The Terror of Knowing

Guess who’s still reading A Clash of Kings? Oh, it’s me!

The thing is… for all the A Song of Ice and Fire series intimidate me, and for all it took me three attempts to actually finish A Game of Thrones, I do end up with a real sense of achievement after completing one of those tomes. In terms of sheer bulk of pages, the series racks up quite an impressive count, especially since (at least in the UK editions) two of the books in the series were split into two volumes for publication. However, for all it takes a while to get settle into the world of Westeros, I do believe that, for the most part, this series really is a page turner. The short chapters thus far allow Martin to create as wide a panorama as possible given the complexity of his cast of characters and the plots in which they’re entwined, whilst still managing the pace of the overarching story and the vast territory it covers.

If I do have one bug bear at the moment? 300 pages in and I couldn’t give a flying fu- monkey’s about whatever is happening at Winterfell. With Robb cleared out, and Catelyn always off elsewhere, there is very little reason for me to care about Bran, unfortunately. Sorry but unless something more thrilling happens soon I will consistently greet ‘Bran’ headlined chapters with a groan of disappointment. I want all the political backstabbing (often literal) of King’s Landing and all the scheming of the despicable Lannisters and, weirdly, I’m finding more and more wanting to know about the Baratheons. Weird, but we’ll see how long it lasts since there’s still a good… 500? pages to go. Expect to see A Clash of Kings as my Friday Reads for another week more at least!

What are you reading this Friday/weekend? Anyone excited to start a new book? I think it’ll be a while before I have the chance to start another, without feeling like I’m cheating on A Clash of Kings.