Finished A Game of Thrones, Starting Next in Series

I recently posted about how I was suffering from "fantasy fatigue" in reference to the increasing number of fantasy genre novels I had begun to read, only to put them down in frustration.  The same was happening again with my reading of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first volume in his ongoing series A Song of Ice and Fire.  But this time I was determined to finish this book to its end, and yesterday I accomplished that.  Today I started out on the second volume, titled A Clash of Kings.  There's still a problem here, though...if you want to consider it as a problem: I'm still rooting for the "bad" guys!  As a matter of fact, a new "bad" character was introduced at the start of this new book...and I found myself on her side....

I do have one correction to the previous article I had written about fantasy fatigue: the "bad" Lannister family is actually represented in how Martin presents the book's chapters, each one depicting the course of events from a different character's viewpoint.  With the Lannisters, it is the "imp" Tyrion Lannister with whom we can share his experiences and viewpoints.  However, at least at this junction, he is an essentially compassionate character, quite unlike the rest of his family.  Still, he is just as shrewd as any of them, easily the most interesting character I've come across so far in this series...