Rogues, Gods and Magicians

Whoops, falling behind again.

Book # 18 is another short story collection edited by GRRM, Rogues. It had stories from some of my favourites, Abercrombie, Rothfuss (I wasn't expecting to like his short story about Bast as much as I did, but I rather loved Bast running something like a black market for the nearby children) and of course, GRRM himself. Once again, GRRM's contribution was written as a historical account of the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. I'm enjoying getting a good handle on that time period in Westeros.

Book #19 was Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. My dear husband picked this book up because an aborted attempt at making it a movie back in the 70s became the pre-production materials used by the CIA in the 'Canadian Caper' (aka Argo). The concept art was done by Jack Kirby, so yeah, in geek circles, this is big stuff. Now as we know, I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, but I'm trying very hard to branch out this year (...ok, this is really only my second attempt, but two is better than none!) so I decided I'd try it, especially since I've read other Zelazny (although I haven't got very far with his Amber stuff). Well. It took me a long time to realize that much of this book was actually told in flashback. heh. I'm not usually so narratively challenged, but I sure was here for some reason. The book follows Sam (aka Siddhartha, Buddha, Mahasamatman and another name I don't remember right now) in his attempts to defeat the fellow colonists he travelled with who have set themselves up as representations of various Hindu gods and are ruling (and kind of suppressing) the normal population. Now that I think about it, the book is nicely divided up into each of Sam's various attempts, but yeah, something about it I found confusing at the time. Overall, it was very interesting, and Zelazny parcelled out what was going on very well. I think my favourite of the stories was Sam becoming 'Buddha' and turning the assassin Kali had sent to kill him into his greatest disciple.

Book #20 is The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman. Need we say how much I was looking forward to this coming out? No? Yeah, I definitely was. Last we had seen Quentin Coldwater, he'd been kicked out of his beloved magical land Fillory and could never return. He was dealing 'ok' with this loss by returning to Brakebills as a teacher... but then he got fired from there too, and so strikes off on his own. The whole 'Magicians' trilogy was originally marketed as 'Harry Potter for grownups', but really, it's far more 'Narnia without all the Christian allegory for grownups'. The only true Harry Potter part is the school of Brakebills, because after that, it's pretty much all Narnia, all the time, and that is not a complaint, because damn do I love those books, heavy handed Christian allegories and all (which, for one who was raised in a very non-religious household, didn't see the Christian allegories until they were pointed out to her). Because while Quentin and friends went to a school to learn magic, Quentin didn't want to be Harry Potter, he wanted to be a Pevensie. He wanted to find his way into Fillory and have grand adventures and rule as a king there. And he did. The second book was a reflection of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Magician's Land is very much a fun-house mirror held up to The Last Battle. So much so that I want to re-read the Last Battle just so I can compare and contrast the apocalyptic descriptions better. Because that's what this is, the final race to save Fillory from reaching the end of it's lifespan. And it's a hell of a quest. The book does feel a tad disjointed and perhaps a little too... pat? And yet it worked for me. I love the techno babble of Grossman's magic system, and I loved all the familiar faces (it actually managed to make Janet slightly more interesting and less of 'stock bitch' character). And I loved how Quentin has, over the course of the books, grown up and is less of a prat. He's still not perfect, not by any means, but he's reached a level of self awareness where he is capable of seeing his own mistakes. And I loved how we see the psychological effects that Fillory had on those from our world who have journeyed there. And it's not always the nicest thing. That was something we never really got from the Narnia books; Peter and Susan seemed to take their ejection from Narnia not too badly (we only ever hear that Susan rejected it for 'bad' reasons, not that perhaps she did because she was hurt by being rejected by Narnia first), and that being in Narnia made the rest of them 'better'. That wasn't the case for Fillory and I liked that the fantasy aspect of it destroyed, because living in a fantasy isn't usually a good thing. Anyway, I could go on and on about this book (and the others), but suffice to say I really freaking enjoyed it.

The last of 2013

As I type this, it's already 2014, but the last two books of 2013 were finished on NYE, and then we were out of town for a few days, so the write ups are only arriving now. So how did I round out a spectacularly shitty 2013? With some decent short stories and another Kushiel pop-corn book.

#38 is Dangerous Women, a collection of short stories written by numerous authors of different genres, but all female-centric. There were offerings by some authors I really enjoy, Joe Abercrombie, Lev Grossman, and of course, the crowning glory of this collection, a story detailing the history of the period of civil war in Westeros called the Dance of the Dragons by GRRM. It was written as a history and I loved it. The story I liked best though was actually by Brandon Sanderson, who I've actually managed to never read yet. I may finally have to change that.

