George R. R. Martin's new book, "A Feast for Crows"
- Thread starter John Reynolds
- Start date
im waiting for the series to finish before i even dare think about getting them. Sigh, it started out so good. Hope GRRM doesnt follow in his footsteps.
epic
epic
The story arc I find completely gratuitious and uninteresting is the princess in the land of the marauders.
Booooring.
I assume it will all come together eventually, but I think that the point of the story (the things beyond the wall) could have been well told without dragging in this whole other disconnected (as of yet) arc.
Booooring.
I assume it will all come together eventually, but I think that the point of the story (the things beyond the wall) could have been well told without dragging in this whole other disconnected (as of yet) arc.
epicstruggle said:
GRRM has already joked around about the Jordan-esque comparisons that're being made. Parris has been telling him 7 books all along and he wanted to keep it to 6, but has recently ceded that he's going to need 7. If he slips beyond that then he's definitely contracted Jordan-itis. While I agree that the books are getting better, I don't liked the expanded POVs. Cersei, for example, isn't needed as a new POV in King's Landing since we have Jaime there.
And speaking of, I read the first WoT book in January of 1990.
RussSchultz said:
Yea, but as a Targaryen will she hook up with her nephew, Jon?
I stopped reading them when I accidentally bought book 7 twice because I thought I hadn't read it( even after reading the first two chapters in the book store).
When I can't tell the books apart, there's obviously not enough there for me to care about reading the next one.
When I can't tell the books apart, there's obviously not enough there for me to care about reading the next one.
Damn, my obvious attempt to spark some conversation on Martin prophecy predictions has been overshadowed by more Jordan bitchings.
We just dont want to see martin pull a jordan.John Reynolds said:Damn, my obvious attempt to spark some conversation on Martin prophecy predictions has been overshadowed by more Jordan bitchings.
epic
I also think Jon is clearly of Targaryen descent, and I also have a feeling Dani and Jon will hook up some point in the future, despite them being relatives. If I'm not mistaken, that sort of thing is actually a tradition with the Targaryens.
Another character I like is Bran. I think that if anyone of the main characters has the potential to be magically powerful (as a wizard of sorts), it's him. There's a lot of mystery in that part of the story, and I like how GRRM makes the whole magic element of the story very subtle.
Another character I like is Bran. I think that if anyone of the main characters has the potential to be magically powerful (as a wizard of sorts), it's him. There's a lot of mystery in that part of the story, and I like how GRRM makes the whole magic element of the story very subtle.
Alejux said:
Woot, someone bit.
Spoilers!
Yeah, I think Jon was a result of Rhaegar and Lyanna, Ned's sister. I think Ned's dream of remembering fighting the Kingsguard before the Tower of Joy is tied into the guilt he had over his sister's death and why he protected Jon (the three Kingsguard members were ordered to protect Lyanna by Rhaegar before he rode off to fight at the Trident). And he never claimed Jon as his own son, only that he was "of mine own blood."
I don't think Rhaegar raped Lyanna either, and that Robert's recollections of the man are tainted by his hatred since he loved Lyanna and she chose to have an affair with Rhaegar, whose death is probably the great tragedy of the series. I loved the one recollection of him as a studious young man who, having discovered some prophecy or foretelling in his studies, appeared in the courtyard the next day telling the castellan or trainer that "it seems I must become a warrior," subsequently becoming one of the deadliest knights in Westeros (though martial prowess was obviously not his nature, but whatever he'd discovered drove him to take up arms).
A recent theory I've seen is that Tyrion could be the offspring of Tywin Lannister's wife and Aerys, who did rape the former. It explains why after two beautiful and healthy children this physically deformed dwarf followed and also lets Tyrion slip out from beneath a doomed fate for being a kinslayer. Tywin also says at his death to Tyrion something like, "You're no son of mine," but Tywin was always ashamed of Tyrion so to me that doesn't really support the theory too strongly.
rwolf said:
You "liked" it? As in past tense?
That's really the problem, you see. The damn thing is stil going on and on and on.
