YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

Reading A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) from the 10th of May 2016.

I'm in!

If my copy comes in time I'm in...

im excited to get into this :)

I'm going to go ahead and start this one a day early, I just can't wait anymore.

How often would you guys like to update/checkin? There aren't chapter numbers, so I'm not sure how to go about this.

Well we're reading one book a week, starting every Tuesday (although I'm behind). Should we assign a certain number of pages or so every day? I think buddy reads work best when there's a per-day schedule.

That sounds good to me, do you have a number in mind?

That sounds good to me, do you have a number in mind?

Actually I was thinking we could do ten chapters a day, starting today, since there are 70 chapters total according to the Internet (including prologue). We'll just have to count along since they're not numbered.

That would be a bit over 100 pages a day. A lot, but pretty much what you'd expect from a book that's nearly 800 pages.

Have done the Prologue. Not quite sure how it fits within the grand scheme of things. Will try and stick to the 100pages a day, but have a couple of books on the go so will have to see how I get on.

That works for me.

I didn't count the prologue, so ten chapters finished after Arya right before Davos. I'm liking this one so far. (view spoiler)[ I really like Arya, Tyrion, Jon, and Davos' storylines. I'm excited that we met Jaqen, he's one of my favorite characters in the show and I'm excited to see how he is in the books. I'm glad Tyrion's hand, he and Varys have a great dynamic and I love watching them together. I'm glad we're getting to see beyond the Wall. Joffrey is still the worst. (hide spoiler)]

Up to where Ivy is: (view spoiler)[
UGH JOFFREY RIGHT?? What a little prat. I feel bad for Sansa, but not too bad because Sansa just handled the whole situation up to Ned's execution SO badly. I'm still annoyed at her for it, although she seems to be getting more sensible with every chapter.
My favorite part so far is the different interpretations of the red comet. Every storyline so far has mentioned it and every character gave it a different meaning. It was nice to have something connecting all the characters together for once.
(hide spoiler)]

About 20 chapters in: (view spoiler)[Gendry is great! My favorite part in the book so far is his reaction when finding out Arya is a lady. For once GRRM made me crack up :)
Tyrion's squire Podrick is one of my favorite characters in the show so I hope we hear more from him in the books.
@Ivy I agree that Jaqen is definitely one of the more interesting characters. Arya was very smart to save him from the fire.
(hide spoiler)]

Up to where Helen is: (view spoiler)[ I adore Gendry, I'm so happy the book scene was so close to the show during the reveal, it's hilarious. Tyrion's story is so great, I love watching him handle the crazy. His plan to find Cerseis mole is brilliant. Wildfire freaks me out. I'm really proud of Bran, he's doing so well as Lord of Winterfell. Danys story is kinda boring for me if I'm being honest, I know it'll pick up but I just haven't been a huge fan so far. Renly is just funny to me. He's just kind of ridiculous about all of it. (hide spoiler)]

Got bogged down in some other reading. Done chapters 1-4. Arya has a certain coolness to her. Want to see how certain things pan out-but the sooner Joffrey is out of things, the better!

@Karen I agree. I'm tempted to skip forward until someone finally dethrones Joffrey. With so many kings floating around, someone ought to manage it, right?
I'm about thirty chapters in, stopped after a Tyrion chapter but before an Arya chapter.
(view spoiler)[ I laughed so hard when Theon got tricked by his sister! Go Asha, I like her strong-woman attitude. Theon is too full of himself, if you ask me, and it was very amusing to see him put in his place.
Brienne is another lovely strong lady. It's rare in this series to find someone as pure-hearted and loyal as her. I hope she gains some self-confidence and stops worrying about her looks when she's got more than enough other skills to make up for it.
What the hell is Stannis trying to accomplish, attacking Renly rather than King's Landing? I always thought he was bitter and narrow-minded but I didn't think he was stupid. Maybe he has some ulterior motive in skirting the Lannisters for now.
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Im running a bit late but i have started at last :)

