A Clash of Kings

Finished reading George R. R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings Tuesday night after a marathon reading session (over a hundred pages of stealth reading each of the last three days). I couldn’t put the darn thing down. And earlier yesterday, coupon in hand, I drove down to my local book retailers and bought the third book in his four-book-to-date series.

As far as A Clash of Kings goes, what can I say that I haven’t said before, here and here? The first book of the series, A Game of Thrones, purchased used as almost an afterthought, completely and utterly blew me away. I can’t write strong enough how good these books are, and I’m speaking as one who really isn’t a fantasy geek. Martin continues his multi-thread epic, following a dozen or so main characters and a cast of hundreds. Kingdoms and castles, island nations, sea battles, sorcery, the undead, deceit, scorched-earth, armored armies and cruel mountain bandits, three or four belief systems with corresponding gods and goddesses, the ceaseless circle of struggle and triumph. It all undeniably flows, and you care about these people; you want justice for the wronged and for good to ultimately win the day.

However, I’m detecting a pattern. A Game of Thrones was 807 pages long; A Clash of Kings 969. Looking through my newly-purchased copy of A Storm of Swords, I note that it is 1,128 pages in length. It seems each book is 160 pages longer than its predecessor – hey, that’s an average-sized science fiction paperback, like the dozen or so I have unread on my bookshelf behind me. After Thrones I read a couple of short peripheral books. I’m going to continue the tradition. This time, before starting on Swords I’m planning on reading The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey and A Case of Conscience by James Blish.

To the uninitiated (and I am basically one myself), Josephine Tey was a master mystery writer of the 40s and 50s who died too young. I read perhaps her most famous novel, The Daughter of Time, back in November of 2007, while recuperating from my first heart procedure. Incidentally, the novel’s protagonist, one Inspector Grant, is also recuperating, only from an accidental injury he got On The Job. Bored and laid up in a hospital bed, Grant turns his inquisitive mind on solving a centuries-old crime: Did King Richard III of England kill the two young heirs to the throne in the Tower of London to gain power? What develops and how it develops and Grant’s conclusions I found very enjoyable, entertaining, and enlightening. I saved the book to re-read one day.

Anyhow, The Singing Sands is Tey’s follow-up to Daughter. Grant is still the protagonist. And, if I believe correctly, Ms. Tey died either before the novel was published or shortly thereafter.

Blish’s A Case of Conscience has been on my radar for years, and I finally found it by chance a few weeks ago. It got bumped up in the reading rotation, and I should get to it next week. Expect a big post about it as the novel details some difficult ethical questions, and I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and wade into the thick of it.

Oh, one more thing about the world of A Clash of Kings. I mentioned in an earlier post that it could be thought of as either Tolkien without the elves or like a modernized version of The Once and Future King. But experiencing how Martin fleshes out strange lands and peoples, their geographies and customs, their beliefs and their belligerence … well, it reminded me of Shardik, by Richard Adams. Adams is best-known as the author of Watership Down, but Shardik is a more in-depth, more mature and brutal work. I recommend it heartily, and if you’re interested, you can check out my thoughts on that work, here.