On A Clash of Kings

I consider myself a fast reader. I used to inhale the Harry Potter books on release day like they were crack cocaine, and pretty much any title that holds my interest I can polish off within two days at the most.

But it’s going to take me a good long while to get through George RR Martin’s mountainous tomes.

Yes, they’re long, 800 or 900 pages I believe for these first two books, but it’s more than that. They’re dense, but more importantly they’re dense and good. That means you want to read slowly and carefully so you don’t miss a beat in the plot, and learn as much about the universe as possible.

For these first few books, much of my discussion of them will likely have to do with how they compared to the show. Later, once I read ahead, it will be more about the twists and turns of the plot as we’ve already covered that for the first two season with my weekly episode reviews.

A Clash of Kings makes up about 95% of season two, with a few choice scenes saved for the beginning of Storm of Swords I’m guessing, as they’re too important to leave out entirely. It’s the war of the four (five, six?) kings after the tumultuous events of book one. And I should probably mention season two spoiler start now, along with a few from season three possibly.

Just as hateable on paper.

The first book and the first season were similar almost to the letter most of the time. Yes, extra scenes were cut that added depth to things, but there didn’t seem to be all that many plot changes, even minor ones. I’d heard that book two is where things start to get a little wonky and deviate from the book, but I was expecting a wider gulf than I found. Yes, certainly there is more that is different here, but I was thinking we might see Walking Dead level divergence, where characters live for eons past where they’re supposed to, die early or don’t exist at all.

Rather, it’s nothing that extreme, but there is a lot that was altered for the show, likely due to time and/or money constraints. Some may have even been orchestrated by Martin himself as he realized perhaps he was being  a bit too cumbersome in the novels.

I still love his writing in this second outing. His attention to detail is slavish and it feels like each sentence has a lot of thought put into it. Martin can get lost sometimes, however, with the size of his universe. He loves going on forever about dozens of different lords and their knights and ladies and it gets exceedingly hard to keep track of the ones we don’t know. Names will sound familiar, but it’s easy to have your head start spinning. And during times when he should be focusing on the action, he can get lost in name dropping too. The battle of Blackwater Bay was a great moment in the book and show, but he spends no less than six paragraphs naming practically every single boat in the battle.

The one plotline that really I didn’t like from the show that’s somehow even worse in the book is Daenery’s trip to Qarth. Her adventures with Drogo and Viserys in A Game of Thrones might have actually been the best story in that whole book, but here? She’s aimless. She barely even appears in the book and when she does she’s wandering around begging for gold to buy ships and warriors. Her dragons aren’t stolen, but she does have a mind-trippy journey through the tower of the Undying. I did feel like she got a rather important message from the Undying in the book that wasn’t in the show, a long speech about three betrayals and a few other sets of three that seem rather important to the future of her character. I was also surprised to see Barriston Selmy show up in disguise (beard disguise!) before the book ended. Here however, he’s treated as a mystery figure neither she nor Jorah can identify, and has a fat, scarred warrior with him we haven’t seen on the show. I understand why they couldn’t make him mysterious on the show because we all would have instantly recognized Selmy, or at least a few devotees would have then told the rest of us.

Sadly, the “one breast bare rule” wasn’t adhered to on the show.

In the book, Xaro Xan Dax-whatever his damn name is doesn’t betray her, he simply can’t help her and gets mad when she won’t marry him so he shuffles off. No vault death for him. I hope Dany has a more engaging plotline in Storm of Swords, and something tells me that’s going to be the case.

Jon Snow’s story was nearly identical to the show, with a few exceptions. Near the end he spent a lot more time with Quoran Halfhand, and his plan to infiltrate the Wildings while keeping his Watch vows intact is explained more clearly.  I was surprised when Jon had a warg wolf dream, an ability I thought only Bran possessed. I don’t believe that’s happened on the show, and it would be odd if they both were wargs, wouldn’t it? I also have theories on Jon Snow’s parentage, but I’m going to withhold those for fear of someone telling me I’m right or wrong.

Speaking of Bran, one of the more tiresome stretches of the book are when he’s ruling Winterfell by his lonesome, which is when we hear a lot of talk about Lady Hornwood and bastards attempting to seize power and things I don’t quite understand. It’s unfortunately, because I think all that played into what eventually happened to Winterfell, something that is much, much more unclear on the show. Whether that’s on purpose or not, I’m not sure.

