Jump to content

First read of ACOK (spoiler tags)


Basel Gill

Recommended Posts

All right, I had meant to save this for next weekend when I go out of town and have a four-hour car ride each direction. But it's a thousand pages in paperback, so I think I'll have plenty left by then.

Prologue and Chapter 1:

Prologue (Maester Cressen): So now we finally get to see what's going on with Stannis after having it shrouded in mystery for all of AGOT. Cresen has official confirmation that summer is ending in the form of a white raven. Not just an albino, but a raven that was bred to be white. Special bird. I fee sorry for Shireen, and I hope there are good things in store for her. The rest of the family I don't care for as much. Lady Selyse is an annoying, preachy woman who doesn't seem to understand how fighting a war works. I think she'd be right at home in the American Bible Belt, from her attitude concerning her new god R'hllor. Stannis, according to what we have learned from both him and Davos, is having trouble convincing people to declare for him. What Stannis seems to have trouble understanding is that he is very bad when it comes to being an inspiring leader. He seems convinced that because his case for the throne is right and just, then that should be all he needs to get everyone on his side. Having a just cause is useless when others in the fray (Cersei, for one) are motivated by greed, avarice, and a lust for power. Plus, Stannis is just such a sourpuss that no one likes him enough to follow him. Davos himself is a good example of what's wrong here. The chapter mentions how Davos, as a smuggler, once saved Stannis's bacon by sneaking food through a siege at Storm's End. Stannis knighted him, gave him a keep, and some good lands... and then chopped off the first joint on four fingers for smuggling. With friends like this, who needs enemies? Why should anyone declare for a man who maims his saviors? It was because Davos was a smuggler that he pulled this off, right? Then we see Cressen working to kill Melisandre. Her blathering about R'hllor was annoying too, but she can back it up. Pylos is the new Maester for Dragonstone. I bet Selyse and Melisandre were behind that decision. Pylos himself probably had a hand in his own promotion, too. And R'hllor does have some power! We've seen magic before, but this is the first real sign of any of the gods being more than stories. Not only does he make Melisandre immune to the poison, but she is aware the wine is poisoned to begin with. Although Cressen was a bit obvious, I thought, you don't need a god on your side to figure out what he is up to.

One thing this chapter did for me was to solidify something I'd been suspecting though much of the first book. Stannis is referred to repeatedly, by himself and others, as the rightful king. Now remember Ned's letter to Stannis, the one that informed him he was the rightful king and invited him down to King's Landing to take the throne for himself? The one that never got delivered and was used as evidence against Ned? Ned's letter was totally unnecessary; Stannis already knew he was the rightful king. Why else would Jon Arryn be taking him to meet Gendry, and taking him to all those brothels? Arryn discovered that Joff was illegitimate, and showed the one person (other than Robert) who most needed to know.

Chapter 1 (Arya I): Arya's alive! I thought she seemed a goner after what happened with Yoren in her last chapter in AGOT. Now it looks like Yoren was saving her life. He's chopped her hair off and has gotten her out of the city. She had been having some trouble getting out of the city, you may recall. But it isn't all that pleasant traveling with Yoren, thanks to the other Watch recruits he's taken from the dungeons. Arya knows how to stick up for herself, and the boy with the bull's head helmet is willing to stick up for her. (Gendry??!!) Yoren disciplines her; just cause he is saving her life doesn't mean he's willing to have the boys fighting. I hope he disciplined the other boys too, or did something to send a message that. Their teasing is causing just as much of a ruckus. Yoren has told Arya he will stop at Winterfell en route to the Wall, and let her slip away there, with no one in his party having a clue. I have some doubt as to how honest he is being there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad to see you back, I enjoyed your commentary on A Game of Thrones and looked forward to your thoughts on A Clash of Kings. I'm halfway through A Clash of Kings, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am dreading catching up all the way through A Dance with Dragons and having to wait (possibly years?!?) for the next one. I haven't been this excited about a book series since I was a child.

Since I am ahead of you, at least at the time of this post, I will only comment on what you have posted about.

I did enjoy the prologue very much. The goings on at Dragonstone were a mystery and it was nice to see that for a change. I also felt bad for Shireen. Melisandre is a frightening character to me.

As for Ms. Arya, she did need to be disciplined, lol a bit of Sansa's courtly ways would have helped her a great deal on her journey with Yoren.

Happy Reading, you have several surprises in store.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 2-5:

Chapter 2 (Sansa I): Oh, poor Sansa. Stuck in King's Landing surrounded by evil types, forcibly engaged to a psychotic monster who can (and does) order others to beat her, and now she has to watch a pathetic, sorry excuse for a tournament. The last one she attended, she actually wanted to be at, and it was well worth watching. This tourney, however, is a total farce. The field has no excitement to it, and no big names. The sparse attendance, part because of it being held inside the protected Keep, and part because so many people are off fighting a war, gives further indication of how unworthy this event is. I noticed how someone (likely Joff) has gotten it into their head to force the Redwyne twins into fighting. Joff is a sick, sadistic person. Cersei is pretty angry about Tywin setting up his forces at Harrenhal instead of coming to the city like she ordered. Fine, Cersei, if you think you know how to fight a war better than your father, why don't you go command the Lannister army yourself? Tywin is doing what he has to do, and I think she would be better off trusting someone who knows about strategy and tactics. Tommen proves you wouldn't want him on your side in a fight. Even at his age, he shouldn't get smacked down by a straw dummy. Then Tyrion and his band of merry men gatecrash the party. The Imp makes fun of Joff, treats Sansa better than the rest of his family has treated her, and heads off to find Cersei.

