A Clash of Kings

Book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Roy Dotrice

Length: 37 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

The complete, unabridged audiobook of A Clash of Kings.

HBO’s hit series A Game of Thrones is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A Clash of Kings is the second volume in the series.

Throughout Westeros, the cold winds are rising.

From the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding lands of Winterfell, chaos reigns as pretenders to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms stake their claims through tempest, turmoil and war.

As a prophecy of doom cuts across the sky - a comet the colour of blood and flame - five factions struggle for control of a divided land. Brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night.

Against a backdrop of incest, fratricide, alchemy and murder, the price of glory is measured in blood.

©2011 George R. R. Martin (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won’t let go. It’s brilliant." (Robert Jordan)

"I read my eyes out. I couldn’t stop until I’d finished and it was dawn." (Anne McCaffrey)

"Colossal, staggering… Martin captures all the intoxicating complexity of the Wars of the Roses or Imperial Rome in his imaginary world… one of the greats of fantasy literature." ( SFX)

Horrible narrator

Roy Dotrice’s voices are just horrible. Not a lot of variety and very inconsistent. As for Martin, his style is so heavy handed that the story is opaque!

A must for fans of the books and HBO program...

I had never heard of this books until I watched the HBO series, the books are just fantastic.... a must for your collection.

Winter has come

Sommer went and winter is coming but fire awoke to touch the ice. How and when we will see.

Good book, mixed bag with narrator

The narrator overall has an ok voice, their pacing is good etc. But they don't even try with names. Not only are some of his pronunciations absolutely bizarre, but he'll pronounce the same name multiple different ways completely inconsistently, even within the same paragraph. Baffling. Also his choice of accents for different characters is totally incoherent, seemingly random.

Not a great sequel, but part of an epic series

A Clash of Kings is the second book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. It continues on from the epic finale of the first book, A Game of Thrones. I did not enjoy this book, to be honest I struggled to get through it. There was so much NOT happening. I feel as though this book was like the slow build up to the next book in the series. My view is if it doesn’t add to the story, why put it in? I felt that there was a lot in this book that didn’t add to the overall story. The book was so long but hardly anything happened.
 
Roy Dotrice is a masterful performer. I almost can’t believe how many voices he has. The vast amount of characters in this book are no match for his brilliant intonation and absolutely amazing performance.
 
Although this book was not the best, it would be silly to miss reading one in the series. Just try get through it quickly to get to the next one!

Lots of it, but not a lot to like

The Story
There are two or three great characters in these books - Tyrian the Imp for example - but the brief contacts we have with them are interposed with swathes of long winded faux medieval pageantry of one kind or another.

Remember "Sir Brentin Waythorpe of house Moon" ? No, well don't worry because even though we'll spend a few paragraphs describing his flags, mail and family tree, he'll have no role in the story and will never be heard of again. It's as if you've paused a scene in a movie and got someone to describe all the extras in massive detail. At times this feels like the kind of literature you should buy by the kilogram, not the book!

The other big problem I personally have is the constant brutality dished out by the many random "Sir Knights" - A three year old has "his face smashed in by a morning star" before a similar fate meets his wailing mother. This delightful interlude adds NOTHING to the plot or character of those involved - we already know they're treasonous adulterous baddies! The book is flush with these little treats, often involving children, and it is not an educational publication about the horrors of war, it's an airport fantasy novel.

The Narration
Everyone who is not a "high born" character is voiced as a semi retarded yokel - this gets really jarring after a very short time.

Summary
Only if you've got a really long flight and don't mind a lot of meaningless brutality thrown in with your fantasy fluff.

Would prefer another narrator

The narrator pronounces the names a bit weirdly and tends to mimick voices a bit childishly for my taste. The story is great albeit a bit slow in some of the chapters.