A Clash of Kings

A Clash of Kings is a book written by George R. R. Martin, and is the second book in the series of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, which has been adapted into the famous TV-series “Game of Thrones”. It is a fantasy book with action, war, mystery and the politics of nobles. It is a long book at 969 pages and a lot of characters. A reason I really like this series is the way the people of the book think and that the actions each character makes fits just that character. One of the things that I actually like is that the books are not written so that the main characters are always going to survive. Even though I like books, movies, etc. with that one hero that is strong and wins over evil I enjoyed this series’ multiple characters and the “more talk less fight”, because when they do fight someone is probably going to die.

You follow different characters from the noble houses of the four continents in this medieval world: Westeros, Essos, Sothoryos and Ulthos. Each chapter is from a different person's view and with all the characters you get favorites and there is never a long stretch of just boring stuff. The first book starts off with trouble at the court of the capital in Westeros: King’s Landing. A northern nobleman and old friend of the king is requested to be the “Hand of the King” as the previous had died, or had been killed. With the backstabbing and secrecy of the court the northern noble, and
respectful Hand of the King, and his family is put in grave danger. The second book, as the title hints, is the clash of four “kings” fighting for the iron throne at King’s Landing.

Most of the story takes place in Westeros and Essos in a medieval time. Westeros is warm in the south in King’s landing and just gets colder the more north you go beyond the Wall, where mythical creatures dwell in the snow. The continent has lots of forests, castles and farms.

Essos has large deserts and “seas of grass” but also cities with rich and poor. Without the stone castles and forests it’s the opposite of Westeros. The continent isn’t ruled by noblemen set under the rules of their kingdom, in Essos the rich buy the poor, outcasts from Westeros sail ashore and the dothraki travel the land. The dothraki are a kind of nomadic people, their religion give the horses a big importance in their society.

I recommend reading this series or watching the tv-series. It would be best fit for adults or young adults, because it has R rated stuff. I would rate this book a 8/10 because the book is very entertaining and interesting, but it was also very long and so many characters luckily I had seen the tv-serie so I had a face for every character so probably watch at least a little bit of the tv-serie. My favorite part of reading the books are that you get a depth of the character and also the end of each chapter, it always ends with a poetical thought or wit of the character.

According to me it is a must read or must watch series.

//Max