Ranking: 2/5 Crownless Kings
Favorite Quote: “I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to list.”
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin is the second book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series that was published in 1998. A Clash of Kings picks up directly after the death of King Robert Baratheon and with five possible claims to the Iron Throne, Westeros is locked in a civil war.
To be completely honest, this book was the hardest in the series for me to get through. When I originally began the series in seventh grade, I only made it halfway through this book and years later when I set out to try the series again this book seriously made me reconsider if reading the series was worth it. This book is at an unfortunate time in the story, the first book in the series introduced us to the world of Westeros and all of the characters and the books after this were filled with battles and magic. This book, unfortunately, is focused on the politics of Westeros more than anything else; and while I am a fan of history and worldbuilding I don’t necessarily favor a lot of political talk in my fantasy books.
The standout POVs in this book for me were Daenerys (no surprise there), Jon and Catelyn. While I do appreciate Arya as a character her storyline never much stuck out to me here and was often ranked somewhere in the middle of my ranking of POVs. Sansa also stuck out to me in this book, something that generally surprised me. I find that Sansa often gets a lot of unwarranted hate and people assume she is a traitor to her father and her family. I heavily disagree with this statement, Sansa was a scared child who was being used as a pawn by the world around her. She knew what was happening was wrong but she feared for her life and the lives of her other family members. I would also like to note that Sansa was not prepared by her parents, Ned and Catelyn, to play the game of thrones.
Overall, while I believe that A Clash of Kings is the hardest book to get through in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, it does have some good moments and helps to set up the poltine for the rest of the overarching story.
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