Chapter 3 (Tyrion I): I do so love Tyrion's wit. If Westerosi tournaments had a debate competition, Tyrion would win handily. And his way with words is prominently on display in this chapter. He uses it to establish himself as Hand in his father's place, although Cersei is a bit resistant. Time to stick a pin in her ego, being regent has inflated it somewhat. Not that she wasn't full of herself before Robert died (see the incident with Nymeria and Lady in AGOT), but now she is worse. She and Tyrion manage to come to a mutual understanding of sorts, until one of them no longer finds the other useful. She is persuaded that if anyone can put Joff in line, it is Tyrion. The really interesting bit here is that Cersei has no idea (or claims not to, at least) who killed Jon Arryn. On the one hand, she hasn't proven herself all that trustworthy so far. Cersei is a manipulative schemer, so how honest is she being with Tyrion? On the other hand, I don't see what she would gain from lying to him about this, and she tells him the whole story about her part in Robert's death a few paragraphs later. If she is going to lie about one murder, she shouldn't be honest about the other. So despite a really good motive being established in Book One, I'm leaning toward Cersei having no part in Jon's death. Doesn't make me any less shocked by the revelation, since AGOT pretty much left the readers to believe it was a mystery solved. The funeral feast for Robert sounds good. The boar that Robert died to kill, cooked with mushrooms and apples. Inn at the Crossroads should do this one sometime. Actually, I hate mushrooms, but it still sounds good. On his way out, Tyrion takes the first action as Hand that will anger Joff: he orders the decaying heads of everyone who got executed taken down. Joff was leaving them up till he killed the last three people he wants: Robb, Renly, and Stannis. Odd how he had exactly the right number of spikes for all the traitors who needed killing. Tyrion reflects that it will be hell matching them with the bodies after all this decay, which only raises the question... what did they do with the bodies? Meantime, it seems that in preparing the city for an attack, Cersei is driving the realm even further into debt than Robert did.

Chapter 4 (Bran I): Things are still unpleasant for Bran at Winterfell with the rest of the family away. All except for little Rickon, who is adjusting to life with both parents and Robb all gone a little better. Something still has to be done about Shaggydog, though.I'm betting that by the end of the series, he is either put down as a wild menace, or someone manages to civilize him to the extent where that isn't necessary. Bran's dreams are getting more and more interesting. Every time he dozes off, he has some sort of psychic episode. This time, he dreams that he is Summer, and even has Summer's thoughts instead of his own. Come to think of it, wasn't the potion Luwin gave him supposed to result in a dreamless sleep?

Chapter 5 (Arya II): Yoren brings his recruits to an inn in a village somewhere to eat and wash up. Arya seems to be having problems keeping a low profile. First she speaks up about whether a she-wolf would eat a baby (it was good hearing some word of Nymeria, if that was her), and then she gets into an altercation with the three worst criminals of the bunch. And that's on top of the fight she got into during her last chapter. Enter the gold cloaks. Far from their jurisdiction, aren't they? Arya hides with the Bull while Yoren argues with the gold cloaks that they aren't allowed to take any of his men. Shockingly, all the other recruits are willing and ready to fight alongside Yoren, even the ones who tormented her before. Except... they aren't after her in the first place. They want the Bull, who it turns out is Gendry from the previous book. Yoren drives them off, and the leader drops his sword. Hot Pie gets it; I'm expecting significant things for Hot Pie later on. I'm not shocked that Cersei sent men out to find Gendry. It fits the pattern of her eliminating Robert's other bastards in the past that was alluded to in AGOT. What I'm wondering is, those gold cloaks are eventually going to get back to King's Landing and report their failure.Not they they want to, since Cersei strikes me as the sort who would execute them for not accomplishing their mission. But they have no choice, since they obviously don't have the boy. The curious bit is, what happens when they report that there was a different boy, several years younger than Gendry, who thought they were after him? If they describe this "boy" to Cersei, will she put two and two together and realize it's Arya?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sitting here at a motel desktop the day before a cousin's wedding, and found some time to record my thoughts. Chapters 6-8:

Chapter 6 (Jon I): This chapter seemed to me to be just there to fill in the background. You have to have those every now and then, or your story is a bunch of characters running around through an empty, boring, undeveloped world. Which doesn't work for single novels, let alone sprawling multi-book series. The Watch is planning a huge ranging up north, commanded by Mormont himself. This has raised some hackles, it would seem. The acting First Ranger, who considers himself to not be "acting" at all, thinks he is entitled to take the command. This guy doesn't like Jon much; it seems he was on good terms with Ser Alliser. We get a whole lot of backstory concerning Maester Aemon and his place in the Targaryen royal saga. When you inbreed to the extent the Targaryens have, you wind up with heirs who think they can turn into dragons by drinking flammable explosive liquids. Ummm... yeah. Riiiight. Jon is told all this to test how he feels about his vows with Robb becoming King in the North, and events involving the Starks heting up a bit. Jon sounds more loyal to his vows than he had been. He's found that his rightful place is among the Watch.

Chapter 7 (Catelyn I): Speaking of Robb, let's see what's going on with him. He's losing manpower at a rapid clip as assorted lords are going off to defend their own personal territory. Robb is going to offer the Lannisters terms for peace. Sansa and Arya must be returned (except the Lannisters don't have Arya), Ned's body must be returned, Ice must be returned (and Ser Ilyn will not be happy about that part!), etc. Lord Karstark is disgusted and leaves the room; he'd much rather have revenge for his dead sons. A lot of revenge. He won't be happy until the Lannisters are beaten down like a red-headed stepchild. Cat is learning slowly that raising her son to command, and now to be a King, doesn't always mean he will make decisions that agree with her. He is sending Theon off on his own to enlist Balon Greyjoy's aid. It seems Greyjoy has some ships which will come in handy. Cat thinks Theon is the worst person to send. Robb is willing to let Greyjoy take the Iron Islands off on their own, if they will join his side in the war. So instead of one kingdom, we may have three. Cat has a chat then with her Uncle Brynden, who tells he bad news: more Lannisters are on the way. They need to find a way to force Tywin to leave Harrenhal before they are caught between two armies... Cat suggests an alliance with Renly would do the job nicely. What I wonder is, will Renly be any more willing to accept a shrunken kingdom than Stannis? Or will he think of himself as the rightful ruler of the whole land just like his brother?

