A Clash of Kings. By George R.R. Martin

Goodness gracious, two days in a row.  No, I did not finish A Clash of Kings in a Day, but if you want to think I am that skilled of a reader, then I won’t stop you.  Anyways, A Clash of Kings is the second book in The Song of Fire and Ice series by George R. R. Martin.  If you haven’t read or finished reading A Game of Thrones, you may want to hold off on my review as there may be a bunch of spoilers.  Now that Ned Stark is dead, (if that death doesn’t prove to you that no one is safe in Martin’s universe then I don’t know what will) the massive struggle for power is now underway.  In this book we are introduced to even more Houses and new characters.  The Stark children are for the most part left to fend for themselves.  And we have DRAGONS.  Dany’s story is getting more and more interesting as time goes on.  We are beginning to see how magic is starting to enter the world, but isn’t a major player…yet.  In this book we see how many people have made some difficult decisions in their life.  Jon Snow is in the Nights Watch and is learning a whole lot about what is beyond the wall.  There are multiple story lines going on in this book and we finally have a number of large battles.  I have found myself actually like Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow.  I think Jon Snow is still my favorite character, but as the author has proven in the past, there are no untouchable characters, I really hope Jon Snow is in it for the long haul.  I am very curious to see how the growth of the dragons affects the world and how they play into this story as a whole.  As the story progresses, you can see that for all the battles that have happened thus far, the worst is yet to come from beyond the wall, the coming winter, and the return of the Targaryen's to the Seven Kingdoms with dragons. The next book, a storm of swords is very long so I’m going to take a break on this series and move on to some lighter reading.  

A Game of Thrones. By George R.R. Martin

Well, it sure has been a while.  I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, but I have continued to read.  I just haven’t posted anything about the books I’ve read thus far.  I’ve been doing a lot of entertainment reading.  I’m sure I will get back to some more non-fiction soon enough.  But for right now I’m truly enjoying just reading interesting and entertaining stories.  One of the TV shows that seems to be getting a bunch of attention right now is Game of Thrones.  I have yet to actually watch the show, but from what I’ve heard, the contents seem to be interesting to me.  Just like a lot of movies these days, Game of Thrones is based off of a book of the same title.  But unlike the show, the book series is actually called A Song of Fire and Ice and Game of Thrones is the first book in that series.  The series is written by George R. R. Martin.  Like many other fantasy style stories, it takes place in a fictional world that resembles mid-evil England.  The world is extremely large and there are a lot of characters and families to know.  But for the most part, this book revolves around the House Stark, House Baratheon, House Lannister and House Targaryen.  It is a story of honor, friendship, betrayal, politics, loyalty, (or lack thereof) murder, and struggle.  Though the book hints to some elements of magic and the like, it is not like your typical fantasy story laced with wizards and magic. There aren’t elves or ogres running around. (Though they may come later in the series)  This is a story about humans.  This is a story about war and secrets and how they affect everyone.  Many fantasy books have great wars, but they only seem to affect the participants, very rarely do we get a glimpse of how the wars affect the other everyday inhabitants of the world.  It’s ugly, it’s brutal, and it’s not fair.  But then again when has war, or life for that matter ever been fair.  This isn’t like most fantasy novels.  There is lots of gray in this series.  There is no one that is 100% bad or 100% good. Characters die, even your favorite ones.  As I told Crystal, with this author, no one is off limits.  Everyone is fair game.  There is a lot of conflict, both physical fighting and between characters through threats and intrigue. If this book where a movie, it is definitely rated R. There is swearing and there is sex, just like in real life.  This book is very deep, very layered and very rewarding.  If you are looking for a very mature and break the mold type of fantasy story, you may want to check this one out.