dear people...
I keep seeing lots of people complaining about how Game of Thrones (TV or book, pick your poison) is OMG! so grimdark! And I just want to shake them by the collars and shout "you do not know grimdark until you have read Steven Erikson! And also they're better written!"
Because, um, yes, I have feelings about these things.
I'm still not sure which is more grimdark. I think Erikson may have the higher kill count (although I'm only counting named characters that last for more than half a book) but Martin, after the first book, seems to lack any joy in his world at all (I still haven't read Dance with Dragons, I'm trying to finish book 8 of the Malazan series, oh god character who I hate, WHY MUST YOU TALK SO MUCH?!)
Which is mostly to say I'm 450 pages into a book which has larger than normal pages, and I'm still only about a third of the way through, and I hate one of the main characters, and I know something awful is coming (because it's Erikson, and also because Dave and Caroline keep looking at me and asking me if I've got to something awful happening) and then I have two more books in the series and then I won't know what to do because it will be over. And to be fair, my reading list is ridiculously huge at the moment, but I think something in me might die when I don't have those characters to read about (although I need to reread them from the start, because I can't remember half of what happened in Gardens of the Moon, it was that long ago).
I'm fairly sure if you piled all my books to read up, it'd be a pile taller than me.
And now I'm going to bed, because tomorrow I have to go and find something suitable to wear to a wedding that might be sunny and might be hideous and cold because it's in Scotland.
Because, um, yes, I have feelings about these things.
I'm still not sure which is more grimdark. I think Erikson may have the higher kill count (although I'm only counting named characters that last for more than half a book) but Martin, after the first book, seems to lack any joy in his world at all (I still haven't read Dance with Dragons, I'm trying to finish book 8 of the Malazan series, oh god character who I hate, WHY MUST YOU TALK SO MUCH?!)
Which is mostly to say I'm 450 pages into a book which has larger than normal pages, and I'm still only about a third of the way through, and I hate one of the main characters, and I know something awful is coming (because it's Erikson, and also because Dave and Caroline keep looking at me and asking me if I've got to something awful happening) and then I have two more books in the series and then I won't know what to do because it will be over. And to be fair, my reading list is ridiculously huge at the moment, but I think something in me might die when I don't have those characters to read about (although I need to reread them from the start, because I can't remember half of what happened in Gardens of the Moon, it was that long ago).
I'm fairly sure if you piled all my books to read up, it'd be a pile taller than me.
And now I'm going to bed, because tomorrow I have to go and find something suitable to wear to a wedding that might be sunny and might be hideous and cold because it's in Scotland.