Chapter 8 (Tyrion II): It would seem Tyrion has been busy as the acting Hand. He's getting Lord Slynt royally soused in this installment, and consulting with him on who should replace him as commander of the City Watch. I'd been under the impression that Janos would have been continuing in that capacity, he'd just be doing it as a lord now. The City Watch has knights and sers in its ranks, why can't it be headed by a lord? Janos gives Tyrion six names worthy of replacing him, but he holds Allar Deem in the highest regard. It seems Allar Deem was sent to a brothel to kill a woman and her baby. This must be Barra and his mother from Book One. Tyrion suggests Jacelyn Bywater, who Janos isn't too keen on. Then it turns out Tyrion is stripping Janos of his lordship and giving Harrenhal to someone else, and shipping Slynt off to the Night's Watch. Janos's son will be Lord Slynt now... I hope his first act is to change that sigil. It would look fine if the blood were removed from the spear point. Tyrion says the new lord will be given other good lands, and be allowed to build them into a proper seat, with the other sons becoming squires somewhere... never let it be said House Lannister doesn't reward those who serve it well. Actually, that's just the sort of message that exiling Janos to the Wall sends. He was instrumental in stopping Ned's plans to help Stannis take the throne and keeping Joff's position as King. Now Tyrion is making it look like you may be rewarded for serving Lannister well, but whatever you are given may be snatched back from you anytime. Janos didn't do too much to prove himself worthy of being a lord, though. I think he would have kept his status and title if he hadn't been such an ostentatious buffoon since being elevated. Tyrion arranges for Bywater, who is indeed the new head of the City Watch, to arrest Janos and his six favorites and ship them all north to the Wall, although Allar will be lost at sea. Tyrion is mindful of the needs of the Night's Watch, so he sends them a bunch of loathsome, corrupt oafs.

Then Varys shows up to talk to Tyrion, after Janos is carted off. Here we learn it was Cersei's order to kill Barra. As well as Gendry, who it turns out Varys put in the Watch to save his life. I'm not shocked that Cersei would have more of Robert's bastards killed, but I was a bit surprised to see Varys showing some conscience. Tyrion is feeling sure of himself now that he has control over the City Watch (taken from Cersei and Littlefinger), plus the clansmen and a bunch of sellswords. But who really controls the Watch... Tyrion or Varys? This worries the Imp just a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 9-11:

Chapter 9 (Arya III): The band of recruits for the Wall is starting to run into trouble. Hot Pie was brave before, but now we see he still has his moments of fear. They have to leave the Kingsroad for safety, and forage for food. That proves difficult, since those they meet on the way are unwilling to help them, and make a point of running them off. Yoren is disgusted by this behavior. Ayra runs into some wolves in the woods, and they leave her alone. I wonder if they're part of Nymeria's pack, and she still cares enough for Arya to make sure she is left alone.

Chapter 10 (Davos I): Yay, a new POV character! In a couple of ways, I'm not surprised by this. First off, the story sort of needs a new POV to replace Ned, cause one less POV means events aren't as varied in how they are viewed, and a full breadth of what's going on across the realm won't be available. Second, the prologue with Cressen gives us our first glimpse of what's going on with Stannis's part of the fight, but then Cressen has to go and die on us. I figured at the time that GRRM wouldn't have bothered showing us events on Dragonstone for one chapter if he didn't mean to follow up on it. Therefore, there needed to be a Dragonstone POV brought in for longer than Cressen was around. Stannis is burning the statues of the Seven, and it isn't going over so well. The septon get locked away, along with a few lords and their sons who stay loyal to their faith. Other lords stand by Stannis but are clearly uneasy. The people present at the burning are confused at best, alienated at worst. Umm, right. Forcing a religion on a populace generally has unpleasant consequences for the ruler, the populace, or both. The Spanish Inquisition comes to mind, except that was the faith of the majority imposed upon a minority of the population. More fitting might be the pro-Catholic reign of James II in England over a Protestant realm, or the Catholic government of South Vietnam trying to rule a Buddhist nation. And don't get me started on the Thirty Years War, when differences in religion became the excuse for untold miseries. "Because God said so" has been used to justify so much bad stuff in human history, and it seems like Westeros isn't immune to this. The kicker here is how Stannis doesn't even believe in his new religion; he is just using R'hllor as a means to an end.

Stannis has all the ravens in Dragonstone sent out to deliver the news of his claim to the throne, and the reasoning behind it: Joff, Myrcella, and Tommen are all illegitimate, and aren't Robert's kids but Jaime's. Which goes with my earlier guess that Ned had no need to inform Stannis in a letter that he was the true king, Stannis already knew from Jon Arryn taking him to those brothels to meet Robert's bastards. I bet Jon showed him the big lineage book before dying, too. Now while I'm presuming Cersei is telling the truth about not killing Jon, that doesn't change the fact that he was onto something with the whole bastard issue. It may even still be why he was killed, even though it wasn't by Cersei like we were led to believe in Book One.

