A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5/5 cats
WINTERFELLLLLLL!!
obey your nerds. is what i am learning. srsly – i was never going to read this series, but once i started… it is like a drug. and – yes – i watched season two before i read this book, but i am not going to wait for seasons 3-4 to read the next one, no way, because i am hooked and I MUST KNOW! and if any one of you people spoils the third book for me, i am going to make one of those torture devices with the bucket, the rat, and the torch, and it is bye-bye stomach for you!
i see now why it takes him so long to write these things. this is the densest and more fully-realized world i have ever read. martin just plants these little seeds, and they sometimes take hundreds of pages to sprout but when they do – oh my word! and there are so many little details, so much backstory, so many overlaps and connections, and history and so much depth to this world. it feels so genuine. it is like my beloved donald harington – where he created an entire town full of people and then just set them loose and let them live their lives, and his touch is so light that it feels like he is just writing down his observances of them rather than creating them, because the mind simply reels at the idea that all of these details and tight storylines came from one person’s mind. but with martin, the scope is so much bigger. and it kills me. there is just so. much. going on.
i loved the second season. and i love how reading the book after the season really enhanced my enjoyment. most of the show is faithful to the book, but not as much as the first season/book. but one is not better than the other. i am sad that some of the book-things didn’t make it into the show, and sad that some of the show-things were not in the book.but together – ahhhh – my brainheart is pleased.
the characters whose stories changed the most from the book to the screen are
View Spoiler »
(??? it is almost entirely changed for the show)
and
View Spoiler »
i mean, really – what could be better than every single one of these scenes:
View Spoiler »
so i was sad it was not in the book at all.
and obviously, all his stuff:
View Spoiler »
cuz he isn’t even in the book. robbed! View Spoiler »
hmmm more thoughts…at first, i hated
View Spoiler »
because of his affectation-laden dialogue. but oh, man, did i ever come around. and now i want one for my very own.
and who is a worse human being??
View Spoiler »
or
View Spoiler » ?
i am still deciding, but i am rubbing my hands in glee in anticipation of just desserts. although martin’s sense of justice is very specific and unpredictable. but a girl can dream.
the book is by no means perfect. every time it got to one of
View Spoiler »
‘s pov chapters, i was all zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
because, obviously, the only perspective that matters is
View Spoiler »
who is great in the books, but somehow even better onscreen. and everything with
View Spoiler »
is wayyy better onscreen, and since she is one of my favorite actresses, i am glad she has a lot more to do than was written for her originally.
and george r.r. martin…
so that is hardly a book review, but there are a lot of reviews for this book and i am pretty much ordering you to go out and read these right now, so just do it and stop your backtalk.
i leave you with this thought:
and this one, because oh my god – what a perfect comparison that i somehow overlooked!
twins!! my beloveds!
now go read.
oh, but p.s. – CHAINS!!!
god i loved this book.
Pingback: Book Review: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin – The Obsessed Reader