Bookish Thoughts

I'll admit, I bought this $30, 800+ page tome in order to read one single short story. Because that short story was written by Patrick Rothfuss about Bast, and I am desperate for new material in that world. Of course, this collection also contains plenty of other stories by plenty of other authors I love, so it felt worth that price tag. Let's go through it story by story, shall we? The Lightning Tree  by Patrick Rothfuss - This story basically chronicles a day in the life of Bast an indeterminate amount of time before the first book starts, but after Kvothe has established himself as Kote, owner of the Waystone Inn. Bast trades secrets and favors with children, gets into some mischief, does some highly questionable and uncomfortable things, but also does some tough and honorable things. He's a tough guy to pin down, because his moral code is skewed by his Fae heritage. This story left me more confused about him than before, but it was a nice little slice of life, none...

The second time through Game of Thrones  was a lot more straight-forward than the first time I read it. While I didn't feel particularly lost the first time through, I definitely wasn't paying attention to a lot of the details. I didn't understand a lot of the characters. But with the knowledge of where this story goes, and who becomes important, I was able to get a lot more out of the book than the last time I read it. Martin throws a whole lot of characters at you, which makes it almost necessary to ignore most of them just so you can follow the plot. This time I was able to pick up on subtle characterizations of Roose Bolton. I kept all the families, and who they owe fealty to, straight. I even picked up on a lot more of the history. The history of Robert's war really informs the everything going on now. I'm more convinced than ever that Jon is Lyanna's son, not Ned's. Ned has too much honor to have ever cheated on Cat. Once they were ma...

I liked A Dance With Dragons  so much more than A Feast For Crows . I positively flew through this book. I've been trying to put my finger on exactly why this was. I think it was a mix of liking the characters more, the book itself being more action-packed, and having two interesting plots to bounce between with plenty of side stories thrown in for spice. This book mostly bounces back and forth between the North and the East. In the North, Jon Snow is trying to figure out how to defend the wall. Stannis is preparing to battle the Boltons. And Bran is off turning into a tree. There's some cool stuff about integrating the wildlings in with the men of the Night's Watch. Plus Melisandre gets a chapter that shows she really is a true believer which I wasn't entirely expecting from her. I really liked getting to see things from her perspective. In the East, Dany is trying to maintain control of Meereen. Meanwhile, suitors are descending on her from all corn...

A Feast For Crows requires a bit of a shift in expectations. The first three books largely focused on the Starks and Lannisters. Sure, there were Dany chapters that took us across the Narrow Sea and Jon Snow chapters on the Wall and north of it. We occasionally got to see what Stannis was up to in the second and third books; although the Baratheon family is pretty firmly entwined with both the Starks and the Lannisters via the late King Robert. The second book also shed a bit of light on Theon Greyjoy. But again, Theon was so tied to the Starks that this hardly seemed like a major departure. This all changes in the fourth book, when the world doubles in size while simultaneously narrowing in scope. Over half of the book is dedicated to three characters: Cersei, Jaime, and Brienne. Arya, Sansa, and Sam each get a few chapters, but several key characters are missing (Tyrion, Bran, and Jon). Instead, GRRM introduces two new kingdoms with all new casts of characters and co...

I've slowed down a lot in my read of these books. I think that by reading slower I'm missing less. I have time to stop and think about plot developments, theorize about what might happen, and make all the connections that I missed in the first book. I'm enjoying my slower pace. Of course it also means that by the time I finish one of these books I forget what happened at the beginning. The stories start to bleed together. So here's a list of the things I wanted to talk about from this book. Though I probably missed several. Sansa's Wedding Who'd have known that Sansa's wedding to Tyrion would end up being one of the happier ones in the book? It took me completely by surprise. Still, I think that if they'd communicated just a bit better, they really could have been happy together. Or happier than they were anyway. They had more in common than Sansa ever realized. I definitely get where she's coming from - a thirteen year old girl mar...

A Clash of Kings is the second book in George R R Martin's epic A Song of Ice and Fire series.  It opens with the appearance of a bright red comet in the sky that is visible even by day. The first several chapters deal with the reactions of various characters to the comet. Everyone has a different interpretation, but they all believe it to be directly related to them. We humans are pretty self-centered. I thought this was a nice way to check in with each character and remember who all the major players are. The book mostly deals with all the various wars going on. Robb kills a lesser Lannister by surprising him, but has yet to meet the main army in battle. Renly's battle with Stannis is aborted by Renly's untimely death. Stannis then takes Storm's End just as quickly and marches on Kings Landing. This battle is the climax of the book and pits Tyrion's wits against Stannis', with Tywin and Littlefinger ultimately saving the day. Sansa gets out of...