Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) The Fantasy Thread

[Thom Yorke]

I'm just over 700 pages into ASOS, and I'm definitely seeing why so many people labelled this as the best one.

Spoiler for wedding spoilers:

Catelyn's death had to be one of the most undignified deaths I've ever read or seen. She literally thinks her whole family is dead, yet she was so close to reuniting with Arya. And on top of that, she compromises her character by killing an innocent halfwit, and goes completely nuts before they cut her throat. Props to GRRM for holding nothing back, especially with a POV character. I absolutely hated Catelyn as a character, but that was still tough to read.

[LoathsomePete]

"Cuts like Valyrian steel"
"... is that sharp?"
"Very sharp"

Good exchange.

[Sansa Stark]

Maggy the Frog's prophecy...

Cersei:"When will I wed the prince?"
Maggy:"Never. You will wed the king."
Cersei:"I will be queen, though?"
Maggy:"Aye. Queen you shall be... until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

Who do you guys think that other woman will be? I think it being Margaery is too obvious. I'm hoping it's Sansa, and that Arya will be commander of the Queensguard. That would be ****ing awesome.

[jackhammer]

David Gemmell who sadly passed away a couple of years back is probably the greatest writer of Heroic Fantasy I have ever read.

His novels are full of characters first and then stories second. That doesn't mean that he couldn't write a decent story; far from it, he wrote incredible dialogue for his characters that referred to Gemmell's religious beliefs (Christianity) but as a non believer you can read them as sage writings without any force. His writing was universal. So much so that I didn't even know he was a devout Christian until many years after reading his books. His writing was that subtle.

Most of his books are not complicated at all. They are forceful, direct but far from cliched boy's own tales.

Here are a bunch of quotes from his novels and what I so admired about Gemmell was just before he became a full time writer he was a night club bouncer and not an intellect yet he spoke more wisdom in a paragraph than many more educated people have proffered in their entire lifetime:
David Gemmell Quotes (Author of Legend)

[crash_override]

OK so just finished 5th book of Song of Fire and Ice and... WTF?

First three books = awesome.

4-5 books = decent.

1150 pages? Can I get some resolution here? What the hell is going on in Meereen?

[Sansa Stark]

Hizdahr = prob the Harpy

[crash_override]

Originally Posted by Hermione

Hizdahr = prob the Harpy

Spoiler for Dance With Dragons.:

He's definitely involved somehow, and Selmy was right to seize him for his suspicions, although he should have killed him. But what about everything else.

What's going on in Winterfell/in Stannis' camp? The Bolton Bastard's letter leaves too many holes in the story. Why proclaim that Stannis has been defeated and killed yet say he wants the fake Arya back? Last we heard, she arrived at Stannis' camp with Theon.

What's going on with Jaime and Brienne? Seriously, the whole book we get what, 2 chapters? Why isn't Cersei dead yet?

What's up with the ****ing Zombie in the kingsguard?

What's up with Daenerys and the Khalasar at the end? I get the whole 'in order to go forward, you must go back thing' is that forshadowing? Is she going to take this Khalasar and march on Meereen? Why would she do that? As far as she knows, the Yunkai aren't backstabbing *******s and have already left the city and everything is good.

In the end, this book set up way too many things with out resolving anything of substance. I mean, 5 years is a long time, you can come up with something better than that.

[PoorOldPo]

Originally Posted by jackhammer

David Gemmell who sadly passed away a couple of years back is probably the greatest writer of Heroic Fantasy I have ever read.

His novels are full of characters first and then stories second. That doesn't mean that he couldn't write a decent story; far from it, he wrote incredible dialogue for his characters that referred to Gemmell's religious beliefs (Christianity) but as a non believer you can read them as sage writings without any force. His writing was universal. So much so that I didn't even know he was a devout Christian until many years after reading his books. His writing was that subtle.

Most of his books are not complicated at all. They are forceful, direct but far from cliched boy's own tales.

Here are a bunch of quotes from his novels and what I so admired about Gemmell was just before he became a full time writer he was a night club bouncer and not an intellect yet he spoke more wisdom in a paragraph than many more educated people have proffered in their entire lifetime:
David Gemmell Quotes (Author of Legend)

I love Gemmell as well, especially the Troy Series and Rigante series. But GRR Martin is amazing.

[LoathsomePete]

Originally Posted by crash_override

Spoiler for Dance With Dragons.:

He's definitely involved somehow, and Selmy was right to seize him for his suspicions, although he should have killed him. But what about everything else.

What's going on in Winterfell/in Stannis' camp? The Bolton Bastard's letter leaves too many holes in the story. Why proclaim that Stannis has been defeated and killed yet say he wants the fake Arya back? Last we heard, she arrived at Stannis' camp with Theon.

What's going on with Jaime and Brienne? Seriously, the whole book we get what, 2 chapters? Why isn't Cersei dead yet?

What's up with the ****ing Zombie in the kingsguard?

What's up with Daenerys and the Khalasar at the end? I get the whole 'in order to go forward, you must go back thing' is that forshadowing? Is she going to take this Khalasar and march on Meereen? Why would she do that? As far as she knows, the Yunkai aren't backstabbing *******s and have already left the city and everything is good.

In the end, this book set up way too many things with out resolving anything of substance. I mean, 5 years is a long time, you can come up with something better than that.

Consider yourself lucky you haven't been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series that has been going on since 1990. 14 books, millions of words, ten-thousand pages, and a dead author that is being completed by another one. While the Song of Fire & Ice series has been going on for some time, we could have it a whole lot worse that other fantasy series.

[crash_override]

Originally Posted by LoathsomePete

Consider yourself lucky you haven't been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series that has been going on since 1990. 14 books, millions of words, ten-thousand pages, and a dead author that is being completed by another one. While the Song of Fire & Ice series has been going on for some time, we could have it a whole lot worse that other fantasy series.

Ha, I actually downloaded all the Wheel of Time books to my Kindle based on a recommendation from a co-worker. Haven't ready any of them yet but I will get around to it eventually. Actually the point that swayed me towards getting them was that they got Brandon Sanderson to finish the series, who I consider myself a fan of (Mistborn series especially), they really couldn't have chosen a better writer. I think the real question in, who's going to finish SOIAF when Martin croaks 3 months after Winds of Winter comes out?