"A Game of Thrones" and "Elantris"

Chiller2 said:
I loved the game of thrones at first but it seemed like the good guys could never win.You need a little triumph with your tragedy and it had to much tragedy and not enough triumph for me.
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A Song of Ice and Fire has so many levels of "good" and "bad." Characters you hate in the first book you love by the fourth book, and some of the "good" characters in the first book are downright evil by the fourth book. That's precisely why it is so awesome IMO, you read the story from so many points of view. You never know who's gonna live or die, win or lose, be just or be consumed by vengeance. The level of character development is unparalleled. Every faction has someone to root for (except for the Freys) and someone to despise. GRRM stands head and shoulders above his piers.
 
Thanks for the tip, Ted!



I just finished Elantris....interesting ending. Overall I enjoyed it - great read. Seems like there could actually be more to it (lots of stuff left out or unexplained).

Dan
 
If you go to the author's website he has a section dedicated to "Elantris" and it has a free short story that takes place after the events in the book. You can spend a bit of time on his site. He is also prone to having free copies of books available as well. I think he has a working rough draft of "Warbreaker", with corrections, available so you get an idea of how he writes novels.

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/portal/Elantris
 
OK....finally finished "A Game of Thrones" - holy cow that was a long book. I've read longer...and definitely more tedious (Atlas Shrugged, anybody?)....and it's not as slow and wordy as LOTR...but I definitely found myself "suffering" to get to the end.

And then, suddenly the last 5% or so of the book was actually interesting.

So, for now I'm torn. I want to continue the series to see what happens next. But the slow-moving pace of the first one definitely makes me hesitate.

It's definitely nowhere near as moving or energetic as "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind. But I've read worse....LOL

So, I gave it 3 stars (out of 5). I did end up liking the characters.

And it's not that I can't handle the strife and struggle and "sour grapes"....I LOVED Pillars of the Earth.

So, the jury's out for now. I'll definitely give the 2nd book a shot - maybe after I've read a couple dozen others and had time to forget the tedium.

Dan
 
If you finished book one I would recommend books two and three. I thought they were little faster reads and they really had good story development. The one big risk is what's already been discussed - not having a definitive end looses me after 3 books.

If you want a light fantasy read that I think will really surprise try the Bartimaeous trilogy by Stroud. Don't be thrown off by the fact that it's in the young adult section :-)
 
Game of Thrones is good, as is the rest of the series so far... but don't be in any big hurry to get through the other books. Martin hasn't been writing the next installment for six years now and it still isn't finished.

He's apparently got terrible writer's block on the series or something. For the first three books, he pushed out a new one every other year. Then the forth took five years, and now we're getting up toward six years.

It's disheartening, because it's a good story, but there's an increasing risk that he wont finish it before he dies.

(And just to plug another series... if you haven't read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, you haven't lived. ;) )
 
Is it just me, or do we knife folks have a ton in common?
I mean seriously, same taste in books?
 
fredhoward75 - I'll check it out.


Skrapmetal - Yes! I have read the first 2 books in the Dark Tower series. Loved 'em!


Any of you guys on goodreads.com?

Dan
 
Daniel Koster said:
fredhoward75 - I'll check it out.


Skrapmetal - Yes! I have read the first 2 books in the Dark Tower series. Loved 'em!


Any of you guys on goodreads.com?

Dan
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Oh man, you stopped right when it starts getting good! Books 3 and 4 are absolutely great.

I've never even heard of goodreads.com... I'll go take a look. :cool:
 
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