A clash of king thoughts
So I've just finished A Clash of Kings and want to write down my thoughts before continuing on.
Overall I didn't like it as much as the first book, but now I'm invested enough in the characters that I want to see how it will end. Overall the pacing of the book felt very uneven. First you could have very long passages with detailed descriptions, then you started the next chapter with a notice that something big had happened offscreen. My main issue with book two though is the fact the magic is getting a greater influence. I don't like magic, and that is usually what keeps me away from fantasy. I liked the first book because there was so little magic, but now it's getting stronger and I don't like it.
Anyway, on to the characters.
Tyrion is the best and most interesting character. The second character that gets quite a lot of space is Catelyn, and yes I like her too. I think she deserves to get some notice that Arya, Bran and Rickon are alive though. I don't like Bran turning more and more into a wolf. I was also right when I said that I thought Theon was set up to make something stupid, and sure enough that happened. I hoped that he would redeem himself after his stupid attack on Winterfell, but no that didn't happen.
Current balance
As I see it Westeros is split in half. In the north you have Robb/Starks/Tullys as the main contender, but with their problematic small king in Balon Greyjoy and a great supernatural thread in the North. Then you have Joffrey/Lannisters/Tyrell with their problematic small king in Stannis and a great supernatural threat in Daenarys in the south. I think it's getting more and more clear that Jon and Dany will combine somehow, after all it's "A song of ice and fire" and Jon is the ice and Dany is the fire. The worst part though is that if Jon and Dany are to end up as the winners in the game of thrones, that means that Robb will have to die. At the moment I'm starting to think more and more that he's not going to survive. My dream scenario is that Robb and Dany will join up and Jon will somehow be commander of the Night Watch and happy with that. For that to come true Robb would have to give up his promise of marrying a Fey girl, and since he's a Stark the chance of him breaking a promise is slim. So now, I can't really see a way out of this that would mean that Robb is alive by the end of the book series.
Regarding the book and my thoughts for the TV-series. It's clear that some of the character development that I saw in the TV-series compared to the book were because of things that had moved from book two into series 1. I also think that they will have to do some changes, mostly to make sure that Jaime and Robb gets some screen time, they were after all mostly off screen in the book, and I think the TV audience would be disappointed not to see those two characters at all.
Members of the Stark household that died:
All of Winterfell but of the named characters Cassel and Luwin where killed.
Overall I didn't like it as much as the first book, but now I'm invested enough in the characters that I want to see how it will end. Overall the pacing of the book felt very uneven. First you could have very long passages with detailed descriptions, then you started the next chapter with a notice that something big had happened offscreen. My main issue with book two though is the fact the magic is getting a greater influence. I don't like magic, and that is usually what keeps me away from fantasy. I liked the first book because there was so little magic, but now it's getting stronger and I don't like it.
Anyway, on to the characters.
Tyrion is the best and most interesting character. The second character that gets quite a lot of space is Catelyn, and yes I like her too. I think she deserves to get some notice that Arya, Bran and Rickon are alive though. I don't like Bran turning more and more into a wolf. I was also right when I said that I thought Theon was set up to make something stupid, and sure enough that happened. I hoped that he would redeem himself after his stupid attack on Winterfell, but no that didn't happen.
Current balance
As I see it Westeros is split in half. In the north you have Robb/Starks/Tullys as the main contender, but with their problematic small king in Balon Greyjoy and a great supernatural thread in the North. Then you have Joffrey/Lannisters/Tyrell with their problematic small king in Stannis and a great supernatural threat in Daenarys in the south. I think it's getting more and more clear that Jon and Dany will combine somehow, after all it's "A song of ice and fire" and Jon is the ice and Dany is the fire. The worst part though is that if Jon and Dany are to end up as the winners in the game of thrones, that means that Robb will have to die. At the moment I'm starting to think more and more that he's not going to survive. My dream scenario is that Robb and Dany will join up and Jon will somehow be commander of the Night Watch and happy with that. For that to come true Robb would have to give up his promise of marrying a Fey girl, and since he's a Stark the chance of him breaking a promise is slim. So now, I can't really see a way out of this that would mean that Robb is alive by the end of the book series.
Regarding the book and my thoughts for the TV-series. It's clear that some of the character development that I saw in the TV-series compared to the book were because of things that had moved from book two into series 1. I also think that they will have to do some changes, mostly to make sure that Jaime and Robb gets some screen time, they were after all mostly off screen in the book, and I think the TV audience would be disappointed not to see those two characters at all.
Members of the Stark household that died:
All of Winterfell but of the named characters Cassel and Luwin where killed.