Chapter 11 (Theon I): Now I wasn't expecting two new POV characters in this book. Theon lands on the Iron Island and is met by his uncle, who has changed considerably since Theon last saw him. Before, Aeron was quite the party animal, loving women, ale, drinking songs, and all-around good times. Now Aeron has found religion, and he's really into it. Yay, another unlikable religious zealot. Not that all people of faith in the series are unpleasant, Septa Mordane was likable, and the other Septons and Septas have been okay. I wouldn't mind sticking Aeron and Selyse in the same room just to see what happens between them. Lord Balon basically wants nothing to do with Robb's plan, and sees it as Robb wanting him to bend the knee to Winterfell while nominally being a King of the Iron Islands. He doesn't seem to think it strategically sound, either, scoffing at Theon's plan to capture Casterly Rock. Instead, now that Theon is no longer a hostage of the Starks, he has plans to go ahead and seize a crown for himself. He isn't hitting the Lannisters, but we aren't told what he is going after. Theon figures it out, but the readers are left to muddle out what is implied. I have this feeling he wants to hit Stark territory while Robb is occupied fighting a war in the riverlands. Maybe Robb should have heeded his mother's advice, and sent someone else instead of Theon after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapter 12-14:

Chapter 12 (Danaerys I): Well, I had been wondering how much longer before we got to Dany. Things aren't going so well for her, Jorah, and the Dothraki who have stayed with her. She's down to a hundred, and only four of them are warriors, counting Jorah. She takes the blood-red comet as an omen and for lack of a better plan, decides to head in its direction wherever that may take them. I haven't even mentioned the comet yet, I don't think. Everyone seems to get some sort of omen out of it, but they all seem to come up with something different. Following the comet doesn't turn out to be such a good idea. It involves trekking through a huge, extended desert. No food or water, save for the horses that die, winds up killing a lot of their small band, including one of Dany's handmaidens. Then they come across an abandoned city. It's indicated this is a place the Dothraki have sacked before, and the Dothraki are probably responsible for the place's death. There's water and food here, and it seems like a good spot for the people to rest and recuperate. They need it badly. While they're here, we learn Jorah's backstory: widowed once with no heir, and then covered himself in glory and valor during Balon Greyjoy's revolt. He was knighted for his performance, and won the tourney Robert held as a celebration of victory. (Any excuse for a tourney was a good one as far as Robert was concerned, we learned in Book One.) He capitalized on this to win the hand in marriage of his second wife, and wound up going deep into debt to please her, but he had to flee the realm and she left him. Sad story, really. Then... bombshell... he mentions she looked much like Dany. He's in love with Dany! Dany has sent out her bloodriders to find some sign of other people, and one brings back a delegation from the city of Qarth who wanna see the dragons. So the band might survive after all.

Chapter 13 (Jon II): Jon and the rest of the big huge ranging are heading north, and finding a lot of empty villages along the way. No people, no animals, no nothing. No sign of what happened to them, either. Even the woods are empty, with no game to be found for hunting. This chapter just made me uneasy. Sooner or later, they'll either run into Others, or Mance Rayder's bunch. Either one isn't likely to be a happy encounter.

Chapter 14 (Arya IV): Things get ugly here. Yoren's bunch (a lot of this book so far seems devoted to people traveling in large groups) finds an empty town and consider building rafts to get across God's Eye (a cool name for a lake). They decide to wait till morning. Most of the animals were taken when the people fled, but they find a goose and some chicken, and some crops. They bar the gates, and spend the night. I'm guessing they didn't hide their fire well enough when cooking the birds, since Lannister troops come calling The conversation Yoren has with their leader indicates that the cretins think they're Beric Dondarrion's bunch, but don't care if they aren't. The Lannisters are willing to butcher them either way. No surprise there. Thus far, Cersei and her cabal have shown they don't seem to care much about the laws and traditions of the land that have lasted for centuries, including the ones pertaining to the Night's Watch. These troops don't seem to know that Yoren's band is actually wanted by Cersei, which is a good thing I guess, or else things would go even worse. The town burns. Most of the band, including Yoren, gets killed. Even ones that yield, because the Lannisters have no honor and don't follow the rules of war as anyone else knows them. Unpleasant folks. Arya and Gendry manage to get a few to safety via a tunnel, and she takes the time to give the bound prisoners an axe to free themselves. Whether they help her or make her regret this remains to be seen; I'm calling it a 50-50 chance. But we will see at least one of those three again, I bet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a bit of catching up to do here. Not unlike AGOT, I've been reading this book during a period of computer inaccessibility. Last time it was an out-of-town vacation, this time it's because my niece is staying here and the computer room doubles as the guest room. Which not only means less time online, but more time reading when I'd otherwise be on the computer. I think I might be able to do a rough draft of a couple of chapters tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I can start playing some catch-up. Chapters 15-17:

Chapter 15 (Tyrion III): Cersei is a good actress. She does a marvelous job of playing the grieving widow here, perfectly incensed by Stannis's little flyer detailing her adultery with Jaime. She wants to suppress talk of the letter quite burtally. But Tyrion suggests they just ignore it, and the smallfolk will forget about it. An interesting nugget is that Cersei is worried that word of the letter's contents will reach Joff's ears. That says to me that maybe Joff himself still thinks Robert is his father. How many at the council table know the truth? And how many is Cersei acting for? We know Varys knows from his meeting with Illyrio in Book One, we know Tyrion knows from his previous POV chapters, and I bet Littlefinger knows as well. I'm leaning toward Pycelle also knowing. Then Petyr kicks it up a notch and suggest they spread a rumor that Stannis's own kid is not his, but actually Patchface's. Now that's pure evil. Tyrion then meets with the smiths of the city, and has them all make links for what looks to be a very large chain. What he means to do with this chain, I have no clue. Then he goes to a brothel, and enters a secret tunnel. The other end has him meeting with Varys, and being given a horse and disguise to go see Shae without arousing suspicion. Except Varys knows about Shae; who would he tell? Who has he told already? Can Tyrion trust him?

