I just finished my second pass at the series waiting for aDwD--and I have never read anything twice. By far, the best epic fantasy of all time. Can't wait for the HBO series--they know how to do it right.
Spoiler One of my favorite scenes from the books is the first tourney where Gregor takes a kid's head off with his lance. Then he kills his own horse with a single blow from his sword. Then he comes after Loras and goes at it with his own brother the Hound. Just an awesome sequence.
At the rate Martin is writing at, the HBO series will catch up to his books in the fifth season as he is about 3 or 4 years late with his latest book. If you follow on his website, he'll often set pretty generous expectations: "I'll finish it by the end of the year!" and then you'll forget about it and go back and look at when he posted that and its from January 2008. A Feast for Crows was almost as bad, but expectations for a Dance with Dragons were that he'd have it out faster as he'd written half the book when he wrote Feast for Crows. (got too long so he split it). In fact, I remember reading a post on his website stating that it would only take a few months to finish Dance after Crows was released. I just went and looked up the copyright on Crows. I can't believe I read that in 2005! So five years later, we're still waiting as he releases reams of short stories and graphic novels. Somewhat frustrating.
Spoiler Yeah, set some awesome expectations there. The Mountain is an absolute badass. (For the record, he doesn't take the kid's head off, he spears him through the throat.)
Didn't see this until now. I derive a lot more pleasure out of reading a good book than watching a good television show. So if reading the books a few months before the show airs partially ruins the show for me, oh well. It will have been worth it if the books are as good as most say (and about 2/3rds through the first book, I am inclined to agree). Although it does make for interesting reading when I read a line by Eddard Stark and it is being delivered by Sean Bean in my head. It's funny how the only possible person to cast as the Imp is Peter Dinklage. He's the first one I thought of when I started getting into his character and I go look at the cast list. Lo and behold, he gets to play Tyrion.
Spoiler Well, he doesn't really take the guy's head off, right? The guy's armor isn't properly affixed and he hits his neck at a weak point. The wound quickly kills him, but I think his head stays atop his neck. Maybe I'm remembering wrong. But you are right that that whole scene was great. I'm curious to see how closely they stick to the first book with the whole incest thing. I mean, Bran didn't REALLY have to see the Lannister twins going at it when he dropped down to that window in order for them to want him dead. All he had to hear was them plotting. I know the incest thing becomes the forefront again later when it is revealed that King Robert has no real heir, but that could just be a shocking reveal through dialogue rather than showing a guy graphically fingering his twin sister (as was depicted in the book).
Don't get me started since it's more like 10 years late for the full book. I'm really losing hope that the series will get done within his lifetime.
I'll toss in another one. Have any of you read the late Kage Baker? If you're a fantasy fan and haven't delved into The Anvil of the World and the sequel, The House of Stag, you are in for a treat. Simply outstanding. I totally bummed out that she passed away from cancer at the end of January of this year. A huge loss. For science fiction fans, try The Empress of Mars. Wondering if it's a Edgar Rice Burroughs reboot? It's not. The Empress of Mars is a bar... on Mars.
Enjoy the music, knote! One of the things I love about Baker's novels is that she has a wicked sense of humor, something in short supply in fantasy and science fiction. The two fantasies and the SF novel I mentioned are great introductions to her body of work.
I'll check these out as well. She had been getting good buzz for a couple of years. I was hesitant because almost every sci-fi/fantasy female author I've read is sub-par. Anyone here checked out Joe Abercrombe? His stuff is supposed to be good. Since we're getting off-topic, I need to recommend R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series and Steven Erikson's Malazan series. Great stuff.
I tried to read Malazan and it was just ridiculous. Like coming into the middle of a movie not knowing what the hell is going on. Names and places and references, like a dozen per page with no exposition at all. It's one of the things that turns people off about fantasy, having to learn a new world with new rules and strange names every book. The more realistic you can keep it, the better, at least in the beginning. Bakker was similar but not as bad, I've heard good things so I'll probably give it another shot at some point.
That's completely true about the Malazan series. The more you read, the more you find out. Erikson just drops you into the action and you have no freaking clue of what's going on. I found it rewarding to follow it all, and see the pieces come together with all of the races, magic 'warrens', etc, etc. The guy is probably the best world-builder I've ever read, and he's nothing if not prolific, pumping out 1000+ page books every year. It's certainly a commitment though. Not for the casual reader. To make it even more confusing , there's a SECOND author named Ian C. Esselmont who is writing within the same timeline, in the same universe, and some of the events are intertwined. You don't have to read Esslemont's stuff to keep up with Erikson's, but if you're a fan you get it anyway. These two guys created the whole Malazon universe together. Esslemont's writing is fairly good, too, so it's not like you're going from bologna to prime rib and back again. Bakker's stuff is like nothing I've ever read. Twisted and brilliant. I also really like David Farland, who writes the Runelords books. He's probably the most creative author this side of Card, who has gone down the drain in the past 10 years.
Erikson kind of did that on purpose. I read an interview where he stated that he did NOT want to have the typical fantasy where you start with the village boy and he ends up a wizard/prince/warrior/hero. He wanted to start in the middle, when a lot of those village boys were already wizards/princes/warriors/heros and work from there. I almost thought I had missed a first book when I started the Malazan series, researched, found out I was on the right book, fought through the first couple of chapters and was richly rewarded with one of the best series of books I've ever read, period. In almost every book you start out with all these places and names, with only a few that you really follow through the whole thing, and by the end of each book you are totally sucked in and actually disappointed that the book ends. They are HUGE books, yet I never think to myself "when am I getting to the end of this thing?" On the Malazan series, I found that you don't TRY to learn all the new stuff. Just read it. You figure out the stuff you need to know by the time you need to know it. And a lot of the magic type stuff that seems real important in the beginning of the first book you find is totally secondary to the character development and rich story lines. I highly recommend you give it another shot, don't worry about trying to remember all the details of everything, and just enjoy the read. I can almost guarantee you will be hooked when its all said and done.
I've also heard good things about Abercrombie. I've got 3 of his books and have been meaning to get to them. I'm looking forward to reading Erikson once he publishes Dust of Dreams (which is supposed to be late this year or early next year). If you want to read a good female fantasy author, check out Robin Hobb. I'm on the second book of her Liveship Trader series, and it's pretty phenomenal stuff. I enjoyed the Farseer trilogy, but I'm liking this one a lot better. Some of the best fantasy I've read in a while.
I'm really beginning to wonder if Martin does intend to finish the series. He ain't getting any younger...
