Booklog 5: A whole lot of ice waiting for the fire
- Phoenix by Steven Brust
I think I worked out why the previous installment was baby!Vlad: I think it was the last look at the way things had been for him, because this was clearly the end of an era. This is a book about a guy deciding his life choices maybe haven't been all he hoped they were, about new beginnings from endings and what you do when something is over.
It's a really grownup book in that respect, and I really admired it for that. Especially as I hear a similar process actually happened to Brust himself: that he'd been writing about someone who is effectively a mob boss, just a charming and sympathetic and interesting one in a fantasy world, and then one of his friends was actually killed in a mob hit and he started thinking. I obviously don't know how close his thought process was to Vlad's, but it makes sense, and the whole thing is imbued with a real sense of weight, and context, that I found really engaging. And I like that I still love Cawti, even as they are breaking up. Fantastic.
- The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes And Why by Amanda Ripley
This is a fascinating and very practical look at how people actually respond in emergency situations, what that might mean for survival, and how we think about it compared to what it's actually like. It's consciously a clarion call for sensible and empirical discussion of these issues: it's against panic, and very much for accepting that while emergency situations aren't very likely, some practical planning can help SO much that it's worth thinking it through anyway.
I am a slightly morbid type of person, and if you are that sort of person then the actual knowledge here isn't going to be hugely surprising. But it's refreshing in its discussion of the different reactions people can have to emergency situations - and when and why panic happens, which is not actually all that often - and I felt glad I read it. It's weirdly reassuring!
But the main thing I've been reading this month, and it took most of it because OMG HAVE YOU SEEN HOW ENORMOUS THESE BOOKS ARE, was...
The whole published A Song of Ice and Fire series to date by George R.R. Martin
OMG SO MUCH FUN. I found A Game of Thrones so bleak when I finished it way back ages ago that I didn't particualrly want to read the rest right away; it just seemed so depressing and awful, even while I was impressed by the worldbuilding. But then the Game of Thrones TV series came out and I started reading the second one and... wow. So much fun!
In a still very dark kind of way - the joke about Tywin not, in the end, shitting gold alone, omg, hah - but it just got way more entertaining. I think that's because of the way the magic is being worked in; it gets more fun the more magic is involved, which is actually pretty much the opposite from what I usually expect. It's used really well, too. And I love the theorising - Jon Snow is totally a Targaryen and Jaime is totally going to kill Cersei and eeeee! Like, to the point that I am finding that far more fun than I thought I would and really wanting A Dance With Dragons to be out already so that I can have MOAR DATA OMG. Especially now it seems that the knowledge we have in-series is being called in to question...
(This is why I am wondering if the "Prince that was Promised" and "Azor Ahai reborn" and "the Stallion that Mounts the World" might all be parts/reflections/hints at a larger prophesy. I also think there's something more going on with Jon swapping the babies than just "make sure Melisandre doesn't have a convenient baby with king's blood in nearby to sacrifice". Hmm.)
I think overall my favourite thing about this is that it feels like a world that somebody knows. Like you could ask about almost any random small aspect of the world and there would be an answer. Even if the answer is "Littlefinger arranged it", which gets more and more plausible. *g* And all the characters have depth and make sense - Littlefinger's creepy thing for Sansa makes sense, Cersei's complete inability to see how she's sowing her own downfall makes sense (and I kind of like that Cersei specifically has gender-based rage), Arya's road to probably becoming a super ninja assassin makes sense, even while I want to tell her SO MANY THINGS and give her a big hug. Jaime, for instance: it's so clear why so many people hate him, but from his own head, he makes total sense. He's still not a good guy - he's getting there, but he's finding out how difficult that is and I think he's going to die tragically even while really wanting him to marry Brienne who is AWESOME AND AMAZING - but it works. You can see where he's coming from, whether you sympathise or not.
I also really like that stuff changes. People dying and changing matters in a way you don't often see in stories. (And for a story with so many dead characters - omg the battle of the Blackwater ALONE eek eek eek - that's saying something.) And that the world doesn't stop at the Westerosi borders: North of the Wall matters, Dorne and Braavos and all sorts of other places are relevant and interesting in their own right, and that's even before you get to Dany. Who I also love! I want her to get a Queensguard and ride a dragon and be badass and awesome. And I love that she's badass and awesome in a completely different way than Arya is, or Tyrion is, or Sam Tarly is.
Oh, and: while I would prefer to not have the Evil Lesbian trope invoked, if Cersei is going to get down with ladies on-screen I am really glad Dany kind of has too. While I still think there aren't nearly as many queer people as would be expected given the number of characters, especially as some people apparently still think Renly and Loras are debatable, it's much better on that than some. And that "discovering oral sex is awesome" is part of an actual character arc made me laugh a lot, even though in true GRRM style it then became all tragic.
So, yeah. Next book now please! Anybody have speculation/theories/squee about how great Dany is to share? Alternatively, if you have read the series so far you will probably find this link as hilarious as I do!
In other internet news, Actually Useful Horoscopes is pretty awesome.
