Book 2: A Clash of Kings

Kudos to me for two important things:

(1) Last night, I did in fact manage to clean the apartment in preparation for our mini-get away, and (2) finished the second book in the Game of Thrones series.  I was hyperventilating at the thought of taking it with me this weekend and missing the sight-seeing because I was stuck in some fantasy land as kings battled it out for the throne.  Disaster averted.

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

No spoilers, so this review is gonna be quick.

I mentioned that the first book didn't read all that much like fantasy, but more like historical fiction.  Let me just say that the fantasy-type things that the first book alludes to, the second book begins to deliver.  Also?  The light bedroom scenes in the first book?  Yeahhhhhhh, there are a lot more of those and they're not so light.  It doesn't ruin the reading experience, but it's, you know, there, a lot, so be forewarned.  (I think I should win some kind of Bad Grammar Award for the number of commas in that sentence.)

My co-worker, C, has not read the books but has seen the entire HBO series thus far, and about every other day she asks me, "Have you got to the battle yet?"  I'm like, the whole book is a battle.  It's called A Clash of Kings...  So there must be some sort of disconnect between the second novel and the second series of the show, but that's neither here nor there.

The only other thing I can mention without giving anything away is that I was never bored in the first book, but there were two chapters, toward the end of this one, that I actually ended up scanning rather than reading.  They delved too much into the minutia (sp??) and if I had bothered to read it, I know that I would have become bored.  Martin does such a good job at keeping the plot (and suspense) moving, that I didn't want to get bogged down and lose the momentum.

In my opinion, other than the aforementioned tidbits, this book was every bit as enthralling as the first.  I am demonstrating an amazing amount of restraint and self-discipline by branching out at this point and reading something else instead of diving into Book 3.  It's hard.

Enjoy!