Knowing my love for all things ASOIAF (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R.Martin, I just had to share this infographic on my blog. This is an awesome recap of Robert Baratheon’s rebellion. Since it’s not covered in real-time in the actual book series, it’s great to see it here in pictorial format. Enjoy 
Can’t wait for the next book in the series. The Winds of Winter is supposedly due out sometime mid-2014.
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R.Martin
They were all dead now. Jory, old Ser Rodrik, Lord Eddard, Harwin and Hullen, Cayn and Desmond and Fat Tom, Alyn with his dreams of knighthood, Mikken who had given him his first real sword. Even Old Nan, like as not.
And Robb. Robb who had been more a brother to Theon than any son born of Balon Greyjoy’s loins. Murdered at the Red Wedding, butchered by the Freys. I should have been with him. Where was I? I should have died with him.
A sad moment of regret by Theon Greyjoy, who is hopefully a reformed villain.
And here’s a tender moment between father and son villains from A Dance with Dragons LOL! Can you guess who they are?
Don’t make me rue the day I raped your mother.
What can I say…the villains always get the best lines
Quotes are from A Dance with Dragons, the fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R.Martin.
Btw, if you want to buy a copy of this book, check out Cuponation. They have some good coupons for use with Flipkart.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
I had dedicated the first half of 2013 for reading the complete (as of now) A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R.Martin.
I read the first book in January and I just got completely immersed in this world that I couldn’t hold back on the later books of the series. I finished the first 3 books in January (see my reviews here and here).
After completing A Storm of Swords, I knew the next book A Feast for Crows would be a letdown and so it was in a way.
A Feast for Crows by George R.R.Martin
This is also a book where new characters and new POVs are introduced, and so it takes a little time to settle down and get interested in these characters.
Cersei, the bad queen finally gets her own voice, and it’s a pretty interesting POV. We finally come to know why she hates and fears her brother Tyrion so much. Her story arc overall is the strongest point of this book. After all her fighting for power, we now see her struggling with trying to maintain it without any help from her family. Her rapid descent into paranoia is brilliantly captured, well written, and totally engrossing.
Another new POV character is Brienne of Tarth. She is the good girl, the exact opposite of Cersei. Unfortunately, her chapters are really long and boring, with very little happening until the end. She seems merely to be a mouthpiece to comment on the state of Westeros at this stage of the series, and to emphasize that the small folk are the ones paying a huge price in this game of thrones.
That said, the ending is pretty good, not epic, but good enough to make up for the plodding nature of the rest of the book.
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R.Martin
To me this is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s great to see the scope of the series widened, but after reading so far, I still don’t see an ending in sight. There are too many open variables making it difficult to understand where the story is leading. It’s becoming more and more like a Fantasy soap opera. It’s going to take a really hefty and well-planned next two books to be able to end this series with most of the story arcs resolved in a satisfactory way.
Both these books have had mixed reviews, and although I don’t agree with the negative opinions, I can understand why they exist. I am a new reader. So I have had the luxury of being able to read the first five books back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. No waiting and very convenient. Had I waited for five years after finishing A Storm of Swords for A Feast for Crows and then waited another five years for A Dance with Dragons I would not be very happy right now. The story really has not progressed much in 10 years. I mean, yes it has, but not at the pace that the first three books did.
So, anyway I have come now to the end of the saga and I am now like the rest of GRRM fans eagerly waiting for the next book in the series – The Winds of Winter. It’s currently being written, but knowing GRRM’s pace, there’s no guarantees when it will be out. Till then I wait, not very patiently 
A Storm of Swords by George R.R.Martin
Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken.
Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world.
And as opposing forces maneuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable.
As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords.
Oh, wow! I simply have no words to review this book. This is the third book in George R.R.Martin (GRRM from now onwards), and I expected it to be action-packed, but this book delivers much more than what I was expecting.
A Storm of Swords is, in my opinion, the undisputed high point of the series so far. It delivers on the action and how. The book is fast-moving, and entertaining.
My gripe is that I don’t like the way the series is progressing . Don’t get me wrong, I love this book, I give it 5 stars, but some of the events that take place seem to be changing the direction of the story in a completely different way from what I expected it to go. I am of course, referring to the events of the Red Wedding.
Spoilers ahead:
While I enjoyed this series so far, and love all the various story arcs (all right, I lie, I couldn’t care less about the Others), I particularly love the revenge angle of the Stark children avenging their father’s murder. In particular, I was gunning for a major showdown between the Stark children and the Lannisters. The Red Wedding just horribly dashed down all my hopes. It just seems so wrong. The moral heart of the story is gone and what remains is greed and cunning.
GRRM tries to undo some of that loss by a twist in the tale at the end, but it does no good at all.
Now that the Stark children vengeance story-line looks like it’s coming to a close, the other significant plot-lines are:
Neither of these plot-lines interest me much. I don’t like zombie books and these zombies from the north of the wall are so unimaginatively written that my eyes just glaze over at these portions. Jon is also super-boring. And Dany? I don’t find her a sympathetic character at all. I am tempted to skip every chapter told from her POV, and don’t particularly care if she ever reclaims her family’s throne and yet, I know that this is where the story is headed (since the fifth book is titled A Dance with Dragons).
