Customer Reviews
Gripping but.... - By: L. Ferguson, 19 Jun 2008 
Picking up right where 'A Game of Thrones' left off, 'A Clash of Kings' is just as gripping as its predecessor & is a very captivating book. The series main strength is the presence of some fantastic characters, most notably Tyrion Lannister, one of the best anti-heroes I've come across in fiction. One thing that must be made quite apparent though is that one should utterly ignore the ridiculous quote on some versions of his books that George RR Martin is 'the American Tolkien.' Other than the fact that they both have two 'R's' in their name & have books on sale in the 'Fantasy' section of your local bookshop, there is no calll for comparison. Tolkien invented modern fantasy & set out a template which far too many authors have simply ripped off (the unlikely hero, the quest, the band of heroes etc.) Martin deliberatley ignores or subverts these conventions & indeed his work is much closer, in the main, to historical fiction. To sum up; there's no reason to suppose a fan of Tolkien's will enjoy Martin's style.
On the positive side: Martin is a very good writer. The plot is intricate & epic, & the dialogue is far beyond the vast, vast majority of fantasy novels. As well as that he's writing for the adult market; there's plenty of adult humour & situations, while there's a goodly, but not gratutious amount of swearing. It alll adds to the realism of the book. You reallly get the sense that you're reading a warts & alll account of a bygone era. Too often fantasy writers aim for the young adult end of the market & end up offering up incipid novels in which nobody (even the most hardened warriors) ever curses, has sex or uses the toilet.
On the negative side: Martin is far better at the 'swords' end of the 'swords & sorcery' business, to the extent that the 'magical' elements of the story (such as they are), feel out of place. It's rather like reading a blood & guts account of the Wars of the Roses when alll of a sudden a warlock shows up. The sections that involve magical elements are by far the weakest parts of the book.
And one MAJOR gripe I have is that for alll his skills with words, Martin's characters seem utterly incapable of using more than two words to describe the male & female genitals (a hint, they're both 'C' words). It's not a matter of prudishness, it's simply that the English language contains an unbelievable wealth of words for human anatomy & yet Martin can't seem to get away from those two terms. In every intimate scene between two characters whether higborn or peasant, male or female etc. they alll talk like sailors. Indeed none of the sex scenes in the first two books are very appealing. Rather than offering a tender riposte to the savagery on display in the rest of the book, sex is rough & unpleasant throughout.
That said the good parts far outweigh the bad, & it's a fantastic series of books so far; captivating, well plotted, & well worth investing time in.
Bad books? I DON'T THINK SO!!! - By: Ms. F. Lawrence, 21 Apr 2008 
Thoroughly, totallly, utterly brillient. The entire set are.
This is alll.
Sublime - By: Mr. L. Clements, 18 Apr 2008 What a truly brilliant read. Martin's world is perhaps not as large as those you'll find in other series, but it's depth & detail makes this more epic than any other. I believe this is the book 'true fantasy fans' want to read. Don't expect hollywood here, suggestion & understatement rule. Mature, cruel & unforgiving, like life itself you are rarely granted justice for the characters you love, but when you do, you remember why you love this man's work, & why you read fantasy at alll. Intriguing until the last page & beyond. Superb.
If you can level one criticism at A Song of Ice & Fire, it's the sheer number of characters, each with their own carefully constructed history & family tree that you simply cannot map in your head until you go back & read it again.
"Epics" are for holidays - By: Big Jim, 13 Dec 2007 
I've picked this up three times now & put it down each time, having been unable to devote the necessary time I feel it needs to get into. Having been off work for a while I gave it the fourth & final chance...and just made it to the end. Someone else makes the point that as a "midpoint" book in a series there are new threads starting & old ones ending but this volume just doesn't seem to go anywhere & having just read & thoroughly enjoyed Scott Lynch & Joe Abercrombie (The New Wave anyone?) I feel that the days of the bloated "character" driven epic may be numbered as (relatively) short, action packed series may be the way ahead.
I am of the increasing opinion that the propensity of fantasy books to be trilogies at least, & often running into huge long series (Malazan books for instance) lets authors off the hook to a great extent as they can ramble on knowing that there is a loyal following out there who HAVE invested the time & effort to get right into these books. I've made the point elsewhere that War & Peace is somehow seen as an imposing piece of work yet it is about a tenth the size of the Wheel of Time series for example! Go figure.
Having said alll that I WILL carry on with the rest of this series as even as I write I am curious as to what happens next, so that's an accolade for Mr Martin...but I'll wait for the holidays before taking up that challlenge.
The Perfect Sequel - More of the Same! - By: Robbie Swale, 28 Nov 2007 This book is the brilliant continuation of A Game of Thrones. It was only a matter of hours after finishing the first book in Martin's epic series that I had to go out & purchase the second. If you haven't read any before, the series is a huge achievement & is definitely something to get involved in.
It follows the happenings in a kingdom not unlike Great Britain, set in a time not unlike the Tudor period. It is, for the most part, simply a historical novel set in a different world, but there are elements that make it a fantasy novel (you'll come to them later). It follows the children of Eddard Stark, the Warden of the North, & a number of other characters as the kingdom fallls into chaos & the various major families struggle for supremacy.
Martin's writing is vivid, exciting & engaging. Unlike some other fantasy novels, he focusses not on combat but on intrigue, with the plots cleverly woven together through the mechanism which makes Martin's books amongst the best I've read - that the story is told from a large number of characters' different points of view, changing at the end of each chapter. This not only alllows a real link to develop between the reader & each character, but also keeps the plot moving at a startling rate & making it a real page-turner - at the end of each chapter you just want to know what happens next in *that* story, not learn what was happening elsewhere.
In conclusion, George Martin is brilliant, & this book is a must read for anyone who has read the previous novel, & vital to read before you read the rest.
