“Three stars!?!” exclaimed Lord Tyrion. “I thought we had an agreement Maester Adam? Not much I can do for you now my friend.” “Please let me explain my liege.” I stammered, sweat beading on my brow as I notice Sir Illyn enter the corner of the room, red-hot poker in hand. “It’s not that I didn’t like Maester Yandel’s work, I…I…I just thought it was…lacking.” “Lacking? Do tell sir.” proclaimed Regent Cersie, perched high upon that most horrible of thrones. Seated to her right the Kingslayer […]
History is Written By the Literate: The World of Ice & Fire
Like many people today, I’m a big fan of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice & Fire” series. The books are both a delight and a terror as Martin builds a tremendously brutal, violent and uncaring landscape upon which he populates his characters. Like the best of the fantasy genre, a great deal of the work goes into building that landscape – the cities and nations of Westeros and Essos, the history that colors the various points of views and pressures that each of […]
Reading with the Lights Off
First of all, this is a sequel. If you haven’t read the preceding novel A Wizard of Earthsea, then go do that right now. It’s not long. I’ll wait… It’s wonderful, right? I remember how the prose grabbed me when I first read it, and it still grabs me that same way. It’s like The Gunslinger in that way; it feels truly, effortlessly ethereal. The text exists outside of time, as do all great fairy tales. And that’s the one problem with the sequel. Much […]
More Than Just Fantasy Tropes
I promised myself last year that I would finish a few of many, MANY series I’m currently in the middle of before I start something new, so most of my reviews may not be very helpful to people that haven’t yet started a particular series. This is one of those times. I also won’t bore you with my simplistic summary of Sanderson’s world created in the Mistborn series; Sanderson created such a unique and well-crafted place that I can’t do justice to it in a […]