A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
First off, does anyone besides
uclamaverickhave the A Song of Ice and Fire artbook? I have one rec for it, but it’s costly enough to really need more than one rec. Anyone know where I can find some good scans of it?
I get why this series is so hugely popular better here than I did in A Game of Thrones. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Thrones *points to posts* but didn’t see any “it changed the way I view fantasy” type things. This didn’t exactly change the way I view fantasy(in many ways, it’s several very good fantasy series-already well told-extremely well written and characterized-combined to make one huge story.
Martin manges to get a great deal of characterization in, given how little “page time” a lot of characters get, but my favorites are Jon, Catelyn, Arya and Sansa. Which I guess just means that I love the Starks.
Jon is, quite simply, an excellent coming-of-age hero. He has a dash of idealism and pride, but unlike most, he’s not stupid and he has flaws, and they’re flaws that both we and Martin are aware of. Catelyn is one of those characters where the men in her life should just stop being stubborn men and LISTEN to her, especially Robb. I like Robb quite a bit, too, but unfortunately, I think he’s too much a northman, and too much Ned’s son at such a young age to live long. He has a strong sense of purpose, duty, and honor, but lacks the wisdom to use them properly, and the people he turns to for guidance are just as straightforward and honest as he is and thus utterly useless when it comes to proper guidance. The only one really equipped to guide him through the war on the terms his enemies and allies will come at him from is Catelyn, but he’s too busy listening to the other men and trying not to depend on his mother to realize it. Which is why I think he’s screwed.
Arya is just one tough and clever little thing, not to mention determined, and she is going to be one extremely scary and dangerous lady in a few years. Sansa is a character where I can see why it took others a long time to like her, but really, the girl only ever did two things “wrong.” The first was to be raised to think that the worst thing she could ever do and the worst thing that could ever happen to her is to step on her gown and trip at a banquet, and the second was to make the mistake of assuming that everyone was as good and honorable as her parents are. The result of that was her father’s death, war, and her essentially becoming a monster’s whipping boy. Arya and Dany may technically have it rougher than she does, but they both started out far tougher and better prepared than Sansa, and the closest thing she has to a protector is the monster’s bodyguard(I don’t count Dontos because I don’t trust him and think he’s going to hurt and betray her…as much as she’s grown, she’s still incredibly naïve and innocent). All things considered, she’s handling an incredibly sucky hand as well as can be expected. As far as Bran and Rickon go…Rickon is a little bit and thus forbidden to die or get hurt…not that it matters much as this series started with a little kid getting tossed out of the window. As far as Bran goes, well, he’sthe little kid who got tossed out of the window. Like his sisters, he’s handling a really sucky hand well, though I think that, while he’ll make it out of the series alive, he won’t make it out of the series as a human.
As far as the Lannisters go…ok, seriously, how on earth did Tyrion turn out a mostly decent person with this family? His father is a monster by all accounts and his siblings basically started a war to avoid having their incest discovered(ok, one sibling overreacted, but the other is a monster) Cersei…needs to die. She’s a character who seems to get snide pleasure out of the pain of others, and seems to think torturing a 13(?) year old girl is a good passtime for a boy(not to mention essentially tricking her into an action resulting in her father’s death) and that women having problems getting past a massive gang rape is an annoyance. And really, she seems to take a snide pleasure in the pain of others so…yeah, needs to die. Joffrey’s just an evil, spoiled little monster and needs a really painful death. I can see why Jaime is big with some of my flist, but so far he’s more been talked about as being larger-than-life than he’s really done much, so I don’t really have a solid opinion on him yet. I do like Tyrion, screwed up as he is, though.
Theon Greyjoy is…urm…is he dead now? It’s not really confirmed. While I can see where he was coming from when he started out, it was also obvious early in this book that he was rotten, his not being accepted by his family and his people was just the incentive for his true(rotten) colors to show though. I do like Brienne quite a bit…Renly really didn’t deserve her love. And I like Sandor, but mostly because he’s screwed up. I admit, though, that I’m really not overly interested in Stannis and what’s going on on his front(aside from Brienne and Catelyn, I didn’t care about Renly, either) I get why what’s going on with him is important, of course, it’s just that, as a character, he and those around him are less interesting to me than the rest.