Chapter 16 (Bran II): There's a bit of friction among the Stark bannermen. The Lady Hornwood, whose husband died in the last book, has no heir. Assorted lords, houses, and even a Bolton bastard are vying to take control of her lands, hopefully through marrying her. Bran hears Rodrik and Luwin discussing assorted options; none are totally satisfactory. A bunch of houses are coming to Winterfell for a big harvest feast. Enough nobles to make your head spin. Bran hears about Stannis's letter and something about Cersei and Jamie's affair jogs his memory. That night he dreams of the three-eyed crow again, and in his dream he remembers Jamie pushing him out the window. I think it could be a while before he fully remembers the push in his waking mind, however. We might not even see an accusation of attempted murder until the next book.

Chapter 17 (Tyrion IV): Tyrion sure has his work cut out for him. Today he eats breakfast with Pycelle early in the morning. Too early for me, really. The breakfast leaves a lot to be desired in Tyrion's eyes. He has Pycelle send out two copies of a letter to the Prince of Dorne, then moves on to other business... after secretly looking through Pycelle's potions, and helping himself to a little something. Then he goes to check on Bronn, who is now officially the captain of the Hand's personal guard with clothes to match the position, and talks business with him. Among the tidbits of info Bronn has is that Alliser Throne has arrived in King's Landing with a rotted hand in a jar to plead for more love for the Night's Watch. (Thing comes back for an encore?) Tyrion decides to put him off and gives him rotten accomodations. Then he runs into Cersei inspecting the city's defenses, and she badgers him as to why he isn't doing more to defend the city from Renly. Tyrion replies that Renly is plodding along slowly and feasting at every castle he passes, so it isn't a pressing issue. She once again wants Tyrion to get Tywin to bring his army to the city. Now really, I thought she would have gotten it through her head that this isn't gonna happen after her previous talk with Tyrion. Not that anyone, except maybe for Jamie, could possibly convince her that bringing Tywin's army to the city is a totally bonehead move. For all her brilliant plotting to get rid of Robert and put her allies in key places in AGOT, Cersei really isn't showing much sense in ACOK. I wonder if the power of being regent has gone to her head, or what. Then he has a talk with Littlefinger. He wants Petyr to deliver the Arryns as allies in the war, and offers some enticing bait. Myrcella will foster at the Eyrie and betrothe to Lord Robert, and Petyr himself will get Harrenhal (recently given up by Slynt, remember) and be named the new liege lord of the riverlands. Juicy fruit to be had. Petyr drops in the claim that he has taken the virginity of both Catelyn and Lysa. Now Catelyn hotly denied this in AGOT, and was pretty angry when she heard the lie. But Petyr delivers it so well that Tyrion has a few doubts it is a lie. Wait a minute... even if Petyr is lying about Cat, is he lying about Lysa? Wheels within wheels. As if Tyrion hasn't had a busy enough day, he has a chat with Varys in the evening. Varys knows about his talk with Littlefinger, and his breakfast with Pycelle. He doesn't seem to know what was in the letters, but you never know with Varys. He tells Varys that he is offering the Dornish prince Tommen's bethrothal, and Janos's empty seat on the council... plus Ser Gregor's head for the murder of Elia Martell (Rhaegar's wife) during the sack of King's Landing. I wouldn't mind seeing the Mountain face justice for some of his atrocities, but will it really come to pass? I doubt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 18-20:

Chapter 18 (Sansa II): We haven't seen much of Sansa in this book so far. She gets a secret note to come to the godswood if she would like to go home.Somehow, a distraction presents itself so she can get there with none of the wall guards noticing. THe person who wrote the note is Dontos, who we last saw at Joff's tourney making a drunken idiot of himself, and Joff made him the new castle fool. I didn't even mention him at the time cause I thought nothing important would come out of that. But Sansa had saved his life, and he owes her big. So he wants to help her escape. What he can do to pull this off is a very good question. On her way back, she encounters the Hound, who takes her back to her rooms. She is scared of him still, I can tell.

Chapter 19 (Arya V): Things are rough for the survivors of Yoren's bunch. Arya is holding to some bit of civilization and insists they find Yoren's body and give him a good burial. The ones who knew how to survive in the wild on their own are mostly dead, and Lommy doesn't have much time left either, going by his wounds. So Arya and Gendry decide to sneak over to a nearby village and take what they can. On the way, Gendry reveals that he's figured out that she's a girl, and he has no clue why the gold cloaks are after him. She confesses her true identity to him, and he agrees to keep her secret safe. Then it turns out that it's Lannisters n the village, and they capture Gendry. Arya takes Hot Pie to try and rescue him... bad idea. Hot Pie accidentally gives them away and yields immediately. I liked him when Yoren and eveeryone stood up to the gold cloaks, but since then he hasn't been as impressive. The bad guys kill Lommy, and things aren't looking too optimistic for Arya.

Chapter 20 (Tyrion V): So Tyrion is checking out the wildfire supplies. Something tells me they will be put to use sooner or later. Cersei has gotten wind of his letter to Dorne. Except she is under the impression that he has offered the Martells Myrcella's hand in marriage, not Tommen. He lets her continue under this belief, and manages to persuade her somewhat. He lets her see Robb's peace terms, and calls it a good starting point. And then he muses to himself about how he knows who Cersei's informer is. I wonder how he pulled this off, but I bet it has to do with his manipulations in his previous chapter. I bet the next time we see Tyrion, he'll lay it all out for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 21-24:

Chapter 21 (Bran III): Okay, so Bran is Lord of the Castle. Now he has to act the role, and play host to the big harvest feast at Winterfell. A big, fun party is had, with drinking, lots of food, music, dancing, and assorted sexual stuff. It's part state dinner and part medieval kegger. As always, the descriptions of the food are great. I got a kick out of Bran's lordly duties include him sending assorted dishes to assorted people. He sends good stuff to the lords, a giant lobster to Joseth the master of horse (who later on, snags himself a different sort of dish...

