(April 2012)
This month, I have been mostly reading, Dragons!
Or not. There was apparently something of a fan backlash about the length of time it took for the book after this one to come out. Having read this through, I can appreciate why.
There’s an author’s note explaining that he needed to split the book because it was just getting too damn long. Fair enough, but he decided to split it by geography and character, rather than plot sequence. I’ve harped on before about how character should drive plot, rather than the other way round, so you’d think that I’d be all for this, but in limiting it by character you necessarily lose some. Unfortunately those lost included the ones I found most interesting. No Daenerys, no Jon Snow. No Tyrion. In the absence of the Imp it’s all fairly dour and po-faced.
The Stark girls are interesting enough but barely feature; Cersei is a too much of a pantomime villain, and the denouement of her story is flagged up a little too obviously (though I’ve thought that before and been wrong, so I’m not counting my chickens just yet); aside from that you get the Greyjoys, random Dornish, and Brienne, all of who are a little 'meh'. Oh, and Fat Sam. Every fantasy hero worth his salt needs a chubby sidekick called Sam.
Jaime at least has grown into a genuinely engaging character. I’d go as far as to say that at this point he’s my favourite, but at times it really feels like he’s carrying this book.
Maybe it’s all just too epic, if that’s not a contradiction in terms. Along with the last one, I’ve ploughed through 1,500 odd pages of swords and oaths and blood and grime in the last fortnight, which would test most people’s endurance regardless of the quality of the writing. I’ll never learn.
To me the entire series has become just brain candy, like a soap opera that you can't stop watching...
ReplyDeleteYep. Reckon I'll take a break for a while though. Too muck candy makes your brain rot. Or your teeth. It makes something rot, at any rate.
Delete"too epic"
ReplyDeleteI remember making love....more like raunchy sex on Ecstasy and this phrase is appropriate.....you can only be awesome for so long until shit get worn raw and sore.....the next day sucked.
"too epic"....it makes sense to me :)
Only the next day? Y'see, if more sucking had occurred on the night in question, maybe stuff wouldn't have got so raw.
DeleteI'm going to stop now.
D-d-d-dragons...d-d-d-did y-y-y-you say d-d-d-dragons? You haven't read any Anne McCaffrey by the way? She used to write about sky-lizards when she was alive. Not too sure what she's up to now though, now that she's passed on.
ReplyDeleteNope. She's always popping up on my 'Amazon recommends' page though. Her books are, I mean. Not the woman herself. That would be fairly disturbing as it is, quite without the whole 'being dead' thing.
DeleteI don't really have anything to say about this post, but I have a huge dick and I use it sex people a lot.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I'm really curious as to where you think the Cersei story is going.
I think it's clear that the author hates her. Every single thing she does is either evil or stupid, and quite often both. "I know, let's resurrect a long-dead martial order under the control of religious zealots! There's no way that decision will come back to bite me in the ass. No siree."
DeleteShe's too much the Wicked Witch of the West for me to really care about her as a character. In fact, I'm finding it increasingly hard to care about any of the female characters. This article is glorious- http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/08/26/enter-ye-myne-mystic-world-of-gayng-raype-what-the-r-stands-for-in-george-r-r-martin/
I think a bit of a break before tackling the next book might be in order.
Keep up the good work wrt the dick and the sex.