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clairebartholomew549's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book has a bit of a slow start with lots of table setting as the world expands to more characters and more locales, but picks up a ton in the second half. So many things happen in this book that are pivotal for the whole series, and it was fun to read this knowing what it all leads to. An interesting thing I noticed and a nice touch is that we never get any of the kings’ experiences - Stannis, Renly, Joffrey, and Robb - so we stay focused on the effect the game of thrones has on others. We get Dany’s perspective, but obviously she doesn’t have much power yet, and her story doesn’t really progress much. This book starts to show the devastating effect of the wars on everyone - it’s a bleak one, but endlessly readable.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and War
lujisa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War
coltonpugh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Great sequel that keeps expanding the world and the stories. Truly a great book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, and War
arthurianbromance's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence
lqne's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Sexism, Slavery, and Pregnancy
boundbyemily's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and War
13films's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
GOD. that was crazy.
first of all... SANSA! and the Tyrells! God, i have said all prayers just to keep her safe. My little bird suffered so much I feel so so bad. She had no family, alone with her abuser and dreaming of her dead direwolf with her! AND MY WIFE MARGAERYYYYYY!
Tyrion is fucked after the battle PLEASE. I loved loved LOOOVED his interactions with Cersei. the most entertaining arguments of all time mind you. They don't and will never get along unless they'll fulfill each other's quests and it's soooo funny and amusing to look at.
Arya escaping Harrenhall WE CHEERED! VALAR MORGHULIS, her murderer era has begun and i'm so thrilled for her story arc.
THEON GREYJOY YOU WILL ROT in a pig swamp with your head cvt-off. I hate you. I hate traitors. You're Stupid and RUTHLESS. you destroyed WINTERFELL. I was thankful Ramsay beated your ass but I'm gonna take it back because Ramsay's worse than a rat.
Catelyn and Brienne <3 small interaction but it was okay!
Bran. Yeah hes alright. Hodor.
DAVOOOOOOOOS SEAWORTH. I need more of him. Melisandre carried. I'm so stoked for her.
Daenerys.... only five chapters and Qarth has done her DIRTY she's been betrayed and has been fed lies please 😭.
PRAYING FOR WHAT'S TO COME. I'm SO EXCITED FOR THE TYRELLS THOUGH.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War
crystalstarrlight's review against another edition
4.0
Bullet Review:
Was that really 30 discs worth of a book?! I've gone through 9 disc books in more time!
Really enjoyed this, maybe more than the first one. Some really big plot twists in this one - more than one made me gasp and run for confirmation to Wiki.
Full review:
You know, there are three kinds of reviews I really hate to write:
1) I wanted to love the book SO MUCH (maybe because so many of my friends loved it), and I hated it.
2) I felt meh about the book. There wasn't really anything WRONG with the book, but there was also nothing really extraordinary to talk about.
3) I loved the book, but really, a review saying, "I love this and this and this and oh yeah, this was awesome too!" is exceptionally boring.
This review is Option 3.
A Game of Thrones was a great start to the series, but I'll admit, as I listened, I got lost a couple of times and wasn't 100% sold on its awesomeness. I held back that fifth star so that the series would have some room to sell me.
Which is exactly what "A Clash of Kings" did.
ACoK is exactly what every moviemaker attempts to do when creating a sequel - bigger, better, louder, faster, more awesome, scarier, whatever. ACoK takes new chance, goes to new places, pushes characters in new directions and throws the most INCREDIBLE plot twists and character changes at you.
I'd go into more detail about what I liked and why, but...spoilers. Seriously, people, this is good enough you shouldn't let yourself be spoiled and actually experience it by reading or listening.
I was going to end by talking about my favorite characters, but I realize that may have some spoilers too. So instead, here's a list of my favorite characters, and if you wanna talk about why they are my favorites, let's move it to the comments:
Favorite Characters
Daenerys Targaryen
Catelyn Stark
Tyrion Lannister (DUH!!!)
Sansa Stark
Cersei Lannister
Ned Stark
Asha Greyjoy
Khaal Drogo
Least Favorite Characters
Viserys Targaryen
Theon Greyjoy
Bran
The Song of Ice and Fire series is really endearing itself to me. I love its balance of fantasy and realism; I love how the characters are flawed, how so many women play such diverse and important roles, how you can never quite predict what will happen. I can't wait to start up on the HBO Season 2 and then proceed to book 3!
CONTENT NOTE: I get that some people may not like to read books with incest, rape, and graphic violence (along with CHARACTERS being sexist, racist, etc.). This book has all of these items and a bit more. So while I do heartily recommend, I also want to warn people that these items are present.
Was that really 30 discs worth of a book?! I've gone through 9 disc books in more time!
