(no subject)
I am going to make a post about books because sometimes I like to talk about books a lot but other people haven't just read the chapter that I read and so it is not as exciting to them. Probably it is not any more interesting to people if I write about it on here, so feel free to ignore this.
Okay, let's see. Most surprising scene from this book:
-Lord/King Renly being stabbed by a shadow when he was in his tent with Brienne and Lady Catelyn preparing for battle. I expect George R.R. Martin to kill characters. I don't expect a character who seems like he's going to be significant to the plot in the future to die without warning before the battle even starts. Woah.
Most anticipated scene:
-Lady Catelyn Stark talks to Jaime Lannister. Our only glimpse of the infamous, imprisoned Kingslayer in the entire book. He's chained and dirty but insolent and brutally, flippantly honest. And then it ends suddenly with him making a rude comment about the late Lord Stark and Catelyn asking Brienne for her sword. In the next chapters I was half afraid that she'd killed her hostage and that the Lannisters were going to kill Sansa Stark in return, especially with the executioner lurking around Sansa and Queen Cersei Lannister while King's Landing was under attack.
Most heart-rending scene:
-There were two that had me almost in tears. First, when King Joffery orders Sansa stripped and beaten, and Ser Davos so sweetly and ineffectually tries to stop it. Second, when Lady Catelyn thinks that her sons Bran and Rickon have been killed.
Character I am most glad will not be in the next book due to untimely death:
-Theon Greyjoy. Ungrateful, arrogant, womanizing bastard, without even Jaime's charm or wit to make up for it. He deserved every nightmare he had after killing those children. His sister will rule the Iron Islands much better, too. He died trying to hold Winterfell, which rightful belonged to the Starks who had raised him for the last ten years, well aware of how hated and alone he was.
Character I was glad to see show up in this book again:
-Tell me I'm not the only one who was rather fond of Tyrion Lannister's whore, Shae. Probably it's partly just because I'm quite fond of Tyrion Lannister. I wasn't sure how long he'd keep her around and if she would still be with him at King's Landing, but she was. She got a little bratty about being made to actually *work* and not just wear nice clothes, laze around, and have sex all the time, but she's young so it's somewhat excusable.
Favorite character:
-Did I mention I'm quite fond on Tyrion Lannister? I guess that's not surprising, given my usual "type." Brilliant and witty. A commanding personality in a dwarvish and misshapen body. A tragic past of a lady he loved being proven a sort of cruel lesson from his father. A man who desperately wants to be loved but can't believe that he is anything other than ugly and unlovable.
Character I'm most curious about for the next book:
-Lord Tywin Lannister just showed up at court to take Tyrion's place as King's Hand. Who is this man who fathered three such powerful and fascinating children? In two books, I can only recall ever getting the briefest and most impersonal glimpse of him, other than in Tyrion's memories.
Most exciting development:
-More magical hocus-pocus stuff! George R.R. Martin likes to keep things pretty real, which made the glimpses of magic he showed us all the more fascinating. Bran Stark's budding gift for "green sight" and his bond with his wolf. Lord/King Stannis Baratheon's chilling red priestess, Melisandre, who births shadows that kill without a trace. The city of Qarth where Princess Daenerys Targaryen wandered through enchanted hallways seeking the Undying Ones, seeing scenes of horror, temptation, things that were and things that will be, behind every door. The mysterious and fascinating Jaqen H'ghar, who offered Arya Stark three deaths in exchange for saving him and his two companions, then shifted appearances and vanished when his debt was repaid.
Character I was least interested in:
-Jon Snow. In the last book I really liked Jon. This time, though, his part of the story didn't really feel connected to the other interesting things that were going on, and it wasn't particularly fascinating to me on its own. There were some creepy bits of him and his wolf wandering around in the frozen north not knowing if there are scary re-animated corpses about. There's supposedly a frightening army that's building up there, but somehow that never felt real and terrifying enough to me that I was all that concerned about it.
Most disturbing death:
-Lady Hornwood. Came to Winterfell as a sad widow asking for protection, and flirted with the castellan who would have made a good husband for her other than not being a lord. Ended up being forced into a marriage with the loathsome Reek so that he could take her lands and then lock her in a tower and starve her so that they found her with her mouth bloody and her fingers chewed off. (Thanks, George R.R. Martin. I was planning on sleeping after I finished that chapter, but then I had to read another one so I wouldn't have nightmares. This right after one of Jon's creepier chapters.)
I think that's all. I've now borrowed the next book, A Storm of Swords, from Alex. I'm thinking I will finish reading Stephen King's The Gunslinger first (I read most of Brent's copy, but then I had to leave Arizona. Fortunately my sister has a copy too). I might even just save it for the hella long plane ride to New Zealand and start some other book instead. But it's good to be really into a book again.
