Book Review: A Clash of Kings

TITLE: A Clash of Kings
Book 2 in the Song of Fire and Ice series
AUTHOR: George R. R. Martin
PUBLISHED: 1999
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: fantasy, drama
PREMISE: The conflict continues between kings and queens.
MY REVIEW:I was one of the many who fell in love with Game of Thrones last year thanks to HBO bringing it to everyone's attention. I will warn those that don't know: this series is not happy. These are not ideal characters. In fact, many of them you will want to smack (hey there, Theon) many times. But they are fascinating at the same time.
Clash of Kings is just as good as the first. So many developements happen, so many people die (seriously if you couldn't handle Deathly Hallows or Mockingjay don't read this book). Yes, I cringe a bit at the treatment of women in this series but it makes sense. This is a obviously modeled after history. In history women were treated horribly. What's interesting here is to see how they respond to it and manage to thrive as well as they can despite the rampant sexism they face. So no, I actually don't think Martin is anti-feminist (since I'm sure someone will bring that arguement up).
I continue to love this series and hopefully will finish the remaining three books this year (as well as the Millaneum Trilogy by Stieg Larsson).
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that have read (or watched) A Game of Thrones, epic fantasy fans
MY RATING: Five out of Five knights