) and beets and turnips to Big and Little Walder. I think this pretty much says what Bran thinks of the Walders. Rickon is still a problem; it's mentioned here that he is growing his hair really long, and bites anyone who tries to cut it. So then two more guests show up, Meera and Jojen Reed from the swamps. Frogeaters. Jojen expresses an interest in seeing the wolves. That night, Bran has the wolf-dream again. He dreams he is Summer in the godswood, and Jojen and Meera go to visit the place. Shaggy is there too. Earlier it seemed like Bran was just dreaming that he was Summer. But now it's starting to seem like Bran is actually in Summer's head, experiencing Summer's thoughts, while his human body is asleep. The dream doesn't last long, though. When Jojen approaches, Bran falls out of Summer's head.

Chapter 22 (Catelyn II): Catelyn arrives at Renly's court... such as it is. To say she is unimpressed would be putting it mildly. Renly is supposed to be at war, but he has been plodding along in a general northerly direction. We've heard in previous chapters that he is moving slowly, but now we see it in action (or inaction, as the case may be). Renly has been stopping at every castle he passes and been feasted by some loyal stormlord or other. Not only that, but he stops his army's progress to have a tournament in the middle of a war. At least Joff's tournament we saw earlier was back at King's Landing, and the best fighters weren't involved because they were off fighting. Not so with Renly. We get to see Brienne of Tarth for the first time, and I'm betting it isn't the last time. She may not be all that good-looking, but don't tell her that, cause she'll wipe the floor with you. I wonder if GRRM was watching Xena when he conceived Brienne. Renly offers Brienne any reward she asks, and she asks for a spot in his Rainbow Guard, which he grants. (Rainbow Guard... fanciful concept. Certainly up Renly's alley, he seems very flamboyant. Which leads into me wondering if there's something between Renly and Loras, who seems to get more of Renly's attention than anyone else, even the new Queen.) Renly asks Cat if Barristan has joined Robb's cause, which baffles her since she hasn't heard that he was booted off the Kingsguard. Which means that Barristan isn't with Renly, or Robb, or Stannis, or Joff. Where is Barristan??? Sooner or later, we find out, I bet. When Cat brings up Stannis being the elder brother, Renly mentions that doesn't matter, because he has the bigger army, and means to take the throne the same way Robert did: by force. Renly thinks Stannis would make an awful king. Based on what we have seen so far of Stannis, I think this isn't too far off. But I don't think Renly would be very good either. He seems to have Robert's love of tourneys and all the fun stuff (well, not the womanizing that Robert did). I exepct Renly would wind up being an absentee monarch just like Robert was, leaving all the government to a Hand without really doing much ruling. No doubt driving the realm deeper into debt with tourneys and such all over the place, too. At the end of the chapter, we learn that Storm's End, Renly's castle is under siege... by Stannis.

Chapter 23 (Jon III): So the rangers have finally found signs of human life beyond the Wall. Craster's Keep isn't much of a keep. It's basically one big hovel, and it doesn't provide much in the way of shelter for the large force of men come from Castle Black. Most of the men have to sleep outside, much the same as they'd been doing since leaving the castle. Craster is a very unlikeable man, and we learn that he marries his daughter and has children by them. The boys get given to the Others. Maybe it's those sacrifices that keep the Others from overrunning the keep, but it leaves Craster without defenders if Mance Rayder decides to hit the place. There seems to be no love lost between Craster and Mance, who we have yet to actually see. There certainly is a lot of incest going around in this world. One of the wife-daughters wants out because she thinks her baby will be a boy, and Sam tells her he will help her. Jon is mad when he finds out. After they leave in the morning, Jon tells the Old Bear about the sacrifices. Mormont already knows. He feels nothing can be done about it, and Craster has been enough of a friend to the Watch that it isn't worth losing him. Then he mentions that Mance is readying an attack force in the mountains. Things could get ugly.

Chapter 24 (Theon II): Well, in his last chapter Theon learned that his return to the Iron Island wasn't as good as he hoped. Now it gets worse for him. He has a ship of his own to command. While he is checking it out, he meets a woman and makes passes at her, and she rides with him back to Pyke. It's only then, and several fondlings by Theon, that he finds out this is his sister, who is considerably more attractive than he remembers, and has a ship of her own as well. A ship with a fearsome reputation, in fact. Later on, there's a feast at the castle. Theon is humiliated when he finds out that just about everything Asha told him is a lie, and she, not him, has the place of honor by their father's side.All indications are that Lord Balon has no intention of letting Theon succeed him, and is likely to name Asha as his successor instead. Theon considers himself the true heir under the law, so he is pretty steamed. The icing on the cake is when Balon unveils his strategy. Asha is to take thrity ships and capture Deepwood Motte, Theon's uncle Victarion will sail up a river and capture Moat Cailin. Robb will be stuck in the riverlands, unable to head back North, and if he makes an attempt the Lannister forces are going to pounce on the diversion provided and destroy him. Theon, meanwhile, is to take eight ships and conduct raids along the coast as a distraction. Eight ships, making a diversion, for the person who thinks of himself as the lawful heir to the Iron Islands. And he has to take Aeron and Dagmer Cleftjaw along, making his command of the diversion in name only. Now Theon is downright insulted. Hell of a way for Balon to treat his son.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 25-27:

