Captain Tuttle’s #CBR4 Review #45 – A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Oh yes, the kings, they do clash. Not just Robert’s son Joffrey (don’t get me started) and Ned Stark’s son Rob. Oh no. There are Robert’s brothers: Stannis, the rigid, conservative, weirdo who rules some islands or something; and Renly, whose claim to the throne makes no sense at all. Oh, and then there’s Balon Greyjoy, some random who rules some other islands. His son Theon was raised (hostaged?) by Ned Stark after Ned and Robert squished Balon’s rebellion.
And let’s not forget Daenerys Targaryen, recently widowed and the mother of three baby dragons (just go with it). And the guys at the wall in the North (the last thing beyond civilization and whatever scary things are up there) head over the wall to deal with the scary wildlings and whatnot.
After Ned is murdered, his elder daughter (Sansa) is pretty much trapped with the Lannisters, and his younger daughter Arya escaped with the help of a Night’s Watch man and pretending to be a boy. Ned’s widow Catelyn gets involved in the war, and trying to work some diplomacy between all the putative kings. That doesn’t work out, and she ends up on the run with Brienne, a really big chick. Theon Greyjoy turns against the Starks and takes Winterfell, mostly because his sister is more a man than he is.
Anyway, when this book ends, Stannis tries to take King’s Landing, but is outsmarted by Tyrion Lannister and most of his army (navy) is wiped out (again, Tyrion kicks ass, and is totally shit on by everyone but Jamie and kinda Sansa). Daenerys wanders the desert and then burns the shit out of Quarth, Jon Snow goes undercover, and I’m sure there’s a bunch more stuff. I think I’m going to have to re-read all of these before the next book comes out.
Cannonball Read IV 