Probably going to read a couple short books and then A Storm of Swords.
uclamaverickhave the A Song of Ice and Fire artbook? I have one rec for it, but it’s costly enough to really need more than one rec. Anyone know where I can find some good scans of it?
I get why this series is so hugely popular better here than I did in A Game of Thrones. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Thrones *points to posts* but didn’t see any “it changed the way I view fantasy” type things. This didn’t exactly change the way I view fantasy(in many ways, it’s several very good fantasy series-already well told-extremely well written and characterized-combined to make one huge story.
Martin manges to get a great deal of characterization in, given how little “page time” a lot of characters get, but my favorites are Jon, Catelyn, Arya and Sansa. Which I guess just means that I love the Starks.
Jon is, quite simply, an excellent coming-of-age hero. He has a dash of idealism and pride, but unlike most, he’s not stupid and he has flaws, and they’re flaws that both we and Martin are aware of. Catelyn is one of those characters where the men in her life should just stop being stubborn men and LISTEN to her, especially Robb. I like Robb quite a bit, too, but unfortunately, I think he’s too much a northman, and too much Ned’s son at such a young age to live long. He has a strong sense of purpose, duty, and honor, but lacks the wisdom to use them properly, and the people he turns to for guidance are just as straightforward and honest as he is and thus utterly useless when it comes to proper guidance. The only one really equipped to guide him through the war on the terms his enemies and allies will come at him from is Catelyn, but he’s too busy listening to the other men and trying not to depend on his mother to realize it. Which is why I think he’s screwed.
Arya is just one tough and clever little thing, not to mention determined, and she is going to be one extremely scary and dangerous lady in a few years. Sansa is a character where I can see why it took others a long time to like her, but really, the girl only ever did two things “wrong.” The first was to be raised to think that the worst thing she could ever do and the worst thing that could ever happen to her is to step on her gown and trip at a banquet, and the second was to make the mistake of assuming that everyone was as good and honorable as her parents are. The result of that was her father’s death, war, and her essentially becoming a monster’s whipping boy. Arya and Dany may technically have it rougher than she does, but they both started out far tougher and better prepared than Sansa, and the closest thing she has to a protector is the monster’s bodyguard(I don’t count Dontos because I don’t trust him and think he’s going to hurt and betray her…as much as she’s grown, she’s still incredibly naïve and innocent). All things considered, she’s handling an incredibly sucky hand as well as can be expected. As far as Bran and Rickon go…Rickon is a little bit and thus forbidden to die or get hurt…not that it matters much as this series started with a little kid getting tossed out of the window. As far as Bran goes, well, he’sthe little kid who got tossed out of the window. Like his sisters, he’s handling a really sucky hand well, though I think that, while he’ll make it out of the series alive, he won’t make it out of the series as a human.
As far as the Lannisters go…ok, seriously, how on earth did Tyrion turn out a mostly decent person with this family? His father is a monster by all accounts and his siblings basically started a war to avoid having their incest discovered(ok, one sibling overreacted, but the other is a monster) Cersei…needs to die. She’s a character who seems to get snide pleasure out of the pain of others, and seems to think torturing a 13(?) year old girl is a good passtime for a boy(not to mention essentially tricking her into an action resulting in her father’s death) and that women having problems getting past a massive gang rape is an annoyance. And really, she seems to take a snide pleasure in the pain of others so…yeah, needs to die. Joffrey’s just an evil, spoiled little monster and needs a really painful death. I can see why Jaime is big with some of my flist, but so far he’s more been talked about as being larger-than-life than he’s really done much, so I don’t really have a solid opinion on him yet. I do like Tyrion, screwed up as he is, though.
Theon Greyjoy is…urm…is he dead now? It’s not really confirmed. While I can see where he was coming from when he started out, it was also obvious early in this book that he was rotten, his not being accepted by his family and his people was just the incentive for his true(rotten) colors to show though. I do like Brienne quite a bit…Renly really didn’t deserve her love. And I like Sandor, but mostly because he’s screwed up. I admit, though, that I’m really not overly interested in Stannis and what’s going on on his front(aside from Brienne and Catelyn, I didn’t care about Renly, either) I get why what’s going on with him is important, of course, it’s just that, as a character, he and those around him are less interesting to me than the rest.
Probably going to read a couple short books and then A Storm of Swords.