Really enjoyed this, maybe more than the first one. Some really big plot twists in this one - more than one made me gasp and run for confirmation to Wiki.
Full review:
You know, there are three kinds of reviews I really hate to write:
1) I wanted to love the book SO MUCH (maybe because so many of my friends loved it), and I hated it.
2) I felt meh about the book. There wasn't really anything WRONG with the book, but there was also nothing really extraordinary to talk about.
3) I loved the book, but really, a review saying, "I love this and this and this and oh yeah, this was awesome too!" is exceptionally boring.
This review is Option 3.
A Game of Thrones was a great start to the series, but I'll admit, as I listened, I got lost a couple of times and wasn't 100% sold on its awesomeness. I held back that fifth star so that the series would have some room to sell me.
Which is exactly what "A Clash of Kings" did.
ACoK is exactly what every moviemaker attempts to do when creating a sequel - bigger, better, louder, faster, more awesome, scarier, whatever. ACoK takes new chance, goes to new places, pushes characters in new directions and throws the most INCREDIBLE plot twists and character changes at you.
I'd go into more detail about what I liked and why, but...spoilers. Seriously, people, this is good enough you shouldn't let yourself be spoiled and actually experience it by reading or listening.
I was going to end by talking about my favorite characters, but I realize that may have some spoilers too. So instead, here's a list of my favorite characters, and if you wanna talk about why they are my favorites, let's move it to the comments:
Favorite Characters
Daenerys Targaryen
Catelyn Stark
Tyrion Lannister (DUH!!!)
Sansa Stark
Cersei Lannister
Ned Stark
Asha Greyjoy
Khaal Drogo
Least Favorite Characters
Viserys Targaryen
Theon Greyjoy
Bran
The Song of Ice and Fire series is really endearing itself to me. I love its balance of fantasy and realism; I love how the characters are flawed, how so many women play such diverse and important roles, how you can never quite predict what will happen. I can't wait to start up on the HBO Season 2 and then proceed to book 3!
CONTENT NOTE: I get that some people may not like to read books with incest, rape, and graphic violence (along with CHARACTERS being sexist, racist, etc.). This book has all of these items and a bit more. So while I do heartily recommend, I also want to warn people that these items are present.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Rape, and Violence
onyxisalive's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed reading this.
This book has changing POV's, but, surprisingly, they are all super engaging and fun to read - I love how much character progression we got to see with this one (especially the female characters), it is really awesome to see them starting to become more independent and mature.
I really like the characters they picked to be the POV characters. By doing it the way they did it really shows how big the world is - however, there are a few events in the books that I would have liked to see happen, but it makes sense why we did not.
At certain points the descriptions felt a little long, but it never got so bad that I stopped enjoying reading the book.
The sack of kings landing felt a lot more weighty in here compared to show which I really liked. The battle of the blackwater was really good, but there were points, in my opinion, that it dragged a little, but was overall very awesome to read.
The characters actions felt very consistent with everything we had seen of them in the book.
This book, despite all the action felt very character focused, much of the combat happens off screen despite being called a clash of kings. However, as a very character driven person I did not mind this, and as I was already attached to all the characters because of the show I really enjoyed this one. On the other hand, it would have been nice to see some more of the events happen on screen, but I did like that it focused more of the impact of the events on the characters rather than the events themselves, for me, it made it a much more engaging read.
All in all, I really enjoyed this. Never at any point did this book feel really boring, I was engaged the whole way through. I could see some people struggling with this due to how character focused it is, especially in the middle.
This book has changing POV's, but, surprisingly, they are all super engaging and fun to read - I love how much character progression we got to see with this one (especially the female characters), it is really awesome to see them starting to become more independent and mature.
I really like the characters they picked to be the POV characters. By doing it the way they did it really shows how big the world is - however, there are a few events in the books that I would have liked to see happen, but it makes sense why we did not.
At certain points the descriptions felt a little long, but it never got so bad that I stopped enjoying reading the book.
The characters actions felt very consistent with everything we had seen of them in the book.
This book, despite all the action felt very character focused, much of the combat happens off screen despite being called a clash of kings. However, as a very character driven person I did not mind this, and as I was already attached to all the characters because of the show I really enjoyed this one. On the other hand, it would have been nice to see some more of the events happen on screen, but I did like that it focused more of the impact of the events on the characters rather than the events themselves, for me, it made it a much more engaging read.
All in all, I really enjoyed this. Never at any point did this book feel really boring, I was engaged the whole way through. I could see some people struggling with this due to how character focused it is, especially in the middle.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Misogyny and Slavery
Look up content warnings online.kirstym25's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Incest, and Rape
Minor: Misogyny and Slavery