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A Feast For Crows: worth the wait

I finished up reading George R. R. Martin’s long-awaited fourth fantasy novel A Feast for Crows today. I’m dying to find out what happens next. The fifth book (A Dance of Dragons) in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series is due out sometime this year, and if it does drop (Martin is notorious for taking his time writing) I may have to break one of my New Year’s Resolutions and buy it.

Every review I’ve read criticizes the fact that this book was split in half; the next installment was originally planned as part of this book, and Martin reworked the story to separate out some storylines in order to tame an unwieldy volume. It was a wise decision; this half is large and complex and I can only imagine what a book twice this size would weigh, let alone how hard it would be to work through.

I mentioned when I picked up the book to read it that I had a hard time getting my bearings and recalling the “who, where and why” of the numerous story lines as they pick up from the first three books (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords). Wikipedia wasn’t quite enough to help me and I ended up re-reading sections of the previous book to refresh my memory.

That was a frustration, but worth the effort. The Song of Ice and Fire series follows hundreds of characters as they live in and fight over the fictional land of Westeros, and the intrigue and machinations of the various families fighting for control of the land is fascinating. Some character’s motives are pure, some are not; some visions and desires are far-seeing and some are not. The chapters move from one character to the next, and the villain you’re despising in one chapter is the narrator you identify with in another. Only you get a glimpse of the big picture, and even then Martin obscures much of it from view. But the part that you can see is pure poetry, and has made me one of Martin’s faithful if impatient fans.

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The Feast of the Epiphany

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  • Post category:Odd Holidays

It’s the feast of the Epiphany today… the 12th day of Christmas, or Twelfth Night.
After Twelfth Night the Carnival season starts, which lasts through Mardi Gras. In some places such as New Orleans, Louisiana, the night of January 6 with the first Carnival celebrations is called Twelfth Night. In some places, Twelfth Night celebrations include food traditions such as the king cake or tortell. Twelfth Night is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on Twelfth Night, they should stay up all year.

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The Book of Daniel

Man, you ignore political news for one day around here, and the shit hits the fan. Everyone’s talking about the Terre Haute TV station that’s refusing to air the NBC TV show “The Book of Daniel.” that premieres tomorrow night. I hadn’t even heard of it, and had to go look up what all the fuss is about. Here’s a hysterical and freaked out synopsis of the show, from the American Family Association’s newsletter:

It is time to make our voice heard at NBC that we will not long remain silent about their anti-Christian bigotry. Here is what NBC considers to be a positive portrayal of Christians and Christianity:
The program’s main characters include Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest; his alcoholic wife; his son, a 23-year-old homosexual Republican; his daughter, a 16-year-old drug dealer; a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop’s daughter; his lesbian secretary who is sleeping with his sister-in-law; and a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus who talks to the priest.
It is written by Jack Kenny, a practicing homosexual who describes himself as being “in Catholic recovery,” and is interested in Buddhist teachings about reincarnation and isn’t sure exactly how he defines God and/or Jesus. “I don’t necessarily know that all the myth surrounding him (Jesus) is true,” he said.

Practicing homosexual? Man, that Jack Kenny better work harder if he’s only practicing. Most of us have got this stuff down already. Ahem.
Anyways… the AFA is leading a huge campaign to contact TV stations all over the country to try to persuade them not to air the show, and some wingdings in Terre Haute and Little Rock, Arkansas have taken their disinformation at face value.
You can contact the stations yourself, if you want:
Indianapolis station 317-636-1313
Terre Haute 812-696-2121
Me, I went right out and DVR’ed the show so I can see what all the fuss is about. Sounds like a hoot. Seems like the best way to get a ton of publicity is to get the AFA to boycott you. Hmmm.
Jesus is a pussy! That’s right! He’s a yellow-bellied, pink-wearing nancy-boy! And did I mention I’m a homo? I really am!

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Books I plan to read in 2006

Thirty-eight books that I already own and need to read. I’m setting these aside to pick up and read in 2006. I hope I’ll get through more than just these, but this would make a big dent in my “to read” stacks.

FEB 13, 2006 UPDATE:
I ended up breaking my new years resolution and buying a few books, which I’m now adding to the list, so I don’t keep up an endless spiral of stacks of books I don’t get to.

Absolute Watchmen – Alan Moore
I bought this after reading an Entertainment Weekly review that quoted some of my favorite writers and television producers as saying it was an enormous influence on them.

