to visit new places, see new cultures, get in touch with new people. And the result is a world even more admirable, even more beautiful and diverse, even more credible, which is a huge compliment when so many fantasy elements can be found everywhere.
In fact, that's something I realized in this book and that made me admire Martin even more - the credibility he managed to make his world have. Although it is filled with things we can't find in our own world (if you ever find a dragon, please let me know, I would give you all my money to see it!), I can't help feeling like there's a chance this world Martin created could have existed, feeling like it might be real. That's how well Martin wrote it.
I believe the main reason for that is the balance he was able to mantain between those fantasy elements and realistic elements - the people and their dynamics. Realistic elements that, we must not forget, are delightful. I was worried that in the second book we would somehow get less political intrigue. Don't get me wrong, I am not stupid, I was aware that with everyone preparing and starting a war, political intrigue was a must, but I was scared that the Court intrigue part would be lost, since now the Court was fully controlled by the Lannister without clear opposition. After all, the Stark and the Baratheon families were gone from Court - for obvious reasons Sansa didn't count. I am glad to admit I was wrong and that it is still a part of the story. In fact, the Lannister family alone has enough intrigue between each others to fill the entire book if Martin felt like that.
The one thing I liked the most wasn't the fact that Martin was capable of keeping Court intrigue as part of the plot, though. Even if I would be sad, I think I would be able to live without it. What I liked tje most was the war strategies and discussions. Martin made them complex and interesting enough that I could understand them and enjoy reading them because they felt believable, but not so complex I would feel like I was getting a crash course in war strategy.
All things together contributed to a plot that was just as interesting and delightful as the A Game of Thrones one. I was just so happy reading those parts.
But unlike the first book, this time my only problem wasn't the way rape was handled (although it remained an issue).
You see, Martin created this whole set of complex, interesting and diverse characters for his first book and they were so many that I wasn't even expecting new ones to show up in the second book. However, Martin did create even more character to populate his fabulous world in this second book. Several more complex and interesting characters with their own traits to interact with all the other characters that already existed (I still can't believe Martin has the capacity to put so many characters in his books without forgetting any of them), creating several new dynamics between everyone that made the whole plot even more intricate and addicting. And I was so happy about that in the beginning, specially when I realized there would be even more PoV's in this book, which meant I would be able to know some of the characters even better.
It turned out to be a disappointment, though. Not because the new characters were bad, I have already said they were just as amazing as the ones I had already met in the first book, but because while in first book Martin worried a lot more about the background and the world, in this book Martin worried about all the characters he hadn't had the chance to develop with all the depth they deserved in the first book.
Of course, I understand the importance of that, but almost none of those characters he decided to use this book to develop died, which means he had no need to develop them so much in this book - he had all the next books to continue that work. And by deciding to develop all the characters in this book, Martin made the whole plot so freaking slow. In the first book, he had to develop the plot in order to develop the world, because he needed to get to a certain point of it to be able to share this or that information about the world, which lead to a fast pace that turned out to be perfect for the book. This time, however, it was the exact opposite. The slower the pace, the more time he had to develop the characters, because if the action was too fast he wouldn't have the time to focus on the characters.
But even if he had to slow down, there was no need for Martin to settle for such a slow pace - I have seen snails move faster! I would read three or four chapters just to realize not even one day was over yet. And every single time Martin decided to do that, obviously he managed to develop the character he wanted, but there wasn't enough things happening to make the chapters that interesting and I ended up with this urge to bang my head against a wall until I pass out, just so I had an excuse to stop reading.
After a while, no matter how much the political intrigue was making me happy, this book started feeling like a chore I had to do, which had the obviously weird result of me not wanting to read it. Weird, isn't it?! 🤔 It started feeling like the book would never end, the political intrigue and the new magic elements being my only reasons to keep going - I may hate Melisandre but all the mystery she added to the book was pretty much one of the only reason I didn't give up which makes me hate her even more.
And then comes Danny and my worst fear is confirmed - Martin chose to ignore everything she went through. The fact that the first times she had sex she was actually raped and the loss of her unborn son were ignored and she was living her life as if nothing aside from Drogo's death happened. And although I was expecting it, because it was already clear in the first book that Martin didn't know how to deal with rape in a world that found it normal, it still made me so angry. Danny deserved better. Both in life and from the man who created her character - she deserved to have everything she went through acknowledge and dealt with.
But because one time wasn't enough, Martin decided to have yet another character raped. This time he decided that she had the right to be affected by what happened, to be left with emotional scars and traumatized. So, he did a good job dealing with it this time, right?!, you may ask. Wrong! Because although he allowed the character to suffer with what happened, he painted her in such a bad light that you can't really say Martin did a good job. He made everyone view her like a dumb, hysterical, fragile and weak girl, which I believe many would do without much effort. My problem is that the only time she showed up on page, Martin did nothing to change that view of the character, isntead he only reenforced the idea that she is weak and useless.
Faced with that reality, I feel obliged to repeat what I said in the review of the previous book - if an author isn't sure that s/he is capable of handling rape well, don't include it in the book. That would be the right, most sensitive thing to do.
Overall, I feel sad for saying that I was glad when I finally finished the book, because with a book that is filled with political intrigue, povoated with so many complex and interesting character and with a world so original and unforgetable that's not how I should have felt. I should have been sad it was over and wanting to read it all over again.
"When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fead what he might say."
My little, beautiful paradise of lies, betrayals and political intrigue. And yet, this time paradise isn't as perfect as I found it to be when I read A Game of Thrones.
But I think I should start by remembering the good things, which are actually quite a few. After all, those are the ones that make me happy, made me keep reading and have me wanting to read the third book!
