My Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Amazon
Rating: 4.40 / 5.00
Goodreads
Rating: 4.37 / 5.00
This is the second book in Mr Martin’s highly
acclaimed ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series. I have previously reviewed Book
1: A Game of Thrones.
Warning: this review contains
numerous spoilers for A Game of Thrones: if you have not read that book I would
suggest that you avoid the rest of my review.
King Robert is dead, killed by a wild boar and his
own drunkenness, and the Iron Throne now belongs to the vile Joffrey. Lord
Eddard Stark refused to accept Joffrey as the rightful king, after discovering
that none of Cersei’s children were actually fathered by Robert. Although he
does not reveal his knowledge of her incest with Jaime to the realm, she sizes
the opportunity to remove him from power and he is beheaded after Joffrey
refuses to allow him to take the Black. Sansa remains a hostage in King’s
Landing, whilst Arya has escaped from the Red Keep and is being taken north by
Yoren of the Night’s Watch.
Each of Robert’s brothers, Renly and Stannis,
announce that he is the true king and begins to raise an army. In the north,
Robb Stark has won a series of battles against Lannister forces and has
captured the Kingslayer. Whilst at his mother’s ancestral home of Riverrun he
learns of his fatehr’s death and is crowned King in the North by his bannermen.
Meanwhile, the now crippled Bran Stark is trying to be the Lord of Winterfell
and is developing a curious link with his wolf, Summer.
The Mighty Tyrion has been dispatched to King’s
Landing to act as the Hand of the King in his father’s place. On the Wall, Jon
Snow has saved Lord Mormont from a wight and is now marching with Mormont to
take battle to the King Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder. Meanwhile, in the East,
Daenerys has lost her beloved husband, Khal Drogo, to treachery. However, she
uses his pyre to awaken the stone dragon eggs that she received from Master Illyrio
as a wedding gift. She is now the Mother of Dragons, determined to reclaim her
position as the ruler of Westeros.
High above all of this, a comet trails a red tail
across the sky.
Although we have lost two very powerful
personalities from book one (Robert and Ned), Mr Martin fills that gap by
introducing several new and interesting characters. He also gives us two new
Point of View characters to expand our view of the world. The first of these is
Theon Greyjoy, who was a constant presence in book one as a friend of Robb
Stark. However, it soon becomes clear that Theon is not as a good a friend as
he seems as he returns to his home in Pyke as an ambassador from Robb to his
father Lord Balon. Rather than providing the ships that Robb asks for, Balon takes
the opportunity to proclaim himself King of the Iron Islands and attack the
defenseless North. Theon is browbeaten into going along with this treachery and
indeed decides to take Winterfell for himself. The Ironmen are a hard, vicious
people, as we see from Balon and Theon’s elder sister, Asha.
The second new POV character is one of my favorites
in the series so far: Ser Davos Seaworth. He is an ex-smuggler who helped
Stannis Baratheon to withstand the siege of Storm’s End by smuggling food into
the castle. As reward, Stannis made Davos a knight, but also removed the ends
of his fingers because of his past crimes as a smuggler. Rather than resenting
this action, Davos understands why it was necessary and it totally loyal to
Stannis. He is levelheaded and sensible, offering Stannis blunt, honest advice
and is brave enough to never hide the truth from his master. Stannis trusts
Davos implicitly and appreciates his unfailing honesty and lack of political
posturing. Of course, Davos is almost universally despised by the highborn
people that he must deal with.
Of the new characters, I was pleased that four of
the most important are female. Melisandre is a red priestess who has thrown her
support behind Stannis. She is a very scary lady who can wield some amazing,
but horrifying, magic. She is very forceful and committed to her vision of
Stannis as Azor Ahai, a prophesized hero who will come to defeat the Others
with his sword of fire. Her introduction also reveals yet another religion in
this complex world and gives us a taste of some truly terrifying magic.
We are also introduced to Brienne of Tarth, a huge
and mannish woman who lives as a knight. She is in love with Renly Baratheon
and asks to be made a member of his Kingsguard as a reward for her victory in a
melee. Brienne is ugly and is nick-named “The Beauty” by the men that she can
out-fight. She is a deeply sincere person who continually fights against
prejudice and mockery to do what she wants to do.
Then there is Meera Reed, who arrives at Winterfell
with her younger brother, Jojen. The Reeds are intriguing characters because
they are crannogmen and children of Eddard’s great friend, Howland Reed. They
are trained in all manner of woodcraft and Jojen is a Greenseer, subject to
prophetic dreams. They become firm friends with Bran and will play an important
role in his future.
Another important female addition is Ygritte the
wildling. Whilst scouting in the wastes beyond the Wall, Jon captures Ygritte,
but cannot bring himself to kill her. Later, when he is forced to infiltrate
the wildling army by killing Qhorin Halfhand, she speaks up for him and advises
that Mance Rayder will certainly want to question Jon before he is killed. This
saves Jon’s life and also allows him to continue with his mission of gathering
information. Ygritte is earthy and funny, but she also gives us a different
point of view, by showing how the free people beyond the Wall feel about their
lives in comparison to those of the ‘kneelers’ in the South.
Arya collects some new friends in her role as
‘Arry’ the boy riding to the Wall with Yoren. Most notable of these is Gendry,
the young smith that we met in book one who was a bastard son of Robert
Baratheon. He is also travelling North to escape the wrath of the Queen,
although he is unaware of his ancestry. She also meets, and saves the life of,
Jaqen H’ghar, something that will become very useful later in the book as she
tries to get home before someone works out who she is.
As the strands of the story increase in number we
are shown more of the diverse cultures and societies of both Westeros and
Essos. From the Iron Isles in the North East to the wondrous city of Qarth in
the east, we see that King’s Landing and Winterfell are not the only cultures
that exist. We are also exposed to far more real fantasy. In King’s Landing we
see wildfire, which may be more chemistry than magic, but there is most
definitely magic in evidence in the House of the Undying, where the warlocks of
Qarth have lips stained blue by the ‘shade of the evening’ that they drink. We
also encounter a ‘warg’, who can share the consciousness of an animal, as well
as mammoths and giants north of the Wall.
However, these fantastical elements are not the
main reason why I love this series. Its success is totally bound up in its
characters, who are beautifully written and so lifelike that they carry us
forward. Some I love and some I loathe, but I want to know what happens next to
each and every one of them.
Other reviews that I recommend:
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