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/61652.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I think I worked out why the previous installment was baby!Vlad: I think it was the last look at the way things had been for him, because this was clearly the end of an era. This is a book about a guy deciding his life choices maybe haven't been all he hoped they were, about new beginnings from endings and what you do when something is over.
It's a really grownup book in that respect, and I really admired it for that. Especially as I hear a similar process actually happened to Brust himself: that he'd been writing about someone who is effectively a mob boss, just a charming and sympathetic and interesting one in a fantasy world, and then one of his friends was actually killed in a mob hit and he started thinking. I obviously don't know how close his thought process was to Vlad's, but it makes sense, and the whole thing is imbued with a real sense of weight, and context, that I found really engaging. And I like that I still love Cawti, even as they are breaking up. Fantastic.
- The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes And Why by Amanda Ripley
This is a fascinating and very practical look at how people actually respond in emergency situations, what that might mean for survival, and how we think about it compared to what it's actually like. It's consciously a clarion call for sensible and empirical discussion of these issues: it's against panic, and very much for accepting that while emergency situations aren't very likely, some practical planning can help SO much that it's worth thinking it through anyway.
I am a slightly morbid type of person, and if you are that sort of person then the actual knowledge here isn't going to be hugely surprising. But it's refreshing in its discussion of the different reactions people can have to emergency situations - and when and why panic happens, which is not actually all that often - and I felt glad I read it. It's weirdly reassuring!
But the main thing I've been reading this month, and it took most of it because OMG HAVE YOU SEEN HOW ENORMOUS THESE BOOKS ARE, was...
The whole published A Song of Ice and Fire series to date by George R.R. Martin
OMG SO MUCH FUN. I found A Game of Thrones so bleak when I finished it way back ages ago that I didn't particualrly want to read the rest right away; it just seemed so depressing and awful, even while I was impressed by the worldbuilding. But then the Game of Thrones TV series came out and I started reading the second one and... wow. So much fun!
In a still very dark kind of way - the joke about Tywin not, in the end, shitting gold alone, omg, hah - but it just got way more entertaining. I think that's because of the way the magic is being worked in; it gets more fun the more magic is involved, which is actually pretty much the opposite from what I usually expect. It's used really well, too. And I love the theorising - Jon Snow is totally a Targaryen and Jaime is totally going to kill Cersei and eeeee! Like, to the point that I am finding that far more fun than I thought I would and really wanting A Dance With Dragons to be out already so that I can have MOAR DATA OMG. Especially now it seems that the knowledge we have in-series is being called in to question...
(This is why I am wondering if the "Prince that was Promised" and "Azor Ahai reborn" and "the Stallion that Mounts the World" might all be parts/reflections/hints at a larger prophesy. I also think there's something more going on with Jon swapping the babies than just "make sure Melisandre doesn't have a convenient baby with king's blood in nearby to sacrifice". Hmm.)
I think overall my favourite thing about this is that it feels like a world that somebody knows. Like you could ask about almost any random small aspect of the world and there would be an answer. Even if the answer is "Littlefinger arranged it", which gets more and more plausible. *g* And all the characters have depth and make sense - Littlefinger's creepy thing for Sansa makes sense, Cersei's complete inability to see how she's sowing her own downfall makes sense (and I kind of like that Cersei specifically has gender-based rage), Arya's road to probably becoming a super ninja assassin makes sense, even while I want to tell her SO MANY THINGS and give her a big hug. Jaime, for instance: it's so clear why so many people hate him, but from his own head, he makes total sense. He's still not a good guy - he's getting there, but he's finding out how difficult that is and I think he's going to die tragically even while really wanting him to marry Brienne who is AWESOME AND AMAZING - but it works. You can see where he's coming from, whether you sympathise or not.
I also really like that stuff changes. People dying and changing matters in a way you don't often see in stories. (And for a story with so many dead characters - omg the battle of the Blackwater ALONE eek eek eek - that's saying something.) And that the world doesn't stop at the Westerosi borders: North of the Wall matters, Dorne and Braavos and all sorts of other places are relevant and interesting in their own right, and that's even before you get to Dany. Who I also love! I want her to get a Queensguard and ride a dragon and be badass and awesome. And I love that she's badass and awesome in a completely different way than Arya is, or Tyrion is, or Sam Tarly is.
Oh, and: while I would prefer to not have the Evil Lesbian trope invoked, if Cersei is going to get down with ladies on-screen I am really glad Dany kind of has too. While I still think there aren't nearly as many queer people as would be expected given the number of characters, especially as some people apparently still think Renly and Loras are debatable, it's much better on that than some. And that "discovering oral sex is awesome" is part of an actual character arc made me laugh a lot, even though in true GRRM style it then became all tragic.
So, yeah. Next book now please! Anybody have speculation/theories/squee about how great Dany is to share? Alternatively, if you have read the series so far you will probably find this link as hilarious as I do!
In other internet news, Actually Useful Horoscopes is pretty awesome.
This entry was originally posted at http://soupytwist.dreamwidth.org/61652.html. Please comment there using OpenID.