Comments | gildeddawn: Literary drought

gildeddawn

Literary drought

Nov 30, 2011 11:29

This didn't work at all on Facebook, so I'm hoping with the semi-permanent nature of Livejournal posts these days (what with the friends page being sparsely populated), it'll work better here. I feel like I'm out of books to read and need suggestions. Anyone?

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nightswatch November 30 2011, 17:58:02 UTC

Have you read the Baroque Cycle? I basically spent the past five months with it on and off, and I love it to death.

Do not read A Dance with Dragons. Just... don't.

red_planet November 30 2011, 22:12:11 UTC

I have the first book of the Baroque Cycle sitting on my coffee table. Do I need to read Cryptonomicon first to enjoy it?

red_planet November 30 2011, 22:12:47 UTC

Also, what's with the hate for A Dance with Dragons? It was a hell of a lot better than A Feast for Crows.

nightswatch November 30 2011, 23:15:19 UTC

I've never read Cryptonomicon, so definitely no. I think there's supposed to be some loose family connections between the Baroque Cycle characters and some in Cryptonomicon, but that's about it.

How was Dance any better than Feast? It introduced even more people I could not care less about, half of it seems dedicated to Roose Bolton's torture porn, and it hardly even takes place in Westeros.

red_planet December 1 2011, 01:12:43 UTC

Seriously? The writing in Feast for Crows was so shitty it was like GRRM gave up on it halfway through, plus it contained the POVs from the least interesting characters. It's like he suddenly (OK, not so suddenly at all) remembered how to write between the 4th and 5th books.

nightswatch December 1 2011, 02:29:05 UTC

I'm not going to stand up for Feast, as it's been years since I read it, but I still say Dance isn't any better. With Feast you could at least pretend that it was the "bad half" of book four, but now that Dance is here it's crystal clear that this has gotten too big for Martin. There are an embarrassing number of one-offs or two-offs, and the cool characters who get more than that basically just spend the whole book moping about how things suck now. I remember at least enjoying the Lannister action last book.

In fairness, I don't know how you deliver the goods at this point. I'm coming to think of it as "Lost" syndrome; the early story is so great precisely because of its air of rising tension, but neither resolving that tension nor attempting to ratchet it up even more are going to be as riveting as the beginning was.

SLIGHT SPOILER red_planet December 1 2011, 03:14:31 UTC

I see your point, but I still think it's worth reading. Daenerys has never been my favorite character, and true to form her chapters suck a bit. I still enjoyed it as a whole, though. I'm hoping Martin doesn't go into cardiac arrest before he gets the whole thing resolved on paper. I do have the sneaking suspicion that things aren't going to end satisfactorily.

Re: SLIGHT SPOILER userj December 3 2011, 03:36:07 UTC

I'm with Marissa on this one. Dance >>>>>>> Feast.

however both books aren't as good as any of the other three. I got a bunch of friends into the TV show that are now reading the books and I'm advising them to stop after book 3 until further notice. :)

BTW my major hope is that rumor is the HBO guys have been given a plot outline by GRRM. So if he croaks, we should still be able to find out what was supposed to happen - assuming the show isn't cancelled. ;)

minor spoilers:

Ryan seriously, what "Lannister action" did you enjoy in Feast? The Jaime wandering around endlessly whining about Cersei fucking people or the Cersei sitting around in King's Landing fingerbanging people?

As for Dance it was... pretty good. Some badass stuff happened (Stannis, Jon, Dany). If the entire book had been 1/2 I think it would have been as good as a Clash of Kings (esp since there would have actually been room to FINISH THE GODDAMN PLOT OF THE BOOK). Also, I finally like Jon after this book, so that says something!!

nightswatch December 3 2011, 04:07:23 UTC

It's... hard to write a Jaime chapter I won't admit to enjoying. Though I would've said the same of Tyrion before this. I think I mostly enjoyed him finally starting to get over Cersei, not to mention Cersei being brought low by the Sparrows.

I thought you'd enjoy Jon now, since your major objection (his passivity) seemed to be forcibly removed. I could make a very spoiler-ish joke about why you really like him now, but I will refrain. :-)

userj December 3 2011, 17:01:59 UTC

lol @ the last... I don't know what that was about and we'll just have to wait and see I guess ( ... )

gildeddawn December 3 2011, 14:54:56 UTC

I haven't read it, but Stephenson...let's say that he's mixed at best. Does it have enormous pacing issues and a ridiculous, nonsensical ending?

nightswatch December 3 2011, 15:54:26 UTC

There are no blue people orgy intervals or unexplained conclusions! Or at least, the endings to the second and third books of the series are very satisfactory. Two wraps its own story up and sets up the third volume, and that wraps up everythingQuicksilver, the first, might be a stumbling block, as it seemed to be for a lot of people when I mentioned it on facebook. I enjoyed it even when not much was happening because it's still just luxuriating in the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. I acknowledge that what felt like eccentric and witty banter among Natural Philosophers could be seen as tedious chatter among dead white men by others ( ... )

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