A Clash of Kings

In the second volume of „A Song of Ice and Fire” several factions claim their right to the Iron Throne and thereby to the Seven Kingdoms. The entire realm is at war and loyalties can change at any moment. Brothers are fighting against brothers and not everything is as it seems. Between incest, murder and intrigues everyone tries to find their place on the winning side. Until in the end it all leads to one final battle right at Kings Landing. 

I don’t think there is anything new I could add to the thousands of reviews already out there but since I review almost every book I read I did not want to make an exception here. To be honest I have no clue why I waited so long to finally start reading the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. While in the first book I had some problems to differentiate between all the different characters it was way easier in this one. Probably because I already knew all of them from the last one. So far I still have not watched the tv show yet because everyone keeps telling me to read the books first. Therefore I can not compare the two at all but I also do not think that this is necessary. While reading this book I really enjoyed the style of writing and also the great world building. I loved to have so many different POVs so I could really learn a lot about this world and all the characters and families in it. Although some characters are more important than others I would not say that there is one main character and therefore it’s not like most books where you can really watch one protagonist grow and change throughout the story. As the series progresses I hope we will see more developments in the main characters though. While the start of the book was a bit slow, the pace really increased in the second half and there was quite a lot of action.

In my opinion it’s a great sequel in the series and I will definitely continue reading the next book soon. 100% recommendation from my side.

Cold winds are rising through Westeros, five Pretenders are getting reading to claim what belongs in their mind to them, the Iron Throne. Neither of them is standing back from deadly plots, deceit and murderous claims. War is definitely coming, there is no one to trust, and everyone fights for themselves, even if it’s family. George R.R. Martin has truly created one of the greatest epic masterpieces, and the story continues. I know this series from TV, and although I saw how the story progressed, I always find something new in the books, some detail that adds to the bigger picture. It’s a truly long story to read, but you get used to the various characters and places, written in detail as if you were there yourself. I never had the feeling to be bored, the author has a way of telling that captures you to the end. I can’t wait to start the third instalment, in pursuit of unseen tidbits on TV.

Schon lange wurde kein Fantasy Buch so erwartet wie dieses. Dabei - es wundert einen ja nicht mehr - ist es weder fertig geschrieben noch auf Deutsch übersetzt. Der Autor feilt noch daran und "hofft es bis Jahresende fertigzustellen" (witzig dass es schon hier avisiert wird). Na, wir wollen mit ihm hoffen und uns freuen wenn diese Saga weitergeht (- hab ich vergessen zu sagen, dass die bereits erschienenen Bände sicher zu dem Besten gehören was je in diesem Genre verfasst wurde?)

George Martin gelingt mit diesem Buch ein weiteres Meisterwerk der Fantasy-Literatur. Das Buch ist trotz seiner extrem verworrenen und komplexen Geschichte ohne Mühe auch auf Englisch leicht zu lesen und zu verstehen. Es ist ein Buch, das man, wenn man es erst einmal in die Hand genommen hat, es nicht wieder schafft es wegzulegen, und ehe man sich versieht ist es zwei Uhr morgens. Falls Sie noch zwischen der deutschen und der englischen Version schwanken, entscheiden Sie sich unbedingt für die englische, da sonst ein großer Teil der Genialität von Goerge Martins Schreibstil verloren ginge.

Perfect second book