Every series of books needs formulaic titles. Tolkien dropped the ball.
The fifth book I've finished so far this year...
Yeah, fifth book this year. I felt pretty awesome, I must say. And then I slowed down.
Anyway: The fifth book, A Clash of Kings. The second book of George R. R. Martin's four-books-and-counting cycle, A Song of Ice and Fire. At the moment, I'm reading a book a year, so I'll probably catch up to him by the time Book Five rolls out.
Gods, this is a good Fantasy.
I talked about A Game of Thrones back when I read it last year, and reviewing my post, what I said still stands. What I do need to add is, while the body count in these novels is prodigious, the battles themselves tend to be left to the background. I noted in my first post that "The one thing that didn't work very well was the transition from Not-War to War." Which remains true: there are many battles which occur mostly in the background. But that's in part because of the way the camera works: it's always over someone's shoulder, never on a crane, which of course means that only those battles where one of the... *makes a quick count* nine point of view characters (again, not counting the prologue) are actually fighting. Given one of them is eight, and four of them are women (and props to Martin, by the way, for having a fantasy novel with strong women and a male-dominated culture), this doesn't occur as often as one might expect.
Now, there's still some things which I'm not clear on, mostly because it's been a year since I read the first book and so I've forgotten in the midst of a cast of hundreds of noblemen and knights and commoners exactly what (say) lead to the Targaryen's being overthrown fifteen years ago. It's arguably one of the more politically complex novels I can recall reading (complex in terms of the politics of the novel, rather than in terms of relevance to real world politics. Given how much of the debate relates directly to line-of-descent monarchism, there isn't much that can be easily applied to the United States Congress), because everyone has an agenda, an agenda driven by who they are and where they came from, one which frequently goes beyond the mere wish to get closer to the throne; some motives, we can't hope to discern until later novels. There is no mollycoddling here: all of our heroes will do foul deeds; all but the most minor of characters have their sympathetic, redeeming moments. Even Theon. Even Cersi. Even Jaime.
Well, not Joffrey, the stupid bastard.
In Joffrey's defense: he's ten. There are complex ten-year-olds in A Song of Ice and Fire, but they're all point of view characters, which makes it easier to give them nuance.
One interesting difference between the first and second books of the series was the way that (perhaps in contrast to A Game of Thrones) there was a decided, sudden turning point at the end of A Clash of Kings. I risk giving too much away, of course, but suffice it to say (if it does suffice) that the momentum of the books appears to suddenly switch direction after a couple pivotal moments (and deaths). A Clash of Kings is about precisely what the title says. A Storm of Swords, by the way this book ends, is not about the same thing. Not at all.
And, as I've said before: no matter how many balls Martin is juggling here, now pulling some new ones out of thin air, now allowing some to fall to the floor with a purposeful thud, never to rise again, there are always the most terrible and fearsome orbs he keeps separate from the rest, somehow looming in the background in a way that breaks the "juggling" metaphor. Winter is coming. Daenerys Targaryn, the Queen Across the Water, is slowly gaining power and yearning to do more than possess it (for what use is unused power?). And, as though Strange and Norell walked the earth once more, magic is coming back.
The troubles that face Seven Kingdoms are not over by a long shot. Curse the Gods, and thank George R. R. Martin.
Also, the title of the whole saga popped up on page 701. Which sent up a shudder, but also Ron Howard's voice: "Hey, that's the name of the book!"