- Posts: 1281
- Thank you received: 601
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)
Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.
Please consider adding your quick impressions and your rating to the game entry in our Board Game Directory after you post your thoughts so others can find them!
Please start new threads in the appropriate category for mini-session reports, discussions of specific games or other discussion starting posts.
What BOOK(s) are you reading?
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Feast for Crows fits into this too, since it's mostly about the devastating effects of the war on the small folk. That was so jarring to me when I first read it that I definitely didn't give Dance (or Feast) a fair shake whatsoever. Part of me thinks that there's a smarter version of this where George RR Martin ends the first 3-4 books which wrap up much of the political goings on in westeros and then starts another trilogy, in continuity with the first three, to make it clear how big a break this book is from the rest.
There are so many good scenes in the book but they aren't like scenes from the first trilogy where people in finery talk Important Politics. I just listened to the scene where Mormont and Tyrion meet the former slave in the merchant inn in Volantis, which ends in perfectly sinister fashion where she basically inexplicably gives help to these doofuses and says something to the effect of "when you meet the dragon queen tell her that the slaves of Volantis are waiting and she should come soon." Real good, given that she has just been telling them all about local politics between high and mighty types and hasn't clued you in at all that she holds a deep fire to murder the entire ruling class from her time as a slave.
FWIW, the TV series does 0 justice to any of this. To its credit, it doesn't even try and cuts most of it out entirely. You wouldn't know anything about this part of the series if you hadn't read the books and that's probably ok. But you'd definitely be missing out; the TV series definitely makes the Song of Ice and Fire books seem dumber, or a the very least vastly less subtle and sophisticated in theme, than they actually are.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- hotseatgames
- Away
- D12
- Posts: 7162
- Thank you received: 6270
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Gary Sax wrote: I have a lot of audiobook time these days because of my commute, so I started listening to Dance with Dragons alongside the excellent book on the French Revolution I'm reading. Boy, did I not give Dance with Dragons a fair shake. It's very good and I was completely meh on it the first time I read it. The problem is that it's a major geographical and thematic shift. It isn't about feudalism and the high politics of succession, but about social revolution and other political systems in the rest of the world... in preparation for a return to break westeros.
Feast for Crows fits into this too, since it's mostly about the devastating effects of the war on the small folk. That was so jarring to me when I first read it that I definitely didn't not give Dance (or Feast) a fair shake whatsoever. Part of me thinks that there's a smarter version of this where George RR Martin ends the first 3-4 books which wrap up much of the political goings on in westeros and then starts another trilogy, in continuity with the first three, to make it clear how big a break this book is from the rest.
There are so many good scenes in the book but they aren't like scenes from the first trilogy where people in finery talk Important Politics. I just listened to the scene where Mormont and Tyrion meet the former slave in the merchant inn in Volantis, which ends in perfectly sinister fashion where she basically inexplicably gives help to these doofuses and says something to the effect of "when you meet the dragon queen tell her that the slaves of Volantis are waiting and she should come soon." Real good, given that she has just been telling them all about local politics between high and mighty types and hasn't clued you in at all that she holds a deep fire to murder the entire ruling class from her time as a slave.
FWIW, the TV series does 0 justice to any of this. To its credit, it doesn't even try and cuts most of it out entirely. You wouldn't know anything about this part of the series if you hadn't read the books and that's probably ok. But you'd definitely be missing out; the TV series definitely makes the Song of Ice and Fire books seem dumber, or a the very least vastly less subtle and sophisticated in theme, than they actually are.
Great points. I personally enjoyed Feast and Dance on first read, though not quite as much as Storm of Swords. They are indeed a shift in focus, not just geographically but also thematically. I especially enjoyed Feast for exploring the aftermath of war and how it devastated the common folk, and Dance goes into some touchy issues involving slavery. And you're right, the show largely ignores the more interesting and unique scenes in these two books, aside from some scenes involving either the Hound or Missandei and Grey Worm.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- ThirstyMan
- Offline
- D10
- Posts: 2781
- Thank you received: 1425
The descriptive beauty of a man meeting a real angel while painting the ceiling of St Paul's Cathedral and consequently going mad was so stunning, I was in tears.
This may be one of the best books I have ever read. Moore is a master.
Yes, the same one involved in Watchmen and From Hell.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Dr. Mabuse
- Offline
- Ambassador of Truth
Hey, I was just about to list this too! Great read!Jackwraith wrote: SPQR: A history of ancient Rome by Mary Beard.
She spends a lot of time dismissing a lot of legends that have grown up around the history by examining actual physical evidence..
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
A Scooby Gang reunites as adults to solve their greatest mystery—why they stopped solving mysteries!
It takes Cthluhu turns and it is so SO BAD. I was really annoyed by this book, but I felt like I had to bear it to get word out to you. Take the "I'm-so-clever" diction* of Neal Stephenson (whom I love) and combine with the schlocky laziest writing form ever, the ready for the screen script:
NICK: What? I thought you were a zombie.
ANDY: Nope, I am not a zombie. I am a character in a book who's author has decided to forego normal rules of grammar.
NICK: Wow, really? Even for folks just talking?
ANDY: Yes, sadly. But enjoy how "woke" he is about gender norms.
NICK: I do enjoy it, and doesn't he handle my mental health issues well?
ANDY: Indeed!
JFC it's so bad you want to scream. Someone out here is going to read it and really like it and then I have to change my mental image of you.
*Example: A zombie opens its "mouth at a thylacine angle." Do you know what a thylacine is? It's the scientific name for the extinct Tasmanian tiger, which could open its mouth pretty wide. WHY THE FUCK DO THIS?
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
jeb wrote: MEDDLING KIDS by Edgar Cantero.
A Scooby Gang reunites as adults to solve their greatest mystery—why they stopped solving mysteries!
I gave this book to my sister for her birthday last year. I never got around to asking her if she liked it.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Black Barney
- Offline
- D20
- 10k Club
- Posts: 10045
- Thank you received: 3553
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Disgustipater
- Offline
- D8
- Dapper Deep One
- Posts: 2178
- Thank you received: 1676
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Black Barney
- Offline
- D20
- 10k Club
- Posts: 10045
- Thank you received: 3553
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
This is why she never calls.Shellhead wrote:
jeb wrote: MEDDLING KIDS by Edgar Cantero.
A Scooby Gang reunites as adults to solve their greatest mystery—why they stopped solving mysteries!
I gave this book to my sister for her birthday last year. I never got around to asking her if she liked it.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Cranberries
- Offline
- D10
- Don't give up.
- Posts: 3075
- Thank you received: 2362
1. New, hot stuff that you price close to the same as the chain charges, and which is gone in a day
2. "Good" books that give you a warm glow, but nobody every buys them
3. Premium used books that you can't find enough copies of that sell well, like the first book of Dune
4. Good books that are so popular you have five copies
They have a shelf in the front of ostensibly hand picked decent books, but the stock hasn't rotated in a month and most of it sucks.
If I win the lottery I'm going to open a used bookstore with the sole goal of having it be an awesome, money losing venture.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- hotseatgames
- Away
- D12
- Posts: 7162
- Thank you received: 6270
Disgustipater wrote: ^^ That sounds like an ad posing as a review
Black Barney is a Russian Troll
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
DUHhotseatgames wrote:
Disgustipater wrote: ^^ That sounds like an ad posing as a review
Black Barney is a Russian Troll
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.