So, am I going to continue with the series? Sadly, yes. I still want to know what happens to the Lannisters. I want to know how little Tommen does on the throne, and I want to know what is the fate of some of the lesser characters whose status is still not sure (I am thinking about Sandor Clegane – my favorite broken hero).
So, have you read this book? What did you think of this twist in the series? Are you continuing with the later books?
A Game of Thrones by George R.R.Martin
My brother is undoubtedly arrogant,” Tyrion Lannister replied. “My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you?”
And here’s another one…
When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
~ A Game of Thrones by George R.R.Marin
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Note Upfront: This is not a proper review of the books as such, just my impressions after reading the first two books of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R.Martin. It’s pretty difficult to do a full-fledged review of such a huge in scope story, which runs through multiple series.
As of now, the complete series consists of the following books:
Hooboy, I don’t realize what I was getting into when I started these first 2 books from A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R.Martin. It’s been ages since I read a full-blown fantasy series. My last attempt at epic Fantasy was short-lived when I read the first two books of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth, which weren’t bad, but I kinda felt like I had outgrown this genre.
What a pleasure to know I haven’t. George R.R.Martin’s series is absolutely awesome – just the right amount of Fantasy mixed with a host of interesting characters, and enough politicking and scheming to keep you entertained late into the night.
So what’s the series about? Well, it’s all about the confusion and the fight for supremacy that follows after the death of a king. King Robert Baratheon has managed to hold the empire together during his reign, but his sudden death leaves behind a minor son, and a whole host of nobles all vying to dethrone the young prince and become King. Apparently, these sections of the novels are loosely based on the Wars of the Roses, a vicious series of battles of succession that took place in 15th-century England.
To provide the Fantasy aspect, there are threats from the North from the Others – some kind of zombies who are now rising and planning to move south and destroy the current kingdom. There are also dragons and magicians galore, and enough Fantasy to enthrall most readers. But the thing is, what I love about this series is, there’s never too much magic to give anybody an edge. I also love that there is no overarching good character or evil character. All of them have shades of black and white. The characters may not be very likable, but they are interesting, and I love that most characters get to have their point of view shown. It made me more invested in them, and reduced boredom, I mean even the most interesting and well-written character can start to tire, if he is covered fully for more than a 1000 pages!
Also, even the most terrible people seen through the eyes of people who love them are hard to dislike. For example, the horrible Queen Cersei may be an evil conniving b**** but she is also a protective mother who is battling to save her children, and I find it difficult to hate her completely.
I also love that I have no idea how this series is going to end. I mean when I read Lord of the Rings, I read it knowing that good will ultimately triumph, same with Inheritance, and other such books. But, in a series, where no one is all good and no one is all evil, it is really a toss-up as to the fate of the characters.
What I don’t like is the rape, sex, and misogyny that is rampant throughout the first two books. A quick scan through book blogs reviewing the rest of the series tells me it doesn’t get better. But, considering the setting – sometime in the Middle Ages, and the state of war, I guess it’s impossible not to have such story arcs.
Overall though this series is a total hit for me, and I am going to devour the other books pretty quickly, I am sure. The only drawback is it seems Martin takes ages to write his books, and I don’t want to finish them all up, and then have to wait years for the finale .
People have told me that the TV series is also awesome, unfortunately, I don’t think it shows in India. So, that is also something to wait for.
So, are any of you guys reading the books. How do you think the series progresses from here? Any bets on the fate of the characters and who will finally rule? Who are your favorite characters? For now, I like Tyrion Lannister and Sandor Clegane, and of course Prince Tommen (even though he is really a minor character so far). I know I should like Daenerys and Jon Snow, but I find their stories really flat so far, and I am finding I don’t really much care what happens to them. Maybe, this will change later, I can sense these story arcs are going to get much stronger in the later books.
I’ve been reading George R.R.Martin since the start of the new year. It all began when I was gifted A Clash of Kings from Anjana for Christmas (Secret Santa). I started reading it, realized I loved it, and immediately downloaded the first book in the series – A Game of Thrones.
I am now just completely lost in this beautiful, fantastical, and often violent world that George R.R.Martin has created.
What I don’t like though is the dreary, black-and-white, small print maps that are available with the books themselves. So, I was thrilled when I saw these beautiful images on Kitkat Pecson’s site – maps of Westeros and Essos.
Westeros and Essos
Westeros
Essos
I love these maps, such lovely art-work, and just perfect to immerse myself further in these books.
Do you love this series like I do? How do you like these maps? If you like them, hop on over to KitKat’s blog for more such wonderful illustrations and some thoughts from the lady herself.
Secret Santa Exchange
In my wishlist, I had mentioned George R.R.Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series, and I was super-thrilled to receive the 2nd book in the series – A Clash of Kings. I haven’t read the first one, was pretty intimidated by the size, but as I skimmed through this book, I realized the writing is very readable and engaging, and I am now on the hunt for the first book – A Game of Thrones. Seeing the size and the addictive nature of the books in this series, I think I can easily keep myself occupied the whole of 2013!!
Apart from this book, my Secret Santa Anjana also sent me these wonderful stickers, which I promptly presented to the snubnose. She is super-thrilled with the stickers and the Hello Kitty ones are already up on her bedroom walls.
Thanks so much Anjana for the presents. It was an awesome surprise. And also a huge thank you to The Broke and the Bookish for organizing such a super-duper Secret Santa event so well.
So, did you participate in any Secret Santa exchange this year? What did you give? What did you get?
