Book Discussion

randomredneck said:
I think it does, yeah. If I had a criticism, it's chapters at The Wall. Which always just feel so disjointed from everything else going on.
Click to expand...

That's one of the flaws of the series so far. There's this whole high fantasy apocalypse scenario going on at The Wall, but none of the other plot threads give a shit about it. Everyone is more concerned with political power struggles. At first it's a clever subversion. After a while though you realize the zombies at the wall are supposed to be the main plot, then you just realize the books have been ignoring the plot for stuff that isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. The White Walkers give no shits about who is in charge of Westeros.

If you're on the third book, I'll be interested to see what you think of the fourth book because its a scattered mess with most of the characters worth rooting for are either dead or removed from the plot. Like I am just going to assume that Tyrion is one of the characters you find great, but then after
Joffry dies, he gets exiled to Dany's part of the plot and he just spins his wheels mourning his hooker girlfriend.
 
ZetsubouKaiji said:
That's one of the flaws of the series so far. There's this whole high fantasy apocalypse scenario going on at The Wall, but none of the other plot threads give a shit about it. Everyone is more concerned with political power struggles. At first it's a clever subversion. After a while though you realize the zombies at the wall are supposed to be the main plot, then you just realize the books have been ignoring the plot for stuff that isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. The White Walkers give no shits about who is in charge of Westeros.

If you're on the third book, I'll be interested to see what you think of the fourth book because its a scattered mess with most of the characters worth rooting for are either dead or removed from the plot. Like I am just going to assume that Tyrion is one of the characters you find great, but then after
Joffry dies, he gets exiled to Dany's part of the plot and he just spins his wheels mourning his hooker girlfriend.
Click to expand...
It's definitely a toss up between Tyrion and Sandor. I always feel excited when I got a Tyrion or Arya chapter.

On the opposite end is Catelyn. God, her chapters are a drag. The Wall may feel like it belongs in a different book, but at least they do something besides moan about their damn dead husband and kids.
 
SilentBookworm said:
I've been on the fence as to whether or not I should check out A Song of Ice and Fire, I am slightly curious about it, but I'm held back by how bleak it might be (I'm fine with bleak stories however Joker and Devilman: Crybaby have taught me my limit). I haven't seen Game of Thrones outside of some videos summarizing the seasons and diving into why the final seasons were such a disaster.

I'm also curious, has anybody read The Stormlight Archive and/or the Deepgate Codex and would they recommend them?
Click to expand...
I will say the novels feel a lot less bleak to me personally than the TV series.

This is because the TV series really kills off every minor or secondary character they can, for a variety of reasons. Easier for tying up loose ends. Difficult to maintain character cotnracts, etc.

On the other hand, the books do have more of a spark of hope to them and minor/secondary characters can live. It's a bit less of a kill em all, even if character death happens it feels more... done in a calculated and fulfilling way for the reading audience.

A point: there's a lot of Sad Kids (children) who are pawns in the ASOIAF novels, but almost all of those Sad Kids become Dead Kids in the TV series


...Also controversial, whatever, but Jaime is the best ever I love him
 
randomredneck said:
He is that annoying kind of likable. You want to hate him because he's a smug, self-absorbed sister humper who shoved a kid off a tower. But he's also got that quick wit and is so badass he can fight Brienne to a draw after a year of being chained and malnourished.
Click to expand...
I love all the 'bad' things about him too, all of that combines to make him super compelling to me

But I agree that yeah, he's one of those characters who wins hearts, even people who never thought they'd like him. Definitely a fascinating character where
he's written as 'super horrendous' in his intro, but is imo almost hard to dislike the further we get into the story.
 
And long as we're talking people I didn't expect to like, Strong Belwas. Dude spends most of his time being an agitating windbag, then when Dany points him at something and says 'Kill',
he kills the guy like a Sunday errand, takes a dump in the direction of the city, wipes his ass with the dead guy's cape and then comes back wanting dinner.

What a chad.
 
I mean after being raised by that bastard Tywin, it's amazing that Jaime and Tyrion have any good left in them. Jaime definitely works one hell of a redemption tour. Of the siblings Jaime is the most pure hearted and the least like his father.
 
Boom.
20220929_165450.jpg
Here's hoping it's better written than the actual in-game Ruination event was.
 
randomredneck said:
Boom.
20220929_165450.jpg
Here's hoping it's better written than the actual in-game Ruination event was.
Click to expand...
And done. Was pretty good. I question some choices, like the
hamfisted Soraka cameo. Which added really nothing. Like we don't need a prophecy about Ruination. It's literally the name of the book. And I'm not sure I like Ryze, who to the best of my knowledge has never had any ties to Shadow Isles lore, being partly responsible for the whole fiasco happening.
But that aside, good book. Would make a great season of Arcane.
Also, the real star of the book: Vennix.
u9vpwel4skm91.jpg
Sword swinging badass Vastaya pirate captain. She stole the show if you ask me.
 
Having read the short stories and about to complete the second full novel of The Witcher series...I am left only thinking "meh they're ok". I frankly liked them much more when they were just about killing monsters *shrugs*...you know when they were about being a Witcher doing Witcher things, but that's basically the short stories only XD.
 