Okay, let's see. Most surprising scene from this book:
-Lord/King Renly being stabbed by a shadow when he was in his tent with Brienne and Lady Catelyn preparing for battle. I expect George R.R. Martin to kill characters. I don't expect a character who seems like he's going to be significant to the plot in the future to die without warning before the battle even starts. Woah.
Most anticipated scene:
-Lady Catelyn Stark talks to Jaime Lannister. Our only glimpse of the infamous, imprisoned Kingslayer in the entire book. He's chained and dirty but insolent and brutally, flippantly honest. And then it ends suddenly with him making a rude comment about the late Lord Stark and Catelyn asking Brienne for her sword. In the next chapters I was half afraid that she'd killed her hostage and that the Lannisters were going to kill Sansa Stark in return, especially with the executioner lurking around Sansa and Queen Cersei Lannister while King's Landing was under attack.
Most heart-rending scene:
-There were two that had me almost in tears. First, when King Joffery orders Sansa stripped and beaten, and Ser Davos so sweetly and ineffectually tries to stop it. Second, when Lady Catelyn thinks that her sons Bran and Rickon have been killed.
Character I am most glad will not be in the next book due to untimely death:
-Theon Greyjoy. Ungrateful, arrogant, womanizing bastard, without even Jaime's charm or wit to make up for it. He deserved every nightmare he had after killing those children. His sister will rule the Iron Islands much better, too. He died trying to hold Winterfell, which rightful belonged to the Starks who had raised him for the last ten years, well aware of how hated and alone he was.
Character I was glad to see show up in this book again:
-Tell me I'm not the only one who was rather fond of Tyrion Lannister's whore, Shae. Probably it's partly just because I'm quite fond of Tyrion Lannister. I wasn't sure how long he'd keep her around and if she would still be with him at King's Landing, but she was. She got a little bratty about being made to actually *work* and not just wear nice clothes, laze around, and have sex all the time, but she's young so it's somewhat excusable.
Favorite character:
-Did I mention I'm quite fond on Tyrion Lannister? I guess that's not surprising, given my usual "type." Brilliant and witty. A commanding personality in a dwarvish and misshapen body. A tragic past of a lady he loved being proven a sort of cruel lesson from his father. A man who desperately wants to be loved but can't believe that he is anything other than ugly and unlovable.
Character I'm most curious about for the next book:
-Lord Tywin Lannister just showed up at court to take Tyrion's place as King's Hand. Who is this man who fathered three such powerful and fascinating children? In two books, I can only recall ever getting the briefest and most impersonal glimpse of him, other than in Tyrion's memories.
Most exciting development:
-More magical hocus-pocus stuff! George R.R. Martin likes to keep things pretty real, which made the glimpses of magic he showed us all the more fascinating. Bran Stark's budding gift for "green sight" and his bond with his wolf. Lord/King Stannis Baratheon's chilling red priestess, Melisandre, who births shadows that kill without a trace. The city of Qarth where Princess Daenerys Targaryen wandered through enchanted hallways seeking the Undying Ones, seeing scenes of horror, temptation, things that were and things that will be, behind every door. The mysterious and fascinating Jaqen H'ghar, who offered Arya Stark three deaths in exchange for saving him and his two companions, then shifted appearances and vanished when his debt was repaid.
Character I was least interested in:
-Jon Snow. In the last book I really liked Jon. This time, though, his part of the story didn't really feel connected to the other interesting things that were going on, and it wasn't particularly fascinating to me on its own. There were some creepy bits of him and his wolf wandering around in the frozen north not knowing if there are scary re-animated corpses about. There's supposedly a frightening army that's building up there, but somehow that never felt real and terrifying enough to me that I was all that concerned about it.
Most disturbing death:
-Lady Hornwood. Came to Winterfell as a sad widow asking for protection, and flirted with the castellan who would have made a good husband for her other than not being a lord. Ended up being forced into a marriage with the loathsome Reek so that he could take her lands and then lock her in a tower and starve her so that they found her with her mouth bloody and her fingers chewed off. (Thanks, George R.R. Martin. I was planning on sleeping after I finished that chapter, but then I had to read another one so I wouldn't have nightmares. This right after one of Jon's creepier chapters.)
I think that's all. I've now borrowed the next book, A Storm of Swords, from Alex. I'm thinking I will finish reading Stephen King's The Gunslinger first (I read most of Brent's copy, but then I had to leave Arizona. Fortunately my sister has a copy too). I might even just save it for the hella long plane ride to New Zealand and start some other book instead. But it's good to be really into a book again.