After Martin introduced such a diverse, complex and interesting world in the first book, I thought there was no way he could make it richer. He proved me wrong. In this book, Martin takes us to visit new places, see new cultures, get in touch with new people. And the result is a world even more admirable, even more beautiful and diverse, even more credible, which is a huge compliment when so many fantasy elements can be found everywhere.
In fact, that's something I realized in this book and that made me admire Martin even more - the credibility he managed to make his world have. Although it is filled with things we can't find in our own world (if you ever find a dragon, please let me know, I would give you all my money to see it!), I can't help feeling like there's a chance this world Martin created could have existed, feeling like it might be real. That's how well Martin wrote it.
I believe the main reason for that is the balance he was able to mantain between those fantasy elements and realistic elements - the people and their dynamics. Realistic elements that, we must not forget, are delightful. I was worried that in the second book we would somehow get less political intrigue. Don't get me wrong, I am not stupid, I was aware that with everyone preparing and starting a war, political intrigue was a must, but I was scared that the Court intrigue part would be lost, since now the Court was fully controlled by the Lannister without clear opposition. After all, the Stark and the Baratheon families were gone from Court - for obvious reasons Sansa didn't count. I am glad to admit I was wrong and that it is still a part of the story. In fact, the Lannister family alone has enough intrigue between each others to fill the entire book if Martin felt like that.
The one thing I liked the most wasn't the fact that Martin was capable of keeping Court intrigue as part of the plot, though. Even if I would be sad, I think I would be able to live without it. What I liked tje most was the war strategies and discussions. Martin made them complex and interesting enough that I could understand them and enjoy reading them because they felt believable, but not so complex I would feel like I was getting a crash course in war strategy.
All things together contributed to a plot that was just as interesting and delightful as the A Game of Thrones one. I was just so happy reading those parts.
But unlike the first book, this time my only problem wasn't the way rape was handled (although it remained an issue).
You see, Martin created this whole set of complex, interesting and diverse characters for his first book and they were so many that I wasn't even expecting new ones to show up in the second book. However, Martin did create even more character to populate his fabulous world in this second book. Several more complex and interesting characters with their own traits to interact with all the other characters that already existed (I still can't believe Martin has the capacity to put so many characters in his books without forgetting any of them), creating several new dynamics between everyone that made the whole plot even more intricate and addicting. And I was so happy about that in the beginning, specially when I realized there would be even more PoV's in this book, which meant I would be able to know some of the characters even better.
It turned out to be a disappointment, though. Not because the new characters were bad, I have already said they were just as amazing as the ones I had already met in the first book, but because while in first book Martin worried a lot more about the background and the world, in this book Martin worried about all the characters he hadn't had the chance to develop with all the depth they deserved in the first book.
Of course, I understand the importance of that, but almost none of those characters he decided to use this book to develop died, which means he had no need to develop them so much in this book - he had all the next books to continue that work. And by deciding to develop all the characters in this book, Martin made the whole plot so freaking slow. In the first book, he had to develop the plot in order to develop the world, because he needed to get to a certain point of it to be able to share this or that information about the world, which lead to a fast pace that turned out to be perfect for the book. This time, however, it was the exact opposite. The slower the pace, the more time he had to develop the characters, because if the action was too fast he wouldn't have the time to focus on the characters.
But even if he had to slow down, there was no need for Martin to settle for such a slow pace - I have seen snails move faster! I would read three or four chapters just to realize not even one day was over yet. And every single time Martin decided to do that, obviously he managed to develop the character he wanted, but there wasn't enough things happening to make the chapters that interesting and I ended up with this urge to bang my head against a wall until I pass out, just so I had an excuse to stop reading.
After a while, no matter how much the political intrigue was making me happy, this book started feeling like a chore I had to do, which had the obviously weird result of me not wanting to read it. Weird, isn't it?! 🤔 It started feeling like the book would never end, the political intrigue and the new magic elements being my only reasons to keep going - I may hate Melisandre but all the mystery she added to the book was pretty much one of the only reason I didn't give up which makes me hate her even more.
And then comes Danny and my worst fear is confirmed - Martin chose to ignore everything she went through. The fact that the first times she had sex she was actually raped and the loss of her unborn son were ignored and she was living her life as if nothing aside from Drogo's death happened. And although I was expecting it, because it was already clear in the first book that Martin didn't know how to deal with rape in a world that found it normal, it still made me so angry. Danny deserved better. Both in life and from the man who created her character - she deserved to have everything she went through acknowledge and dealt with.
But because one time wasn't enough, Martin decided to have yet another character raped. This time he decided that she had the right to be affected by what happened, to be left with emotional scars and traumatized. So, he did a good job dealing with it this time, right?!, you may ask. Wrong! Because although he allowed the character to suffer with what happened, he painted her in such a bad light that you can't really say Martin did a good job. He made everyone view her like a dumb, hysterical, fragile and weak girl, which I believe many would do without much effort. My problem is that the only time she showed up on page, Martin did nothing to change that view of the character, isntead he only reenforced the idea that she is weak and useless.
Faced with that reality, I feel obliged to repeat what I said in the review of the previous book - if an author isn't sure that s/he is capable of handling rape well, don't include it in the book. That would be the right, most sensitive thing to do.
Overall, I feel sad for saying that I was glad when I finally finished the book, because with a book that is filled with political intrigue, povoated with so many complex and interesting character and with a world so original and unforgetable that's not how I should have felt. I should have been sad it was over and wanting to read it all over again.
"When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fead what he might say."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, and War
Minor: Rape and Misogyny