A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire

Book two went down as smoothly as the first. While over-written and chock full of uber detail, still enjoyable fantasy. Love the mix of recognizable human emotions with magic and fantasy. Not sure if he can capture the moment of birthing dragons in the fire but the shadow killers and the shapeshifters are pretty entertaining. While the books contain far too many characters (not sure how Martin kept them in his head) it's not too difficult to follow. Looking forward to book three...