4.5 / 5
Year
1998
Publisher
Bantam Spectra
ISBN
978-0553108033
Fiction
A Clash of Kings
by George R.R. Martin
The map fragments into mini‑wars and petty egos; every new banner is basically a competing fork of the same doomed project.
Geek’s cut
Storytelling tuned for readers who over-analyze everything: layered themes, callbacks that reward obsessive memory, and a world that keeps expanding in your head after the last page.
Deeper dive
You can feel the system load increasing: more claimants, more battles, more magical weirdness sliding in from the edges. It’s the book where you realize there’s no safe narrative rails here.
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