Author: George R. R. Martin
Type: Audiobook
Narrator: Roy Dotrice
Genre: Fantasy
Series: A Song of Fire and Ice book #2
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Random House Audio
Rating: 4 out of 5
Summary: from Amazon
A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.
Feelings:
I didn't like this book as much as I did the first in the series. It felt much slower than the first book to me. I kept reminding myself that this and the next book were originally going to be one book but because of length they were split into two books. That being said, it would have been very long if it was one book and splitting them was probably a good thing.
In this book we keep some of the old narrators from The Game of Thrones: Tyrion Lannister, Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, and Daenerys, and gained some new: Davos Seaworth, and Theon Greyjoy. Nine points of view. We all have the characters that we would rather read and the ones we wish would just shut up, or die, but they don't seem to. I was pleased to find that Tyrion seemed to have a large potion of the narration dedicated to him. He is a wonderful character and he lends humor to a book that is often dark.
This book slowed down the series and action. I noticed that lots happened when the narration wasn't with that individual narrator. This leads to there being lots of hearsay. There were a few characters that this was not the case for mostly because of their isolation for others, Jon Snow and Daenerys. I don't know that not always being present at the moment of the battle was a bad thing but I think that maybe it would have been good to see the action as it happened rather than by messenger birds.
The book does hold on the the reader and the world that is created is amazing. I would recommend the book to those that liked the first and the series to those that like epic fantasy. Also, be warned this is not a completed series, only five out so far, so you will be left hanging until the author finishes the last two books.
No comments:
Post a Comment