So, it's been five months since I read A Game of Thrones, the first book in The Song f Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, and I finally got to reading the second book of the series, A Clash of Kings.
AS mentioned in the first post, I decided to chronicle my journey reading these hefty tomes and to share with you some glimpses of my experience in case someone wants to do the same or just join me on this.
A Clash of Kings clocked in at 728 pages and it took me two weeks to finish it. Two weeks of A LOT more reading than I'm normally used to mind you. But I must say, I enjoyed it much more than the first book. I have already seen all four seasons of the HBO series and according the the internet, the TV show takes us up till the end of book three, which will be my next step in this journey. The first season turned out hat it stuck pretty much to the books but It seems that for book two the TV show creators began deviating a little; not much, but enough to keep the books still interesting and a little surprising. Another reason I may have enjoyed A Clash of Kings more is that I have watched season one of the TV show more than once but I only watched seasons two through four only once and I was binge watching so my memory of them is vague at best.
I must also say that from the TV show my best character is Tyrion Lannister, portrayed by the genius Peter Dinklage, and reading the books just made my admiration for him increase ten fold. The character and all his lines are perfect and he is just a delight to read and follow whether on the page or on screen. Tyrion's character got a lot of air time in A Clash of Kings, which in and of itself is a reason to love this installment in the series.But knowing that the TV show is deviating from the books I hope I don't get surprised by his death in the books any time soon. And please if you are reading this and already know the answer to that, please no spoilers. Even if he does live till the end of the most recently published book five, I still don't want to know. The anticipation is as sweet as the wines of Arbor.
Long story short, for book two of the series things are getting interesting and engaging. I read a lot over these past couple of weeks but it didn't feel like a chore, which reading should never feel like anyway. And stretching my reading speed is always good exercise.
The interesting thing right now is that season five of the show has just began airing and GoT noise in the media and on the internet has been relentless. I've been dodging spoilers left and right. I plan not to watch the show until I finish the books; the ones that have been published anyway. All reports say that the story lines are beginning to deviate greatly and will deviate even more as the show moves into season six and probably even seven. And of course right now the whole trouble revolves around whether GRRM will be able to finish the books ahead of the HBO series or are we going to see the ending on TV first. As an avid fan of reading I always prefer to get the first taste of a story printed on the pages of a book so I'm rooting for George and I hope he's already finished the books and just playing the fool for some marketing stunt or something.I'll break away from the world of Westeros for a while with some other books off my TBR list and I'll be back again with A Storm of Swords.
Until then, Valar Morghulis.