19 chapters a day and i will catch up lol i will do my best

Good luck Gillian

I'm making good progress, surprisingly! I'm at Chapter 40 (or close), I stopped between a Catelyn chapter and a Daenerys chapter.
(view spoiler)[So Stannis is using the Red Priestess' dark magic to assassinate his family. That's really awful, stabbing your own brother in the back with a shadow. I have now lost what little respect I had for him. I'm rooting for Brienne to get her revenge.
It's doubly a shame since Renly was such a fun guy. Although he was horrible at hiding his sexuality - was he even trying? The way he asked Loras to stay and help him "pray" haha ;) I'm sure everyone at Renly's court knew he wasn't straight, and Margaery too.
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I'm pretty close to done with the book, but forgot to update for a while.
I noticed something interesting quite a few chapters back; this might be a spoiler for those who haven't watched Season 3 of the HBO how or read the 3rd book. In the chapter where Dany visits the House of the Undying, (view spoiler)[she passes a room and looks in on a feast where all the people are dead in their seats. There's a king at the table with the head of a wolf!!
Is this just hindsight bias, or did GRRM very blatantly foreshadow the Red Wedding of the Starks a whole book before it happened? This makes me want to point at all the people reading the series who were devastated by the Red Wedding and yell, "You should have knoooooownn!!"
But then again, hindsight bias.
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Helen 2.0 wrote: "I'm pretty close to done with the book, but forgot to update for a while.
I noticed something interesting quite a few chapters back; this might be a spoiler for those who haven't watched Season 3 o..."

good pick up Helen

I have finished the book but I have some updates that I found while reading the book.

Chapter 10 (view spoiler)[ Arya is acting a bit babyish right now. Just because there could be wolves in the woods doesn't mean you need to chicken out (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 21 (view spoiler)[ Tyrion's chapters bore me. Or at least currently they do. I mean, the letter from Ser Cleos was "so riveting" (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 40 (view spoiler)[ I love Catelyn. And it would be cool knowing how to talk to the dead. I see where you are coming from Catelyn! (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 70 (end) (view spoiler)[ My gosh, this is intense! But for the record, I am not a fan of "dream sharing" in books. (hide spoiler)]

I actually finished it just yesterday. Took me a while. I got mixed up a lot because I'm watching season six of GoT at the same time! Confusing.

28%-trying to keep track of the plotting, but it's hard as they all seem to be at it. I do get the feeling I'd find this easier if I had a picture in my head of who's who-hard to keep up.

51%-I still can't make up my mind about Tyrion, but his attempts to talk sense to Joffrey are obviously going to fall on deaf ears.

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Reading from the 1st of January 2019

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I definitely need to finish this book. 2019 is the year!

Ill be reading this book... I thought I was in a series read last month but now I can't find the thread...

i'm starting this book as well

@Tiera yeah i also thought there was a series thread

Prologue

(view spoiler)[I wonder if the Rainbow guard was a reference to Renly being gay. Also, I'm still confused why he thinks he has claim to the throne over Stannis??

Stannis - tell us how you really feel! The resentment he has for his brothers is unreal!

Yeah, Cressen - somehow I don't think that plan was a good one... (hide spoiler)]

up to chapter 5
(view spoiler)[
stannis treat cressen like shit , the guy raised him, and he will go to war even though he doesn't have the men or resources to fight the lannisters cause the red women saw they won. that is foolish.
and why Renly think he is king and have a claim to the throne, someone tell him how this whole thing work.

joffery almost kills that drunk guy out of boredom but sansa saves him.
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]
the plan was to send Eddard to the wall but joffert decided to kill him without telling anyone.he just changed his mind at the moment. cersei can't control him so tyrion will do it for her.

tyrion is falling in love with a whore again. one that his father told him not to bring to the city with him. and Varys found out and threatened him. tyrion should know better.

the gold cloaks are looking for Gendry, probably cause cersei figured out he was Bob's bastard son. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 1-5

(view spoiler)[It's crazy to think of Hot Pie as being a bully. The friendship he has with Arya in the TV show is great, and to see him talking about kicking someone to death is awful.

Sansa was kind of insufferable in the first book since her whole character arc was 'oh I like pretty things and the only thing that matters is being married to a good looking boy like Joffrey, and everything else is unfair', but even she doesn't deserve to have grown men beating her. Fuck Joffrey, man. Also, you know it's bad when someone feels safer in Cersei's presence.

Urgh, Tyrion joking about Cersei having sex with Jaime, but not him is just gross. So much incest.

If I'm honest, Bran's chapters bore me..

Ooh so they're hunting for Gendry. They do know he's Robert's bastard. Oh dear..