Chapter 25 (Tyrion VI): Tyrion can sure plot with the best of them. He goes to tell Cersei about Stannis and Renly fighting each other instead of marching on King's Landing, and they share a toast of wine together. Tyrion turns his back while pouring and slips a little something into her cup, no doubt whatever was in the stuff he pilfered from Pycelle's stores. The next morning, she misses court due to illness. What a coincidence. His cousin Tyrek is there, having recently been married off to a baby, to his great embarrassment. I know medieval marriages with nobility were arranged when the bride and groom are young, but this is taking things extremely. Tyrion gives Cleos a counterproposal to take back to Robb, which is pretty much a rejection of everything Robb wanted. Ned's remains are to be returned as a gesture of goodwill, and Cleos, being a Lannister, is to be accompanied by Lannister house guards. All of them. Alliser has made his way to court, and demands an audience with the king. It seems that the hand he brought with him has rotted away, and there's no evidence that the dead are rising. Tyrion make fun of Alliser, and the court laughs at him. Then we find out why Tyrion is sending off all the house guards: he needs to hide fake Lannister guards in with the real ones, fake guards from the dungeons who will free Jaime. Cersei should be fine with it, once she learns the reasons behind it. Atr midnight, Tyrion takes a bunch of his barbarians, goes to see Pycelle. It seems Pycelle is Cersei's mole. Cersei knew about Myrcella being sent to Dorne, and Varys and Littlefinger got other stories to let Tyrion figure out who was talking to Cersei. Tyrion accuses him of killing Arryn, too, but Pycelle says he never did the poisoning, he just kept Jon from pulling out of it to keep the secret of Cersei's affair quiet. Cersei implied without words for him to do this. Hmmm. OK, so Cersei didn't do the murder, or order it done, but she still had a Hand (rimshot) in it. But who poisoned Jon? We still don't have a clue. Pycelle gets put in a cell; I'm sure Cersei will be hopping mad when she hears.

Chapter 26 (Arya VI): Arya isn't having a good time. She's been locked up with Gendry, Hot Pie, and the people from the village for more than a week. Every day, the Mountain and his men have a guy named the Tickler toture one prisoner about Lord Beric while everyone else is made to watch. She loses Needle to one of the scumbags. She starts developing a list of people she hates, hates enough to want dead, and she repeats this list every night quietly, to herself so no one will hear, as a calming mantra.

Chapter 27 (Danaerys II): Dany hasn't had much going on in this book. Which makes sense, because until GRRM finds a way to get her an army and give her claim to Westeros some real teeth behind it, her story is just a sideshow having no relevance to anything else. Dany's remaining people come into Qarth and find it a wondrous place to behold. The head of the local merchants' guild offers her a place to stay, and the guy from the wizards says he will try to get her an audience with those at the head of his guild. Jorah brings a ship captain who fills her in on what's happening in Westeros: Robert is dead, and the land is wracked by civil war. She is hopeful, since domestic struggle makes it easier to invade. But she still needs an army, says Jorah. Listen to the guy who has a huge crush on you, Dany, he knows what he is talking about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 28-30:

Chapter 28 (Bran IV): Jojen and Meera are helping Bran understand his ability a little better. The events surrounding Lady Hornwood are going to hell in a handbasket. There hasn't really been a way to resolve that situation peacefully, and there never was any hope of it from the moment she was left without any husband or heirs. Robb can have her remarry, and earlier she had said she would be willing to do so if her King wished it, but no matter who he chooses to take that role, he will make one of his other lords angry. Now Bolton's bastard has married her by force, and another lord has occupied the Hornwood castle. Yikes. Rodrik is off trying to settle the mess. You might as well try to hold back a tidal wave with your bare hands. Meantime, Jojen reveals he can dream the future. Jojen has what he calls green dreams, and one of them bade him to come to Winterfell and open Bran's third eye, his psychic eye. That weird three-eyed crow comes into play for Jojen, too. And according to Jojen, I was right... Bran really is entering Summer's head. Hmmm. Then we get a strange, most likely metaphorical prophecy about Bran and the Walders. All three will be served food, and Bran's will be a better portion, but the Walders will enjoy theirs better. Wonder what that means.

Chapter 29 (Tyrion VII): So Lancel comes to Tyrion on Cersei's behalf and demands Pycelle be set free. You see, I knew she wouldn't be cool with Pycelle being locked up. Except Jacelyn takes his orders from Tyrion, not Cersei, so even a direct command from her in Joff's name isn't good enough to get Pycelle out. Tyrion blackmails Lancel with the knowledge that Lancel was responsible for Robert's murder, and that Lancel has been Cersei's replacement in bed for Jaime (oh-ho!). Thanks to Varys for that. In the end, Lancel becomes Tyrion's latest pet informer, and Pycelle is to be set free the next day, but loses his seat on the small council. Tyrion can't sleep after all that; blackmailing someone is enough to set your mind churning. Especially when it involves incest and regicide. So he goes off to see Shae, and thinks he is falling for her. Falling in love with a prostitute has considerable dangers.

Chapter 30 (Arya VII): Arya really shouldn't have said she wanted to work in the stables. Then she would have been sent to the kitchens instead of having to spend her whole time cleaning and working under Weese. She learns to hate Weese really fast. Hot Pie is working in the kitchens, which is a really good place for him. Considering how willing to yield he was, I do kinda wonder how well they would have gotten along working alongside each other. The ggood side of cleaning is the way she picks up all the gossip. A bunch of mercenaries call the Brave Companions, led by a guy with a goat-decorated helm (sounds ugly and unimpressive) shows up, and includes the three prisoners she saved during the attack by Ser Amory. Jaqen later on tells her that for saving their lives, he will kill three people. Any three people she chooses. Her first choice is Chiswyck after she hears him telling a story about a gang rape he took part in. He obviously enjoyed himself and has a great deal of fun telling the tale. Three days later, Chiswyck mysteriously falls down a well. Arya could become influential among the servants, it looks like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chapters 31-33:

Chapter 31 (Catelyn III):