#39 is Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey. Another of the Imriel books... I'm not buying the relationship between him and his (slightly distantly related) cousin. But I liked a lot of the celtic-themed stuff going on when Imriel lived in Alba, and I liked his revenge journey too. I've only got one more Imriel book to go, so guess I should just keep going at this point.

Book #27: Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin.

It's strange that, despite my love for his Song of Ice and Fire books, I've never read anything else by GRRM. I say it's strange because usually when I find an author I enjoy as much as I love those books, I run out and devour that author's entire catalogue. But that's not been the case here. I had a graphic novel of Fevre Dream, so I knew the story, but that was adapted by Daniel Abraham, so even then, I was reading GRRM's words filtered through someone else.

I saw a copy of Fevre Dream for sale cheap and decided the time has come to read it.

Well, it's kinda Anne Rice meets Mark Twain, but definitely recognizable as GRRM's work. If only for all the descriptions of all the meals and food :)

I jest because it's also recognizable as his because we've got some strong characterization (I really liked gruff, loyal, smarter than he seems, riverboat Captain Abner Marsh), an interesting  twist on vampire mythology and because it's a dark, dark piece of work with lots of violence. It's not a very long read, so the pace is pretty good, and he manages not to get too carried away with the riverboating descriptions. Just enough to give you the flavour of antebellum Mississippi, not enough to bog you down there. 

Definitely an enjoyable vampire yarn.

Since this is about books and concerns two of my favourite authors, I thought this would be a good place to post it for posterity.

Wednesday of last week, I did an interview with the CBC for a piece they were doing on George R.R. Martin. They wanted to talk to a fan, and my friend who works for the best sci-fi/fantasy bookstore in Toronto immediately thought of me and put my name forth.

The piece aired on Sunday, on The National no less. I'm on it for like 30 seconds, and they got my name wrong, but still, there I am along with interviews with George himself and Guy Gavriel Kay, who is undoubtedly, my favourite author. Supreme geek moment as far as I'm concered :)

Here's a link to the piece: http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/1233408557/ID=2068554409

I'm so excited about number 11 this year. It is a book that I (and many other) have been waiting for SIX years to come out now. That's right folks, number 11 this year is A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! :)

In 1996, my then-roommate Karen tossed me a book with the words "Read this. I mean it." Karen and I had gone through university together and a lot of our reading tastes meshed quite well. So read it I did. And then I immeditately went out and bought my own copy of A Game of Thrones. So yeah, I've been with this series for a long time now.

I'm afraid to say too much about this book because I realize I blew threw this behemoth (900-odd pages long) in 5 days, so great was my NEED to read it, and I realize that not everyone has read it yet, and there are those who are coming to the books after having watched the series on HBO...

So all I will say is that for the most part, I loved it. It's been 10 years since we've heard from Tyrion (who had last been seen performing a rather incredible murder), Daenerys (who was staying put in the city of Mereen to try and learn to rule) and Jon Snow (who had just been made Lord Commander of the Wall). Much of DWD is devoted to these three, and it's so wonderful to read about them again. One of the few misgivings I had was of a new travelling companion for Tyrion. Not sure why Penny didn't sit right with me, but yeah... no. Dany's dragons are growing up and, in standard Martin form, they are not cute and cuddly, sage-wise dragons of much other fantasy. They have loyalty and love for Dany, but they are very large, VERY dangerous creatures that no one really knows how to train. And Jon... he has to deal with the resident king-claimant in Stannis, his rebellious brothers who aren't exactly in favour of Jon's dealings with the wildings, the wildings themselves, and the unrest caused by Roose Bolton's 'rule' of the North. He has his hands full and also has the book's first true "FUCK YEAH!" moment.

Disappointments? Not many. Biggest one for me is only one Jaime chapter, and a chapter that obviously puts him in some danger, so now I'm really wondering what happened to him.

More new POV characters, some I didn't really care about (as usual, I'm finding it hard to be interested in any of the Ironborn, with the exception of Theon though. Oh Theon, karma is a harsh, harsh mistress for you isn't she?), but a certain exiled ex Knight of the Kingsguard also becomes a POV character, and it was nice to read of him. He's a class act.

The endings leave some major characters (and some minor but those we've seen for a very long time) in pretty dire straights again, whilst some seem to be trucking along fine and others seem to be improving their lot from previous, and of course, the shifting power is shifting again, especially with the revelation of another Targaryen, one that Dany knows nothing about.

Overall? It's bleak and hard and dire with moments of cunning and heroism and just enough fantasy elements thrown in to make things just that much more intersting. In other words, it's perfect and like we haven't been away for 6 years (although, in preparation for July 12th's release date, I did re-read the other books).

So, how long before The Winds of Winter? :)