While GRRM was announcing the publication date for book 5 of A Song of Fire and Ice (A Dance with Dragons), I was finishing up book two (A Clash of Kings). There is a good chance I might be finished with book four before book five comes out. During the middle books of a long series, there is always a chance that the author will go off on an unrelated tangent or run around in place waiting until the finale comes. But Martin does a great job moving the pieces around and keeping the enough balls in the air, that we enjoy reading the book and are still looking forward to later pieces. So which kings are clashing?

In King’s Landing, King Joffrey’s Uncle Tyrion has been sent by his father to be the King’s Hand. With the incompetence and bad leadership being shown by Joffrey and his mother Cersei, the Lannister head forces a change to keep the throne from falling. Tyrion proves his intelligence and strategic ability and reigns in Cersei and Joffrey. He also plays strategic games against the Starks and tries to keep King Robert’s brothers fighting each other rather than grouping together against Joffrey.

Brothers Stannis and Renly have both declared themselves King and have a confrontation about who should wear the throne. Renly has the soldiers while Stannis has magic. King Robb’s mother Catelyn has gone to Renly to negotiate and now finds herself trying to keep the brothers focused on the Lannister enemy instead of each other. Former Stark Ward, Theon Greyjoy finds that life back at his father’s castle isn’t the same as he imagined it was. But when he finds a way to strike a blow against the Starks, he takes his chance, but he might have bit off than he can chew.

As the men of the Wall start exploring the other side of the Wall and find it scarier and far more dangerous than they imagined. And across the water Daenerys and her dragons are still searching for ships and an army to help her regain her throne. She knows that her dragons aren’t ready to fight or even be trained yet, so she works to use their promise of the future to get her arms now.

Overall Martin moves the pieces around the chessboard skilfully and sets up the stage for the Lannisters against the Starks fight that everyone is waiting for. But with Daenerys and the dangers across the Wall, whoever wins will still have a lot in front of them. Martin has taken a second book in a series, which can be a dangerous step and made a story that is as good, if not better than the first. He spreads the story across two continents and makes sure that the reader always knows what’s going on (not an easy task in a story as epic as this one) and still manages to surprise the reader. Martin also has a wonderful skill of having a book of fighting where all the fighting happens off screen and is still exciting and feels dangerous. Highly recommended.

This post is part of the thread: Song of Ice and Fire Books – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.