Flight into Fantasy

I’ve just finished A Storm of Swords ! Good freaking lord, that was an awesome book.

• I was so proud of my fat, cowardly Samwell. Although I kind of would have liked to know more about Coldhands and his journey with Bran and the Reeds through the wall, and what Bran’s up to.

• Poor, poor Sansa. She’s going to become manipulative and slightly psychotic by the end of the series what with Lord Petyr’s pedophilic interest in her. Although I can’t say I was all that sorry to see Lyssa pushed out the moon door.
• Arya didn’t kill the Hound. Sure, she left him to die, but ultimately she didn’t do it. I hope she does retain some of her humanity.
• OK, about now is where Dany needs to have a serious setback. She’s done extremely well for herself. This makes me worry for her.
• I’m sorry. I know this makes me either a cold, callous unthinking bitch or extremely in the minority, but I actually really liked the members of house Fray that we’ve met so far. Well, y’know, except for the part where they staged the Red Wedding. Walder Fray is one of my favorite minor characters because he’s querulous and snarky, and I can’t help loving him.
• OMG Tyrion, my giant of Lannister! He kicked so much arse during the second book, that it was horrible to watch him suffer in this one. And then he killed his father. That made me happy. So did the death of his cruel, abusive nephew Joffrey.
• The Queen of Thorns can stay around for a while.
• Cersei, though, needs to get poisoned, like, right now. Some of the spoilers I’ve read suggest that her time is coming, and I confess I’m looking forward to that.

Referring to a certain part of a man’s anatomy as a “berry sack” is very, very bad. It will cause me never to read anything else you might write ever, even if you’re as good as Shakespeare.

OMG the red wedding!

I finally got a chance to get a library card, and they’re getting A Feast for Crows on audio for me. This is very much w00t-worthy.

And because Tags: A Song of Ice and Fire, fangirl squee
Category: fangirl squee, musings  |  Comment

I should put up some book reviews. I’ll do it later. I read an awesome erotic romance novel, and a much better Anne McCaffrey novel than the last one I read. Right now I’m plowing through A Storm of Swords. Saturday I’m going to the library to finally get a library card and so I can finally see if they’ll order A Feast for Crows on audio for me.

I wasn’t sure I was actually going to enjoy this book. On the one hand, I like the idea of religious satire. On the other hand, Gore Vidal was always one of those “literary” authors I figured would be way too pretentious and snotty for me.

I actually really enjoyed this book. Since I’m not particularly religious I can appreciate some of the satire, and I’m sure the book would have been a lot more amusing were I actually somewhat familliar with Roman history.

My only quibble with the book is that it starts to drag in the middle, though it does pick up near the end, and Vidal seems to find himself a trifle too funny at times for my liking. But overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

I am going to kick whatever book reading challenge I set myself in the ass this year. Oh yes, I am.

I’m currently reading about three books, and I have a fourth coming to me in the form of an ebook. The author of the book herself has given it to me for free, which is good because I’d have paid the $3.00 anyway in order to read it.

At any rate, have any of you ever read anything by Gore Vidal? I’m really loving his Live from Golgatha.

Well, I miscounted, so I didn’t get my 50 book challenge for last year, but oh well. I started early with finishing something at any rate.

And the year begins on a downward note because I really disliked this book. It’s basically three interconnected short stories about the founding of a Parapsychic Research Center, and the integration and acceptance of people with parapsychic gifts (or Talents) as actual members of society. It was written in 1973 and takes place at the very end of the century, and so obviously it’s quite dated as a reader coming to the book 30-some odd years later.

The story would have been much better told had someone else written it. Often, I felt that with the format McCaffrey used, she did a lot more telling than showing, which is something any good writer knows to avoid. And let’s not discuss the silly, vapid creatures that McCaffrey thinks are modern women. Really, let’s not. It will cause me to go into apoplexy. Also, it’s apparently not OK for the general public to be hypocritical assholes, but McCaffrey’s talents display as much hypocrisy and assholishness. I felt that some of McCaffrey’s villains in this book raised amazingly good points that McCaffrey chose to bluster over with self-righteous moralism rather than answer definitively, which disappointed me, because I’m one of those readers that generally likes to root for the heroes, not the villains.

Overall, give this one a pass. Read Zenna Henderson instead for a much better take on the paranormally psychic.