(hide spoiler)]

Just wanted to let yall know I haven't forgotten I'm @ Chapter 30 but I've taken a break because the soap opera style scenes that cut away to a new character just as things get interesting is giving me heartburn lol. I'll post more in depth updates soon! Also Its hard to keep track of what chapter I am on because my e edition doesn't have chapter numbers unless I back out and scroll through the table of contents. Its also the 5 book set so thats a lot of chapters to scroll through lol.

Up to Chapter 17 - (view spoiler)[ Not going to lie I feel like this is moving painfully slow... not because its uninteresting but because just as soon as I get super hyped about one characters story it up and switches on me. (hide spoiler)]
Up to Chapter 34 - (view spoiler)[ Everytime it cuts to Jon I start realizing how childish all these other people are... People dying left and right and a real enemy is coming. Even Dany is kind of getting on my nerves with her spoiled childish personality even though we haven't seen much of her. (hide spoiler)]
Up to Chapter 51 - (view spoiler)[ I feel more interested in the story now.. I think because we have past the point to which I watched the series.. so now everything is fresh and exciting. What is going on with these Starks hmmm? Some funky magic is going down with them... (hide spoiler)]
Chapter 64 - (view spoiler)[ Is anyone else mourning the loss of this tiny girl Arya.. because she is killing people right an left and feels no remorse.. She is just so young to have to be such a bad A. (hide spoiler)]
Finished: (view spoiler)[ I don't really know whose side to be on... they are all so blegh! I think I'm team Stark... Whatever that means. At least for now. Dany is a close second. My favorite character I think is Brienne.... I just love her. I hope she doesn't get killed off or changed. Also, what happened to Stannis' scary witch lady?
I feel like she is going to mess some things up for that Storm kid she took back to dragonstone. (hide spoiler)]

This wasn't our series read but are we going to go ahead and continue? I'm not planning on starting book 3 for a while at least until yall get caught up I think. I have some other buddy reads I can do in the mean time. If yall do go to another thread or continue reading here please let me know!

you finished it fast wow. i will try and finish this book by the end of the week.
yes i want to continue with the series, maybe by the end of the month or in february !

Planning to catch up this week!

Chapters 6-10

(view spoiler)[As interesting as Jon Snow's story is in the TV show, it's kinda boring me right now..

I understand that Robb was kinda thrown into the deep end after his father's death, but does he have to be so rude to his mother? He forgets that not long ago, he'd never actually been in a real battle and knows nothing of living through war, and coming from her background and her marriage, Catelyn might know a little bit more than he does about that..

I'm not quite enjoying this book as much as I did the first one. I don't know what it is, but it's kinda just meh at the moment..

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Chapters 11-15

(view spoiler)[Theon is such a piece of shit. He was awful to the captain's daughter.

Again, I keep forgetting how young Dany is. She's already gone through so much at the age of just 14!!

Ser Jorah's story about his second wife was sad. I think he was really in love with her, and she was in love with the idea of what he could give her and when that didn't work out, she ditched him for a better deal. What a complete bitch!

Urgh, could you imagine drinking river water then finding out there's a dead body floating in it? That's beyond gross.

I imagine Cersei has an awkward conversation with her father awaiting her once he's read Stannis' letter...

(hide spoiler)]

Chapters 16-20

(view spoiler)[Hodor is one of the few really good-hearted characters in the Song of Ice and Fire series, so to see young boys teasing him or to have Bran remember an event where boys were attacking him. It's awful, and Hodor has such a tragic backstory anyway. F*ck those horrible little boys.

Oh, is Bran having a memory of his fall? Does he remember that Jaime pushed him??? It's interesting that the talk of the incest triggered a memory.

I see Tyrion planting some seeds around King's Landing. I wonder what he has up his sleeve..

Ser Dontos is a bit weird isn't he? Like I get he's a drunk, but he was slightly creepy in that scene with Sansa. She saved his life so he probably wants to return the favour, but he almost got her killed there. If it had been someone other than the Hound that discovered her, that is!

I love the scenes between Tyrion and Cersei. He seems to be the only person in the book that isn't frightened about standing up to her, or giving her a bit of grief. The bickering between them is great.

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Chapters 21-25

(view spoiler)[And another Bran chapter, yay! -.-

Again, Robb is awful to his mother. The 'crown' has definitely gone to his head. I'm not a Catelyn Stark fan, but there's no need for how he goes on with her.

