Last month, I shared my review for the first volume of the Game Of Thrones graphic novel series. I love the show, struggled with the first book, but adored the graphic novel variation. Of course, I was excited to check out the second volume from my library! It blew me away just as much as the first.

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The summary, from Amazon:

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Novelist Daniel Abraham and illustrator Tommy Patterson are not merely turning George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy A Game of Thrones into a graphic novel: They are meticulously translating one art form into another, and capturing the intricate nuances of Martin’s novels just as HBO is doing with the blockbuster series. The Abraham/Patterson collaboration is more than just a faithful adaptation. It is a labor of love—and a thrilling masterwork in its own right.

Now, in the second volume, the sweeping action moves from the icy north, where the bastard Jon Snow seeks to carve out a place for himself among bitter outcasts and hardened criminals sworn to service upon the Wall . . . to the decadent south and the capital city of King’s Landing, where Jon’s father, Lord Eddard Stark, serves as the Hand of King Robert Baratheon amid a nest of courtly vipers . . . to the barbarian lands across the Narrow Sea, where the young princess Daenerys Targaryen has found the unexpected in her forced marriage to the Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo: love—and with it, for the first time in her life, power.

Meanwhile, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister, accused by Lady Catelyn Stark of the attempted murder of her now-crippled youngest son, must call upon all his cunning and wit to survive when he is captured and imprisoned in the lofty dungeons of the Eyrie, where Lady Stark’s sister—a woman obsessed with vengeance against all Lannisters—rules. But Catelyn’s impulsive arrest of the Imp will set in motion a series of violent events whose outcome is fated to shake the world at the worst possible moment. For now is not the time for private feuds and bloodthirsty ambitions.

Winter is coming . . . and with it, terrors beyond imagining.

Buy A Game Of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume Two here!

Wow, there are so many things just a little different in the book than in the show. Sadly, in this volume, we see very little of Daenerys. But we do see a lot of Sansa and Tyrion, and we get to meet Sam!

Two things were very different, in my opinion. The first is the most obvious: the character of Lysa Arryn and her son. In the show, his name is Robin, but his name is Robert in the book. I found their characters to be different. Robert is less bratty and way more sickly than Robin. In the show, it’s totally weird that he’s still breastfeeding at the age of six. He seems spoiled and already a little crazy. It’s still weird in the book, but he’s so sickly you almost feel like it might be beneficial to him in some way – or maybe he’s not eating any solid food and that’s why he’s so birdlike. He also hasn’t yelled to make Tyrion fly yet, which makes me more disposed to like him.

And then there’s Lysa. She’s the same as the show as far as her lines go, but she’s portrayed differently. She’s pretty and very plump, and for some reason this makes her seem less neurotic/unhinged and more confident/angry.

The next big difference is in the interaction between Sansa and the Hound. These are two of my favorite characters, and I was blown away by this difference. In terms of the plot, it’s a small thing, but as far as the characters go, it’s huge. In the show, Littlefinger tells Sansa the story of how the Hound got his scars. In the graphic novel and I assume book (which I have read, but it was long ago), the Hound tells Sansa! He is escorting her back to her rooms, and he just opens up to her out of nowhere about his awful brother burning his face when he was a child.

This sheds a whole new light on their characters. It shows that Sandor is able to open up to a good person. The next day, the Hound stops his brother from being a complete brute during the tourney. Sansa voices that the Hound is the true champion of the day. You can tell that she admires him for overcoming someone who hurt him when he was a child, something she, still a child herself in so many ways, can relate to. These two were not done justice in the show. In the books, they are stronger characters with such an interesting, lovely friendship. She is gentle but emotionally strong, and he is strong but emotionally gentle.

The library is closed at the time of my writing this, but I immediately will put a hold on Volume 3 when it reopens.

Find out more about how I rate books here.

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Volume Two by Daniel Abraham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series is done excellently. I love the comics style illustrations, and there is such rich detail to the story missed in the show. It translates well from the book.

View all my reviews

Book Club Questions

1. What differences have you spotted between the show and the book so far? Any differences between the graphic novel and the original book?
2. What messages might the artists be portraying with the images?
3. Why might the show-writers have changed how Sansa found out the Hound’s backstory? How are the characters involved in these scenes and the story different in the show, or similar?
4. How are Robin/Robert and Lysa different in the show than they are in the graphic novel? How do the alterations change your perception of them?

Interested? Buy A Game Of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume Two.
You can also buy the entire series of graphic novels here.
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