A Dance with Dragons

Winter is coming…

…and goddammit Martin, HURRY UP AND FINISH YOUR BOOK ALREADY!!!!!

A Dance with Dragons was just as much fun, and just as frustrating, as all the rest of the series. Except, now, there is no “rest of the story” at this point. I know more is coming, but I can’t just grab the next book off the shelf and holy cow what a cliff hanger. Multiple cliff hangers!!!!!!

The timeline here is a bit confusing, since it overlaps with A Feast for Crows. You see Samwell Tarly back with Jon at the wall, and it makes absolutely no sense…until you remember he hasn’t left yet! For the first half of the book, the chronology is the same as the previous book, it is just a different set of narrators. Then, the timeline slowly starts to align again, and by the end of the book, everything has converged and moved on.

Oh, and remember how troubled I was about Theon Greyjoy’s storyline? We see him again here, finally. And wow, I had no idea how much the show had elaborated on his torture. No WONDER I was so confused about him. On one hand, it does show more about how Theon became the damaged Reek, but geez guys. That’s a lot of torture to add, that isn’t actually written into a pretty heavy book. In the book, everyone just assumes he’s dead. And now they’ve already shown the Asha card–she’s already tried to go in and rescue him once and failed. How are they going to get him out the second time?

I am really looking forward to seeing how Maisie Williams does Arya’s time in the Temple of the Many Faced God. That’s going to be a really interesting part to play!

And, of course, I have a lot of thoughts…mostly screaming…about the ending. But, I’ve given away a lot of spoilers already, so I better keep my mouth shut.

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HURRY UP GEORGE RR MARTIN!!! WINTER IS COMING!!!

 

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Goodbye Chick-lit, Hello Dragons

In the hallway of my childhood home, we had these towering bookshelves that were full to the brim. At least that’s how I remember them…maybe because I spent quite a lot of time, sitting on the floor in front of them, with books scattered on the floor around me, pulled off the shelves. While seated, there was a whole row of Babysitter’s Club, neatly pink and organized. But if I stood up, I could reach all of my mom’s books. And those, my friends, are what I loved most. Those were forbidden fruit. The books I REEEEEEEEEEEAAAAALLY wasn’t old enough for, but read anyway. I don’t really remember any of them, except for Thorn Birds, which I have already told you about, and still love to this day. I do know, that a great many of them were romance novels, because if there’s one thing my mother loves–it’s a love story. I share that trait with her, as do my sisters.

For most of my reading career, smut was my one true love. Especially historical romances. I loved the lords and ladies the most. And it wasn’t even that I needed the sex scenes…that held no interest for me, I mostly skipped over that…mostly. It was the romance that I wanted. I had this dream of being swept off my feet–the Disney Ideal. You know what I’m talking about.

I also loved more modern Chick-Lit. That stuff I could relate to more as I got older, because the women were like me–the same time period, the same worries–to a point anyway.

But then, suddenly, I completely lost interest in them. Maybe it is because I started reading more difficult books, I think that has a lot to do with it. Or maybe it is because I became a lot more cynical and realistic about love and relationships. That’s probably more likely. I’m not going to sail on a pirate ship and meet a dark and dusky sailor…and if I did, he’d be more likely to kill me than love me. HR and Chick-Lit became comical and unrealistic.

That said…I lost faith in that genre about the same time that dragons and magic became believable in my mind. How twisted is that? I think my desire for whimsy makes sense though. When everything in my life was dark and dismal and depressed, I craved the light. When reality was kicking my ass, I wanted a fantasy world full of wizards and adventure. And now that I am out of that darkness, and my life is happy…I no longer need the fake love stories, because I’ve written my own. So why not continue with whimsy and magic?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I will always be a romantic, and I will always ship certain characters. I can’t help it. And when those characters get together in a story…fireworks go off in my head! I just don’t necessarily need that to be the sole premise of the book, or need it to be full of sex and smut. Give me a little substance with the love story. Even Pride & Prejudice has a LITTLE drama. A bit. It’s a classic. Right?