shannon_a

I finished my reread of A Clash of Kings today.

I was pretty shocked by how poorly it compared to A Game of Thrones. It's still a great book, mind you, thanks mainly to the depth of its characters and the scope of its plot ... but the writing isn't nearly as good. A Game of Thrones was extremely tight writing, mostly in neat little 10 page chapters. Every chapter clearly had a point, and there's wasn't a wasted page.

Conversely, A Clash of Kings meanders a lot. Chapters flop all over, extending to 20 or even 30 pages with some regularity. Often it feels like not a lot goes on in the chapters and you don't have the same sense of something changing every 10 pages as you did in A Game of Thrones. In short, it read like a book that wasn't rewritten and polished ten ways to Tuesday, as I expect A Game of Thrones was.

After the first 200 pages or so, though, in which very little happens, it still kept me enthralled.

So with that said, I'm going to write-up my cheat sheet for this book, so that I can go back and look over it when book 6 is released, some 5-10 years from now. There will be spoilers, of course, so stop now if you haven't read book 2 or seen season 2.

A Clash of Kings

This book might feel slower because there's less going on.

In the south we have Stannis and Renly both rising up as kings, but Stannis somewhat unexpectedly goes after Renly, and kills him through dark magics. He then attacks King's Landing but is defeated by Tyrion (who destroys Stannis' fleets by filling the bay with fire) and Littlefinger (who arranges a marriage between Jofrey and Margaery Tyrell, resulting in Tywin's forces and the Tyrells [and the rest of the survivors from Renly] coming to save King's Landing).

In the north the Greyjoys start raiding, but then Theon decides to take Winterfell. He does, but in turn is defeated by the Bastard of Bolton, who sacks the castle and leaves.

In the west, Robb spends most of the book off camera, taking the fight to the Lannisters, rather successfully. One presumes he won't be very happy about what's happened north of the Neck in his absence.

Joffrey now seems to have the best claim on kingship, but we presume Stannis has survived, and Robb would be a contender if not for his concerns up north. Meanwhile, Balon Grayjoy might have declared himself a king by now.

The Starks

Ned. Still ead.

Benjen. Still missing beyond the wall.

Cat. Back at Riverrun, now having Brienne as her personal guard.

Robb. Returning from his successes in the West.

Jon. After an unsuccessful sortie into the north where all of his fellows have died, has been forced to join the Wildlings, where he's meant to spy upon them. The wildlings, meanwhile, are preparing to assault the wall.

Bran. Having fled the fallen Wintefell, is now heading northward with Meera and Jojen Reed and Hodor. Everyone thinks he's dead because of Theon's rather desperate flailing.

Rickon. Taken away by Osha the WIldling.

Sansa. Held by the Lannisters. Is no longer betrothed to Joffrey, but has been told that she might not be any better off now as he can just take her as a concubine. Her knight/fool plans to try and get her out of King's Landing on the night of Joffrey's new engagement party.

Arya. Has fled from Harrenhal with Gendry (Robert's bastard, a smith) and Hot Pie.

(It felt like both the girls spent most of the book in stasis; in fact that's true of a lot of people, really making A Clash of King a "middle" novel.)

The Lannisters

Cersei. At King's Landing, sometimes ruling for Joffrey.

Jaime. Still captured at Riverrun.

Joffrey. Still sitting the throne, doing stupid things and putting the whole kingdom in uproar.

Tyrion. Nearly killed in the battle at King's Landing, now abed.

Tywin. Sitting at King's Landing as the Hand for his grandson.

Others

Dany. Is returning with her people to the more civilized lands across the Narrow Sea, upon boats sent her by Ilyrio.

Littlefingers. The hero of the day, having returned to King's Landing just in time with the Tyrells.

Stannis. We haven't seen him since before his armies defeat. Meanwhile we haven't seen his onion knight, Davos, since Davos' ship went up in fire (presumable killing Davos' sons as well).

Theon. Captured by the Bastard of Bolton.