A Feast for Crows – George R. R. Martin
Read My Review

Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her – Melanie Rehak

Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals – William Wright

YOU: The Owner’s Manual : An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger – Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet Oz

Fiction

Ahab’s Wife: Or, The Star-Gazer: A Novel – by Sena Jeter Naslund

Al Capone Does My Shirts – by Gennifer Choldenko

Baudolino – Umberto Eco

Best Lesbian Erotica 2006 (Best Lesbian Erotica) – by Tristan Taormino, Eileen Myles
Read My Review

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, Book 2) – Stephen King

The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, Book 3) – Stephen King

Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, Book 4) – Stephen King

Deception Point – Dan Brown

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

House of Leaves – by Mark Z. Danielewski

The House on the Point: A Tribute to Franklin W. Dixon and The Hardy Boys – by Benjamin Hoff

I, Robot – by Isaac Asimov

The Island of the Skull (King Kong) – by Matthew Costello

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – by Susanna Clarke

Life Mask – by Emma Donoghue

Memoirs of a Geisha – by Arthur Golden

Mr. Timothy – by Louis Bayard

The Nanny Diaries – by Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus

Other Side of Desire – by Paula Christian

The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga – by Edward Rutherfurd

Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) – by Neal Stephenson

Stranger In a Strange Land – by Robert Heinlein
Read My Review

Slammerkin – by Emma Donoghue

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley’s Game – by Patricia Highsmith

The Time Traveler’s Wife – by Audrey Niffenegger

Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties – by Felicia Luna Lemus

Non-Fiction

The Classic Hundred Poems – by William Harmon

The Experts’ Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do – by Samantha Ettus

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty – by Kitty Kelley

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme – by Chris Roberts
Read My Review

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – by Joseph Campbell

How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization : The Time and Heroic Story of How Gay Men Shaped the Modern World – by Cathy Crimmins
I ended up not finishing this book because it wasn’t a serious history book. It was a tongue-in-cheek satire of other books on subculture groups that have an impact on mainstream culture. Funny, but not what I was interested in reading.

Jesus Is Not a Republican: The Religious Right’s War on America – by Clint Willis

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else – by David Cay Johnston

The Right Decision Every Time : How to Reach Perfect Clarity on Tough Decisions – by Luda Kopeikin

Scaling Down – by Judi Culbertson and Marj Decker
Read My Review

The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry – by Bryan Sykes

A Short History of Nearly Everything – by Bill Bryson

Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life As Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages – by Hugh Rawson

You Already Know What to Do: Ten Invitations to the Intuitive Life – by Sharon Franquemont

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The Edge Annual Question — 2006

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WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?

This year, the third culture thinkers in the Edge community have written 117 original essays (a document of 72,500 words) in response to the 2006 Edge Question — “What is your dangerous idea?”. Here you will find indications of a new natural philosophy, founded on the realization of the import of complexity, of evolution. Very complex systems — whether organisms, brains, the biosphere, or the universe itself — were not constructed by design; all have evolved. There is a new set of metaphors to describe ourselves, our minds, the universe, and all of the things we know in it.

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DIY Chess Figures

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Site that tells how to build your own chess figures out of Nuts and Bolts.
Quite a while back I saw a chess set in the background of a TV show that was a chess set made of different sizes and styles of salt and pepper shakers, and I wanted to create that. But when I started looking at buying the shakers, I realized it would be much cheaper to just buy a plastic chess set.

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A Feast for Crows: starting the book

I started reading one of the books I bought with my Barnes and Noble gift cards, A Feast for Crows this week. It’s the fourth book in the fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin. I really enjoy this series because it turns many of the tired fantasy cliches upside down, or simply ignores them. There’s very little magic in the series, and what there is is subtle and in the background. There’s no “farmboy with royal lineage who discovers his personal journey to find the throne while battling a wicked magician who lives in far off mountains,” thank god. Wikipedia gives a better explanation than I could:

A Song of Ice and Fire is set in a fictitious world reminiscent of Europe in the Middle Ages, except for the fact that in this world, seasons can last as long as a decade. Driven by members of the Houses, great and small, the plot is recounted from the perspectives of more than ten main characters and takes place on the continents of Westeros and the eastern continent, the former being the locale of fierce power struggles between several aristocratic families after the death of king Robert Baratheon, who by lineage, marriage and personal relationships had united them all.

The model for the series was England’s Wars of the Roses, and the story follows several different richly-drawn characters on different sides of the struggle. The thing I found compelling was that I sympathized with characters on both sides of the war who would have been allies in other circumstances but who found themselves at odds due to family loyalties and conflicting religious beliefs.

A Feast for Crows is starting pretty slowly for me, because it begins by following some minor characters that I can’t quite remember from the previous books. The gap between the publication of the last novel and this one was large; I read A Storm of Swords in 2002 and am struggling to remember where the series left off. I read over Wikipedia’s summaries, though, and was able to get my bearings, so I have an idea of who and where everyone is.

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