In the book, Theon is surrounded by Northmen led by Ser Rodrik (whose head he does not personally chop off this time), but he’s “saved” when the bastard of the Dreadfort attacks Rodrik with his Flayed Men. Theon isn’t saved however, he’s knocked out and Winterfell is burned, and as we know from season three, he wakes up a prisoner of the Flayed Men.

The Flayed Men are probably the biggest aspect of Clash of Kings that was missing from season two, but now appears to be coming to fruition in season three. They’re responsible for sacking Winterfell, but in the book their leader, Roose Bolton, also takes over Harrenhal from the Lannisters, aided by Arya.  Arya actually becomes Bolton’s cupbearer, not Tywin Lannister’s, which is a much less interesting development if you ask me.

When your sigil is a guy getting tortured, you know you have issues.

I don’t understand these Flayed Men, and why we’ve never really heard of them before now. They were Robb Stark’s bannermen, I thought, but now they’re attacking his men and razing Winterfell. But they’re obviously not allied with the other rebels in the region, as they had no love for Theon Greyjoy. In short, what the f*** is up with these guys? I suppose I’ll have to wait and see, but in both the show and the book, they’ve been introduced rather strangely.

I found it interesting that even though he took on a larger role in the second book, Robb Stark is still not one of Martin’s point-of-view chapter leaders. Rather, it’s always Caitlyn who is around Robb, and we see things from her eyes. Also, in Clash of Kings, Robb  doesn’t yet meet his bride to be, which seems to have been moved up for the show.

The problem with Martin’s style of POV storytelling among only a few characters is that sometimes thing happen offscreen that would have been nice to see. For example, when Joffrey and his royal escort are attacked in King’s Landing, we see the event from Tyrion’s eyes. That’s well and good, but we missed a rather key scene that showed The Hound coming to Sansa’s rescue. We only hear about it later. This happens more than once, and we lack live scenes between anyone who isn’t one of Martin’s 8 or 9 designated POVs.

Anyway, moving on to King’s Landing and the war there, Stannis has Melisandre kill not only his brother, but the holder of Storm’s End as well with her shadow magic. Storm’s End is barely mentioned on the show, nor is Robert’s bastard who lives there, but I’m guessing that will come into play later.

I quite liked the imagery during the final battle which had Renly Baratheon in his green armor slaying people left and right as he got his revenge from the grave on Stannis. I assumed that it was going to be Ser Loras wearing his armor, which would have been badass, but then I believe it was dismissed as a townsfolk urban legend. Still no direct confirmation of a relationship between Renly and Loras, but it is heavily implied.

“My heart will go onnn and onnnnnnnnnnn.”

Speaking of the bedroom, it’s now clear that Ros just doesn’t exist in the books, and I believe is the only character made up entirely for the show. Another whore whose name I can’t remember fills certain roles that she took on like pretending to be Shae for Tyrion, but it isn’t her. A bit strange.

The book ends before season two ends in some ways, and skips ahead in others. We see no approaching White Walker army. Robb is not secretly married or close to it. Catelyn has not freed Jamie Lannister which seems to be wayyy behind the show.

But for skipping ahead? Bran is with Jojan and Meera Reed for half the book. And at the very end, the drunk Ser Doxos Dontos (who barely exists on the show) gives Sansa some sort of jeweled hair net from Asshai  that he promises will help her get her revenge on Joffrey.  That hasn’t happened on the show yet, and it won’t be Dontos to give it to her if it does. Who will, Littlefinger?

A Clash of Kings is a solid book, though much like I preferred the first season of the show to the second, the same is true for the literature as well. There seems to be a bit too much wasted time between Dany idling in Qarth and Catelyn, Bran and Arya sitting around not doing much for 80% of the book until the end. And for as much as George RR Martin is supposed to be killing major characters left and right, the only big casualty was Renly, but I know, I know, more is coming. Also winter is coming, in case you hadn’t heard.

I’m nervous to start Storm of Swords as I’m sort of sad to finally pass up the show in terms of what I know. But then I suppose I can be a cool kid and have different sorts of conversations with different kinds of fans and still enjoy myself nonetheless. And it will be an interesting switch to now read the book and see the show after. I’m of the opinion that usually whichever you consume first seems better to you, and as much as I like the books, I think the show trimmed the fat a little better so far. But once I read ahead? Perhaps it will be the other way around.

Feel free to discuss, but remember, no spoilers! That’s half the point of me reading these in the first place, so be nice.