Stannis and Renly meet the day before battle to have a little meeting, but they are both too stubborn. Neither one is willing to give up his claim. Cat is there to try and mediate, with hopes of getting them to join forces and accept the Lannisters as the greater enemy. It's at this point that she first learns of Joff's true parentage, since she hasn't seen or heard of Stannis's letter while she's been on the road. Renly enjoys a nice, juicy peach.The whole meeting is a failure, and Renly returns to his camp with Cat. Renly orders that battle will be joined the next day. Cat wants to go back to Riverrun now, but Renly refuses to let her till the battle is done. Brienne wants to be by his side in the battle, but he sends her to fight with Loras. She then asks to at least help with his armor before the fight, and Cat figures out that she is totally besotted with him. Cat then asks to at least be allowed to go and pray at the nearest sept in a village close by, and Renly allows this much. He then asks Loras to stay and help him "pray". So that's what they called it in medieval times. I think that if Brienne has a crush on Renly, she is going to be sorely disappointed. You can't much more hopeless than being in love with someone who isn't even interested in your gender. And then there's the little issue that Renly has a wife already. Renly tells Stannis that he will have Margaery with child within a year. I wonder how serious Renly is about his "royal duty". One thing that struck me about this chapter was that when telling Cat about Joff, Stannis mentions how he developed suspicions and took them to Arryn. Odd... I'd always figured Arryn took what he'd found and alerted Stannis, not the other way around. Not that it matters, since Arryn died and Joff took the throne anyway. But it was still pretty stunning for me.

Chapter 32 (Sansa III): Well, since Cat and Robb have been separated by a goodly distance, and Theon is no longer part of Robb's army, we aren't going to see what's going on with Robb's fight ourselves for a while. So we have to hear of the latest Stark battle secondhand through Sansa's ears. Joff is mad about the beating Ser Stafford's army has taken, including Stafford's death. He has a pretty strange idea of how the battle went, though, saying Robb hit them with a whole army of warg direwolves.(I'm guessing wargs are along the lines of what Bran has been doing with Summer in his dreams.) So Joff decides Sansa must have a beating in exchange as punishment for her brother's victory. Oh yeah, Joff is scum. Good thing Tyrion shows up to stop it before it gets really bad. Sansa could have been hurt a lot worse if he hadn't come in right then. Tyrion has his men bring her to the Tower of the Hand and clean her up, and then give her a potion to sleep. In Arya's old bedroom, by coincidence. Afterwards he tells her a truer-sounding story of the battle, and offers to keep her here for her safety. She decides she'd rather have the chance at escape with Dontos, and asks to return to her old chambers. Oh yeah, Joff is scum.

Chapter 33 (Catelyn IV): So Cat goes to pray, and reflects on Stannis's claim about Joff. It makes sense to her, and she figures this is why Bran was pushed out a window. She returns to Renly's tent, where he is consulting with his lords while Brienne is dressing him in armor. They want him to attack right away, but Renly wants to wait till dawn, being honorable because it was the chosen hour. Never mind he would have his forces, those he brought with him, heading into the sunrise. Renly isn't much of a strategist. Renly orders that is Barristan is fighting alongside Stannis, to allow him to live. Except he isn't with Stannis either, we know this from Davos's chapters. Whenever Barristan shows up, he has some explaining to do as to what he's been up to all this time. None of Renly's orders matter, though, cause a gust of wind blows the door open... and a shadow walks in without an owner. Cat thinks it's Renly's shadow at first, but by the time she figures it out, it's too late. The shadow drives a shadow sword into Renly's neck (through his armor) and kills him. Brienne screams, and two of the Guard burst in and assume she did it. Cat has to plead for her life, and gets her away, sure that Stannis is somehow responsible. The Stark party flees, knowing that Renly's forces will go over to Stannis. So much for Renly having the bigger army.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just wanted to tell you that I am really enjoying your reading of ACOK. I hope you continue it and start ASOS when you are done with with ACOK.

Did you do the same for AGOT? I can't find it.

They are really good, aren't they? I have been enjoying following Mr. Gill's reading as well. You can find the start of his GoT read here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just wanted to tell you that I am really enjoying your reading of ACOK. I hope you continue it and start ASOS when you are done with with ACOK.

Did you do the same for AGOT? I can't find it.

Thanks for the feedback. :) I used an existing thread for first-time readings in the AGOT subforum, because the stuff in there was posted hidden with spoiler tags. In ACOK, people seem to have been content to warn of spoilers in the subject and then leave everything open to view inside the post. I prefer doing it the first way. To post my thoughts in a thread done the second way, I would have to enter the thread and expose myself to people writing about parts I may not have read yet. The same would go for looking for anyone's reaction to what I have to say. Anyone else who is in their first read of ACOK is more than welcome to use this thread so long as they hide their spoilers, same as I did with a pre-existing thread for the previous book.

As for the rest of the series, I have been planning on doing that as well, just not immediately, so keep an eye on the still reading forums later this year. I've planned on reading some Wheel of Time for now. If you're on Dragonmount, I'll be doing my thoughts for that on there (which has blogging available for its members). If the Seven favor me, I'll have read enough of that to make a Jordancon someday without exposing myself to face-to-face spoilers. (Five books down, nine to go. I'm aiming for 2013's con.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am on Dragonmount and enjoy that website as well. I hate to tell you think (I am not sure if you're just re-reading the WOT or reading it for the first time) but you are getting to the very tortuous part of the series, but here is some advice, hang in there and it does pick back up. I know that it wont seem like it ever will, but it does I promise (pinkie swear and cross my heart and hope to die :))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am on Dragonmount and enjoy that website as well. I hate to tell you think (I am not sure if you're just re-reading the WOT or reading it for the first time) but you are getting to the very tortuous part of the series, but here is some advice, hang in there and it does pick back up. I know that it wont seem like it ever will, but it does I promise (pinkie swear and cross my heart and hope to die :))

It's just my first read, I tend to juggle many book series at once, and I'm finding the prospect of trying to read nine books in one series within *counts on fingers* about 20 months a bit daunting. It's taken me 2 1/2 years to read books 0-5. All the more so since WOT books are larger than normal. I think I should have some more of ACOK up later tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...