A review by ianbanks
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin

3.0

I’ve often held that Mr Martin is one of the finest short story writers in the field. I don’t like his novels, though. This was almost an exception. It reads well, the characters are vividly written, the setting feels lived-in and real... I just didn’t care for it. My main problem is that the stakes are too low: we’re just looking at swapping one mad, homicidal bastard for another. I just didn’t care for any of the major characters and their motivations and the characters I did feel something for have stories I can read in other books that tread a lot of the same beats without having to deal with the other plots. It also bugs me that the setting is one that deals with seasons that are years long and methods of dealing with the onset of lengthy winters that - we are told - have been lived with for nearly eight thousand years, but nobody is properly getting ready for it. There’s been uncertainty and civil war for countless centuries but people still aren’t living in a society that builds for the long-term. I mean, it explains why the society is still at a medieval level despite being as old as our own recorded history - they’d rather fiddle while Rome burns - but it doesn’t explain why everyone is so eager to burn fields and crops rather than stockpile. When I stopped thinking about that, though, I was having a reasonable time: Martin does turn a nice phrase, despite committing the editorial sin of explaining all his intrigues and plots very slowly and clearly so that readers can keep up.