DidYouMWISMe posted...
Now that you've finished Clash...
(Spoilers up to Book Two.)
Of the five books, I found Clash of Kings by far the most predictable. I have a bit of a habit of predicting major upcoming plot developments and twists as I read along, and I basically nailed most of what Martin intended to do with Clash, which made it my least favorite of the titles.
I knew that Stannis and Melisandre would deal with Renly first, and I knew Renly didn't stand a chance.
I knew that the Royal forces in King's Landing were going to win the battle against Stannis before it happened. Davos only had something like three POV chapters in the entire book, Stannis was woefully undeveloped, Tyrion was outsmarting everybody, Melisandre was sent back to Dragonstone.
I knew the Greyjoys would attack the North because everything bad that can happen to the Starks must happen to the Starks. The tragedies occurring to the protagonists were unpredictable in Book One, when it truly seemed to thwart all conventional expectations, by Book Two you knew going in that there would be no Stark reunions, no moments of happiness for them, just a bunch of meandering around and plot contrivances to separate them (admittingly the worst of these contrivances, involving Arya, doesn't happen until Book Three, but still.)
I was actually a huge fan of a certain Book Three twist because that caught me off guard, but nothing in Book Two had a similar effect.
Catelyn's chapters read like a horrifying descent into misery. I'll concede her chapter when she interacted in a three-way meeting with Renly and Stannis was one of my favorites.
Tryion's chapters, on the other hand, read like the coming of the Hallowed Lord Marty Stu. Let me get this straight, I like Tryion, but I like him most when I feel he's relatable and flawed. Book Three does a great job of sending Tyrion crashing back to Earth, which is why I loved it, but too much of Book Two's Tyrion chapters read like he was a demigod of human wit and strategy. I get contrasting Tyrion with Ned Stark -- Tyrion's clearly the better choice between those two -- but several moments with Tyrion just irritated me to the point where I was actually sort of hoping Tyrion would actually lose for a change, and it sucks when an author actually writes a character you really like in such a way that you're worried you may begin to dislike him.
Beyond that, Davos got shafted -- he or someone else close to Stannis needed more POV chapters. Renly's faction sort of got shafted too, and I almost wish Martin had started Brienne POV chapters in Book Two so we got a better look at him. One of the most important developments for the Starks [redacted because it's not technically spoiled until Book Three, but let's just say a certain character really needed his own POV sequence there.]
(I guess what I'm saying there is that I actually agree more with Martin's current approach of handing out more frequent 'guest POV' moments to other characters.)
Also, I found Daenerys' Chapters in Clash the worst out of all four books in which she appears (note that I have not finished Dragons, so I guess that might change.) I think that's one thing the first book did far better than the second, the Daenerys chapters really captivated me in the first book and became a slight letdown thereafter. (Admittingly Drogo being alive and the Dragons twist helped a fair deal.)
Same with Jon Snow, actually. Liked his training sequences in Book One, liked the Wildling sequences in Book Three, but in-between Book Two is simply this long journey to get Snow from point A to point B, and not much of interest happens aside from Snow killing Qhorin.
no u
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