Waiting for Winter: Re-Reading "A Clash of Kings," Part I

What to do while waiting for George R.R. Martin’s The Winds of Winter to ship? Easy – re-read all the older books. That’s what blogger, author, and teacher Remy J. Verhoeve has done, going through his tenth read-through of A Clash of Kings and documenting every observation and every insight he has along the way. Remy parses through the giant, 900-page text essentially paragraph by paragraph, indexing every instance of foreshadowing, deconstructing every character beat, and cataloging every question that has yet, even 16 years later, to be answered. And perhaps of even more value to breathless fantasy and sci-fi fans waiting for that next jolt of narrative ecstasy is Remy’s near-constant stream of comparisons to and recommendations of other genre work. Having read – and re-read – a whole plethora of novels and novellas, standalones and epic series, Remy is a veritable treasure trove of nerdy cross-references and back-catalogues, ensuring that your nightstand will have a book on it for months to come. But this isn’t just the most thorough deconstruction of Clash of Kings you’ll ever read – it’s also a nostalgic trip down memory lane to a time when HBO’s Game of Thrones was just beginning and A Dance with Dragons, the most recent release in the series, was about to come out. Even going to the extent of re-watching the same episode three times in a row, Remy will help you relive the majesty and wonder that was Thrones’s first season – and the trepidation over whether the second season could pull it off again. Come along with Remy as he: Reconsiders the characters of Cersei and Stannis in light of their character development in the most recent books (even comparing Stannis to Satan in a literary sense) Explores George Martin’s “writing tricks” that make his books must-reads, including one of the golden rules of dialogue Forces you to completely rethink the psychology and personality of Tyrion Lannister Explains what the best music to listen to is while reading Initially rejects A Dance with Dragons and then slowly comes around to embracing it within the overarching narrative Defends Martin’s brutality – and reconsiders its scope and effect Investigates the psychological reason why people read – and obsess over – fantasy literature, film, and videogames Makes some of the most out-there theories you can possibly think of, such as the Arya Black Swan Theory – which will have you picking up the book instantly to re-read those chapters At this rate, Winter truly can last for several (more) years. COMPLETE LIST OF CONTENTS Re-Reading A Clash of Kings, Part I – covering the first 35 chapters of the second Song of Ice and Fire book (from the prologue to “Jon IV”) From the Blue Buddha Archives – extensive samples covering A Clash of Kings and the second season of Game of Thrones Blue Buddha Daibutsu: “A Voice in the Chorus” – a never-before-published short story set amidst the zombie apocalypse, written by Marc N. Kleinhenz, of Tower of the Hand fame Blue Buddha Gaiden: “Why Do We Fall, Bruce? To Write Horribly Cheesy Dialogue, Part II” – an exclusive essay wondering whether the burgeoning DC Cinematic Universe would be better off striking the Dark Knight trilogy from the record, written by Marc N. Kleinhenz Blue Buddha Sneak Peek – an exclusive sample from the highly anticipated Tower of the Hand: A Hymn for Spring, written by Stefan Sasse, of Tower of the Hand and the Boiled Leather Audio Hour fame