2011-07-11, 14:13 | Link #1 |
Knowledge is the solution
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: St. Louis, MO
Age: 39
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A Song of Ice and Fire(novel thread)
In this thread we will be discussing about George R.R Martin book series a Song of Ice and Fire. The series so far consists of the following books
- A Game of Thrones - A Clash of Kings - A Storm of Swords - A Feast for Crows and the newly released -A Dance with Dragons Alongside with three prequel novellas. Spoilers will be abundant and only tagged at the poster's discretion. TV only watchers are warned However, A Dance with Dragons was just released recently, so some courtesy to fellow novel readers who have not yet read the book would be appreciated: comments about the fifth book should be preferably spoiler tagged for the time being.
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Last edited by Proto; 2012-09-05 at 17:55. |
2011-07-11, 19:15 | Link #3 |
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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Well then, since the book is going to be released officially tomorrow, I'll make a detour to my local book store to pick it up. Sometime during the weekend I will be on hiatus while I dance the dance of death with a 10 foot fire breathing lizard
Spoiler for :
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2011-07-12, 01:00 | Link #5 |
Lost.
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bay Area, California
Age: 32
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The HBO TV series got me into A Song of Ice and Fire. Finished the first book a couple weeks ago, currently reading Clash. I'm getting through it pretty slow though, since I only read a chapter or two when I have free time.
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2011-07-12, 12:47 | Link #6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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I don't have much time, so I looked up the chapters about Arya and read them instead. Since the novel is written in a PoV style and her story is pretty much independent, I don't miss anything. It reminded me why I love this series so much. So much detail, so much thought has been put into story to make the characters alive. Great read.
But the whole book was like 500-600 pages. How did Martin has so much to write? To much story spend on secondary characters like last time? |
2011-07-14, 02:07 | Link #7 |
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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Well then, what I had initially planed was reading the book through the weekend, since I didn't really want it to clash with my anime watching habits.
Unfortunately, I caved in and started my reading of it today well then, this week is going to be one hell of a backlog for me My impressions so far (read until chapter 4, page 70) Spoiler for Read at your own risk:
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2011-07-14, 11:49 | Link #8 |
Knowledge is the solution
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: St. Louis, MO
Age: 39
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Yep, Martin's books normally have a slow start, but they get really really good the further you read into them. I just finished reading Bran's chapter and its getting chilling, in more ways than one.
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2011-07-15, 16:56 | Link #10 | ||
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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Quote:
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But by the point I'm reading in the book, the two aren't really in a place to start any flames, romantic or otherwise ... Progress: Page 218 (Chapter ... 17 I suppose?) Spoiler for 4:
Spoiler for 5:
Spoiler for 6:
Will have more to say about the rest tomorrow, but I will say that for a dead man, Tywin has more effect on the story so far than any of the living lol
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2011-07-17, 21:55 | Link #11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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Spoiler for question:
Yes, I agree that chapter 6 is a slow chapter. Unfortunately there are a few chapters like that in the book. Sometime the strict PoV style of the story telling is a hindrance rather than a bless. To tell the story of what's happening, Martin must have someone there in the heat of things at that particular time, most time it gives the story more flesh and blood, other times we get what kind of food they ate or other useless space filling stuff. I read the book by the characters in the order who I likes most, so Arya first, then Dany, then Bran, then Tyrion and Jon, and the rest in the end. After the main characters I really have very little motivation for some of the side characters, especially since I know what happened to them in the end in some other character's story. That's the disadvantage of the order that I choose, but still I think Martin could cut some part out. |
2011-07-19, 04:04 | Link #14 | ||
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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I don't think so. He likes Japan well enough, and the name doesn't really strike me as a jab.
Anyho, since I had my Internet go out on Sunday and wasn't any better yesterday, I had the perfect pretense to just get on with reading the entire 800 and so pages. General comments (nothing spoilerish): -It certainly started off feeling a whole lot like A feast for Crows, but by the end it felt more like A Game of Thrones. -I'm sort of lost as to what to say about the events that transpired in the 5th book. A lot of stuff had happened, for sure, but I can't say that a lot of it was important or really advanced the plot from the end of Feast by much. -In fact, I would say that at least the events in the 4th book at least had for certain POV advanced the plot, albeit in several different directions, here while we have a slightly more unified central routes to take (3 to be exact) it feels like they don't really amount to anything ... Well do a character overview rather than a chapter by chapter later on. Spoiler for :
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Also, I have to say that a lot of this book felt very filler-ish. I mean Spoiler for :
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Speaking of repetitive, was I the only one who thought that someone was going to say that Words are Wind is their house words at one point from how many times that phrase is mentioned? Spoiler for :
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2011-07-19, 05:45 | Link #15 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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@Arabesque
Great post and very interesting to read. I lol-ed at the "word is wind" part, and I can't put words better than this remark: Quote:
Spoiler for HEAVY SPOILER:
About the Dornish prince and the ironborn chapters Spoiler for spoiler:
Talking about Arya Spoiler for Arya:
About Griff Spoiler for Young Griff:
About Rikon Spoiler for Rikon:
On Jon, Spoiler for Jon:
About Jaime's chapter, Spoiler for Jaime:
Last edited by Tom Bombadil; 2011-07-19 at 06:28. |
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2011-07-21, 09:47 | Link #17 | |
Licensed Hunter-a-holic
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35
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@Proto
The issue isn't really that the book is slow, because once it does start to get going, then it carries that momentum till the end without ever stopping. No, the issue is that for a book that's as long as A Storm of Swords, it's ... well, rather uninteresting in parts? Eh, I need to get into specifics here. I will point out that I enjoyed it and I thought that it was a great read, but I can't say that it's the best the series has to offer tbh.I had spoken with a friend at length about Tyrion's role in this book, and he actually disagreed with me about the point of his story. Spoiler for :
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Spoiler for spoiler:
Spoiler for :
Bingo. Spoiler for :
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Spoiler for :
Spoiler for Jon's final chapter:
You have to give me another day and I'll get back to you, but right now ... Spoiler for :
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2011-07-21, 10:02 | Link #18 | |
The Ironman
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Well, I just finished the book and while I think the result was well worth the wait, it didn't excite me the way the GoT or SoS did. It's very much a plot-building book like Feast was, sort of a calm before the storm.
Spoiler for thoughts w/ some spoilers:
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Spoiler for major spoilers:
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Last edited by Sabaku Kyu; 2011-07-21 at 10:25. |
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2011-07-22, 03:17 | Link #19 |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
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@Arabesque
I agree with your view on the purpose of Tyrion's journey. I lurked around the westeros forum and was shock about one thing that I missed during the reading. Menu for a feast (Spoiler for Lord Manderly, a.k.a. the fat lord). |
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