I understand at this point I'm just complaining about everything, but here comes another boring pointless character: Gilly! Gilly whose entire character arc is so Sam can have a romance. Yawn.

Craster, on the other hand, is a crazy character. A man who has built a house for himself outside of the Wall, and has been marrying his daughters for generations, and giving his sons to the woods, but he's not all bad. He also houses men from the wall when they're going on their ventures. I wonder why someone didn't kill him a long time ago. Like one of the daughters, or a Crow.

Oops. Theon just tried to banged his sister. So much incest! Kinda weird for his sister to play along just to embarrass him. Please Asha, stop grabbing your brother's private parts! Urgh!

What a weird scene between Tyrion and Cersei embracing each other and being happy together. I love it! Honestly, the scenes between the two of them make me so happy. And then Tyrion ruins it by poisoning her haha.

Joffrey with a crossbow? Not a good idea..

The irony in Littlefinger saying he wants to be left out of Tyrion's deception. Lol.

I love the part about Tyrion trying to find out who the snitch is by finding the three main suspects three different lies and seeing which one got to Cersei first. Genius.

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Chapters 26-30

(view spoiler)[Ahhh Arya's famous list of names of those she would like to kill. We're seeing the origin of it now.

'I spill my seed on her belly'. Well, there's not much you can say to that, is there?

The Mountain and his men are just awful evil men. Gang-raping a girl in front of her father and then laughing about it? Despicable people. I'm pleased the man telling the story was killed.

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chapters 6-10(view spoiler)[
politically i think Robb is right not to give up jaime easily but emotionally i think catelyn is right, she just want her daughters back even though that means giving up their best card in this war(jaime). and Robb should listen to his mother, he want to send her back home just because she disagree with him.

that was a very interesting philosophical conversation between tyrion and varys about power. and varys is the one who got Gendry out of there!


i wonder if Melisandre religious beliefs are real. i think her powers are to some extent real, but not this looking throw smoke and fire and seeing the future thing. i think she use it to get her own way.
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chapters 11-15
(view spoiler)[
theon father doesn't give a shit about him, he think he is soft and stark-like(the starks are the farthest thing from soft).and his sister will inherit the lands not him. he was so smug about being the only son and telling his father to accept robb's plan and he will lead the army and his reward should be the throne.

jorah story about his second wife is sad. when Dany asked him what she looked like and he told her like you and he mentioned before that she is the most beautiful women he ever saw. that was smooth. but no luck there buddy. she is 14 and he is like what 40?!

is Yoren dead? i hope not. i like him. Arya screaming 'winterfell!' while fighting the attackers was funny. did any of the boys hear her, if they did they will ask questions that she shouldn't answer.

not much happens in jon's chapters, i liked them more in the first book.
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chapters 16-20
(view spoiler)[
being a high noble is boring. bran finally remembered how he fell from that tower.

sansa shouldn't keep much hope about ser Dontos freeing her from the lannisters. if the guy could do that wouldn't he free him self.

i love Gendry's reaction when he found out she is a stark. he started calling her m'lady and apologising for all the inappropriate talk lol

holy crap, Cersei has feelings.
but that was a cleaver move by tyrion to find out who will betray him.
(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 31-35

(view spoiler)[Why is Stannis so bitter about Ned being Robert's Hand? We've been hit over the head with the fact that Stannis and Robert had little love for each other, so why should he expect his brother to reach out to him? Maybe the reason they never saw eye to eye was because of Stannis' resentment of Robert's friendship with Ned.

How come Catelyn's been all over the Kingdoms and never heard about Cersei and Jaime's incest? Errrrbody knows about that now! Wait.. why does she think Ned was killed for?

Urgh, the Sansa being beating scenes are horrendous to read. Fuck Joffrey and fuck his Kingsguard for doing it.

Well.. there goes Renly!

Not looking good for Bran and Rickon either..

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Chapters 36-40

(view spoiler)[I agree with Tyrion - Cersei is acting weird. God knows what she has up her sleeve.

I think Theon's problem is he's never felt loved or accepted by the various father figures in his life, so he's always trying to prove himself. That will be his downfall.

What a strange wedding custom. Could you imagine if that was in place in the modern day? The things people would ask for!

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