Goodkind's Sword of Truth series suffers from the WoT syndrome... it starts very strong and then drags on and on and on and becomes just pointless after volume 4 or so. There are currently 8 or 9 books in the series IIRC and, from what I've heard, they haven't tracked down the Dreamwalker yet. I mean, if you are wanting to continue the story, wrap up the open plot lines and move on to new challenges.
Really, Jordan and Goodkind successfully ruined their great fantasy series by bowing to the mighty $ and milking them dry. SoT should have ended with book 4, WoT with book 7. It also tells us a lot about their integrity as writers and artists.
Plus, Goodkind doesn't just look like a perverted creep, I'm pretty sure he is one, too. I usually don't mind sex and violence in books but Goodkind is just over the top. The story quickly turns into an endless stream of pointless snuff-rape wankery - rape and child murder are present pretty much in right from the beginning, it just becomes utterly self-serving and pointless beginning with volume 4 or so. It's getting old - yes Mr. Goodkind, we got it. The bad guys are truly evil. We don't need yet another gang rape followed by disembowelment to remind us. KK? Thanks.
The books eventually degrade down to arguing his political views and the difference between capatalism and communism. He uses the story as a badly camouflaged vessel to transport his infantile worldviews through tons of bad analogies. EXTREMELY annoying, though some people might not even notice it.
It's also not just communism but also wellfare and such. Remember the conversation between Richard and that old hag selling honey pies or something? Like how everyone is waiting for govermnent handouts and in the end everyone ends up starving or something ridiculous like that?
Sword of Truth is Reaganomics 101 for Dummies. Leave that crap out of fantasy, please. There is nothing wrong with a moral message but SoT forces the author's narrow-minded paleo-con take on economics down everyone's throat.
It's even worse than Heinlein using the protagonist to argue that you should pummel your kids good once in a while so they grow up to be productive members of society or using the protagonist to transport his superficial musings on the benefits of the death penalty in Starship Troopers.
Also, the whole Midlands/D'Hara thing is just a badly disguised analogy on the UN. The Midlands are a bunch of quibbling nation states ruled by an ineffective council which outlived its usefulness so everyone has to unite under the moral leadership of mighty D'Hara in the face of aggression or fall to the red menace or whatever the Imperial Order is supposed to stand for.
I could have lived with all that crap if the series had continued to be as entertaining as it was in the first 3 books. Sadly, it didn't. Instead we have yet another example of bad Jordanitis.
Yeah, I like that too.Alejux said:
Spoilors....
An ironic moment was when that Nightwatch guy goes to Kings Landing to warn them about the dead coming back. The smacktard king tosses him in a jailcell rather then listening to him. Later, he talks to Tyrion and Tyrion laughs it off because the evidence rotted away. People respond to it the same way we'd react if someone warned us about trolls and impending Ragnarok.
But it seems magic will get much less subtle as time goes on. The pyromancer who makes the wildfire tells Tyrion their old spells started working again and asks if dragons are back in the world. Tyrion laughs that off, too.
Some day, Tyrion will reminisce about those events and wish he'd heeded the signs.
Eddings' series back in the '80s was the first to really do this. Incredibly lame after 1,500 pages that Aunt Pol looks at Garion and says, "Oh, but the Mrin Codex doesn't end there." I could've thrown the book across the room.
I read the first Goodkind book years ago and hated it. Haven't touched the rest.
We're probably going to have to wait until the 6th book to find out what the hell happened at Summerhall to start bringing magic back into the world.
I read the first Goodkind book years ago and hated it. Haven't touched the rest.
We're probably going to have to wait until the 6th book to find out what the hell happened at Summerhall to start bringing magic back into the world.
Yeah, explaining why the 2nd 5 books were almost identical to the first 5 books in major plot by saying "the cycle repeats itself over and over!" Bleeh.John Reynolds said:
What made me ill was the whole "demon lord of Karanda" where if that half child thing was born, the world would end (or somes shit like that), and then simply forgotten. Not like there wouldn't be a ton of others in the making that would have done the same thing.
Eddings definately should have stopped after the first series.