I think my next fiction read will be the latest King - Fairy Tale, once I finish the non-fiction I’m reading.
As usual for recent King I’ve heard mixed reviews. Many saying it’s the best of his later works and others saying they still weren’t all that impressed.
 
Last edited:
After about 500 pages, I can definitely say A Feast For Crows is my least favorite installment of this series so far. It's just so meandering. You've got Brienne on this snipe hunt for Sansa, this Iron Islands subplot that I couldn't give less of a damn about, way too much Cersei, Tyrion, Jon and Dany completely MIA so far, and these Sparrow guys who are...there. This is definitely the dud in this series.
 
Thanks bot for reminding me this thread existed. I wanted to talk about a book!

I started reading a book called The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. Which is about a talking cat who forms an alliance with a group of talking rodents and a young boy to basically scam an entire town out of their money….I guess it’s not really scam if they already had a rat problem, but they have definitely scammed before. The plan is to use the rodents to start a rat plague on the city and then use the boy as a fake pied piper to get all the rats out, then they will split all the money they get paid for the job amongst themselves.

It’s a really silly book and I love all the dynamics of the characters so far. Maurice talks like a fucking swindler and the kid is just naive and here to make money. He lies to the kid about the meaning of stuff to make a quick buck but he still cares about him deep down and I hope some character development stuff will come from that, same vibes as Charlie and that little girl from All Dogs Go To Heaven.

The mice are also fun and have stupid names like Dangerous Beans and Hamnpork.

I really think I’m gonna like this book.
 
UniversalParanoia1 said:
Thanks bot for reminding me this thread existed. I wanted to talk about a book!

I started reading a book called The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. Which is about a talking cat who forms an alliance with a group of talking rodents and a young boy to basically scam an entire town out of their money….I guess it’s not really scam if they already had a rat problem, but they have definitely scammed before. The plan is to use the rodents to start a rat plague on the city and then use the boy as a fake pied piper to get all the rats out, then they will split all the money they get paid for the job amongst themselves.

It’s a really silly book and I love all the dynamics of the characters so far. Maurice talks like a fucking swindler and the kid is just naive and here to make money. He lies to the kid about the meaning of stuff to make a quick buck but he still cares about him deep down and I hope some character development stuff will come from that, same vibes as Charlie and that little girl from All Dogs Go To Heaven.

The mice are also fun and have stupid names like Dangerous Beans and Hamnpork.

I really think I’m gonna like this book.
Click to expand...
This was actually my favourite book as a kid. I read it when I was about 9-10 and it lead to me owning MANY pet rats over my lifetime. My first ever pet rat (of a pair) that I got when I was 10 or so was named Sardines because of this book.

Some parts get surprisingly in depth/dark and emotional for a kids book. I definitely consider it something 'perfect' even though it's been a long time since I've read it. I could rave about Terry Pratchett's way of framing really simple things in a beautiful way. Like I love the literary device of using quotes from a fictional book in universe at the start of every chapter. My copy used to have every second page dog-eared because I love it so much.

It's a kind of light read. I remember as a kid I used to reread the whole book sometimes at night.

It also was my introduction to Terry Pratchett who is wicked good and has done a lot of more adult fantasy books.
 
Claptrap said:
This was actually my favourite book as a kid. I read it when I was about 9-10 and it lead to me owning MANY pet rats over my lifetime. My first ever pet rat (of a pair) that I got when I was 10 or so was named Sardines because of this book.

Some parts get surprisingly in depth/dark and emotional for a kids book. I definitely consider it something 'perfect' even though it's been a long time since I've read it. I could rave about Terry Pratchett's way of framing really simple things in a beautiful way. Like I love the literary device of using quotes from a fictional book in universe at the start of every chapter. My copy used to have every second page dog-eared because I love it so much.

It's a kind of light read. I remember as a kid I used to reread the whole book sometimes at night.

It also was my introduction to Terry Pratchett who is wicked good and has done a lot of more adult fantasy books.
Click to expand...
That's so awesome! I knew this was a good pick, I could feel it when I read what this book was about. I actually found out about it from an artist on Instagram who made some fanart of Maurice and the rodents, and I researched the book from there.

Glad to hear it's such a fun read, I have fun everytime I read it already and I'm only on chapter 4 haha
 
Been taking me almost four months to get through yet another Caiaphas Cain novel, but mainly because I forgot about it for two months. The plot is not that interesting, and the character interactions are getting worn out by now. Actually, it started to show signs of tear during the second trilogy. Besides, eldar (sorry, aeldari) suck. Orkz or necrons are the superior enemies of the Imperium.

I may have to re-learn to read fictions books , but it's hard going. Or maybe I should try books that actually grab my interests.
 
Well, I just finished The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents and I think it might have just became my favorite book I’ve ever read. It was so much fucking fun. I’m not gonna write a review at the moment because it’s late, but just know I love it with all my heart. And enjoy this lovely fanart I found of the characters
adb935d9b0e1494e103aadb9fe0d9308ab05e7c2.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top