A Clash of Kings
Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel 1999, Nebula Award nominee 1999.
George R. R. Martin, a writer of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination, has created a landmark of fantasy fiction. In his widely acclaimed A Game of Thrones, he introduced us to an extraordinary world of wonder, intrigue, and adventure. Now, in the eagerly awaited second volume in this epic saga, he once again proves himself a master myth-maker, setting a standard against which all other fantasy novels will be measured for years to come.
A Clash of Kings
Time is out of joint. The summer of peace and plenty, ten years long, is drawing to a close, and the harsh, chill winter approaches like an angry beast. Two great leaders – Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon – who held 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, as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms prepare to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war.
As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky – a comet the color of blood and flame – six factions struggle for control of a divided land. Eddard's son Robb has declared himself King in the North. In the south, Joffrey, the heir apparent, rules in name only, victim of the scheming courtiers who teem over King's Landing. Robert's two brothers each seek their own dominion, while a disfavored house turns once more to conquest. And a continent away, an exiled queen, the Mother of Dragons, risks everything to lead her precious brood across a hard hot desert to win back the crown that is rightfully hers.
A Clash of Kings transports us into a magnificent, forgotten land of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare. It is a tale in which maidens cavort with madmen, 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, the price of glory may be measured in blood. And the spoils of victory may just go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel... and the coldest hearts. For when rulers clash, all of the land feels the tremors.
Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment – a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.
”Martin amply fulfills the first volume’s promise and continues what seems destined to be one of the best fantasy series ever written.” – Denver Post
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey), is an American author and screenwriter of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. He majored from Norhwestern University in 1970.
Martin sold his first science fiction story in 1971 and has been writing professionally since then. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on various television series and feature films. In the mid ‘90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with lovely Parris, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
A Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series has set the benchmark for contemporary epic fantasy. Martin has conjured a world as complex and vibrant as that of J. R. R. Tolkien’s, populated by a huge cast of fascinating, complex characters, and boasting a history that stretches back twelve thousand years.
Three great storylines weave through the books, charting the civil war for control of the Seven Kingdoms; the defence of the towering Wall of ice in the uttermost north against the unearthly threat of the Others; and across the Narrow Sea the rise to power of Daenerys Targaryen and the last live dragons in the world.
A Song of Ice and Fire consists of five primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of two more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series A Song of Ice and Fire (related works)
Related series A Song of Ice and Fire: The Graphic Novels
Related series A Targaryen History
Related series The Targaryan Dynasty
Book Reviews
A Clash of Kings is the second book of the amazing A Song of Ice and Fire saga. A Clas of Kings continues the story, which began in A Game of Thrones. This book is a masterpiece of modern fantasy. The story becomes more interesting and darker all the time and it's almost impossible to stop reading before you've reached the last page. If you enjoyed reading A Game of Thrones, you should read this book. I'm sure that you'll love it.