BoldAsYouPlease

Agreed - I'm already forced to buy SubPress versions of what were supposed to be unique editions of each book in order to keep my set complete. I won't pay those kinds of prices to buy something that isn't part of the set.

While I can't do 'G', 'RR' or 'M', I do have the Meisha Merlin letter 'F' - these books came oh so close to ending up on the bookshelf of the American Tolkien. Instead they sit in pristine condition on the bookshelf of the American nobody, available for sale to you. But only with the SubPress books. Breaking up a complete set is unthinkable. Taking the MM books without the SubPress books would be like having Hodor set off for parts unknown, leaving Bran in a cave with Elric Bloodraven. Some things belong together.

That about sums it up for me, too - been meaning to for years and instead the complete letter 'F' set just keeps growing...

Just a reminder that my complete Letter 'F' set of the MM and SubPress books (with SubPress AGoT on order) is still up for sale. I don't know what can be said about the lettered set that hasn't already been said - let's try this: "Letter 'F' - why that's just one letter away from the Letter 'G' set that GRRM himself reportedly owns!" =) Anyway, please msg me if you have any interest or any questions.

Thanks Becca! :)

Hi Becca & All, I've posted about my lettered set 'F' in the 'Objects' forum a couple of times over the last couple of years and then forgot about ever checking for responses, but I'd like to make another attempt to sell the set to a fan of the story and of collector's edition books who can appreciate them more than I can =). Lettered set 'F' complete, including MM AGoT, MM ACoK, Sub ASoS, Sub AFfC, Sub ADwD, Sub ACoK. Rights to all things 'F' in the Lettered set in the future are of course included, along with the bookmarks, the chapbook, whatever else came with the books. Please ping me if any interest. It'll take me a while to compose an ebay listing, so for now it's only posted here and on the GRRM forum at 'thedarktower.org'.

I gave it a 4. Shows like this are why I gave up on the show in the middle of last season. Oberyn Martell was one of my favorite characters when I read ASoS in 2000 - after the Red Wedding I was wondering how Martin could keep disposing of important characters, and then Oberyn showed me how - back then Martin was seemingly able to devise great characters whenever he pleased. The Red Viper was terrific - smart, sly, decadent, a man to fear both as a schemer and as a warrior - and under it all a man burning with the desire to obtain revenge for the murder of his sister. The dialog between him and Tyrion as he approached King's Landing was important and worth multiple reads - full of back-story, new revelations and great quips. And they threw that away for the obligatory weekly sex scene in Littlefinger's brothel. The TV Littlefinger is far more sinister than his book counter-part - his establishment has managed to turn sex with good-looking participants into an annoying nuisance, a game-changing achievement the book Littlefinger will have to work to match. I'm trying to think of another show or movie that has been this ham-fisted and inept in getting the sex going, and I can't - hard-core porn directors would call tonight's scene contrived and unnecessary. TV Oberyn, unlike his book counter-part, is so horny and stupid that he rides ahead of his escort into a city teeming with the soldiers of the Tyrells so he can get laid at a brothel. And it's not even a high-class brothel because he's insulted there by some common foot-soldier who apparently recognizes him and thinks it's a good idea to insult a member of the nobility nicknamed the Red Viper. Made no sense at all, and the pretty breasts didn't lend it any sense either. The reference to Ser Duncan the Tall wasn't exactly enough to compensate, either, though it was thoughtful of the producers to throw us book-readers a little something to geek out over. For me, the Oberyn nonsense was the biggest problem, but there's more - one example: the show's decision to turn Arya's first killing - a moment of pure rage from a little girl who has lost everyone she ever cared about - into several cold-blooded murders complete with Dexter-like taunting. So there it is - a 4 to open the season.

Hi All, I posted about my lettered set earlier in the year but didn't really follow up, been a busy year =). Anyway I thought I'd put it out there again in the forums: For sale: Complete lettered set 'F' of the MM/SubPress books, comes with bookmarks and other extras which came with the books, as well as all future rights to letter 'F' in the series. I've placed an order and paid for letter 'F' of Subterranean's 'Clash of Kings', that's included as well. Books are in pristine condition, as delivered. I've only opened them a couple of times to take pictures of them. Since the two $15k sales of lettered sets last year, the set has grown by 'A Dance of Dragons' and of course the order for the SubPress 'ACoK'. I think a fair price to ask for is $17k (not including shipping costs). Please send a private message if any interest. Thanks!

Best summation of the show that I've seen.

5/10 for me. Forgetting that the books exist, the show still seemed confused and incoherent. After all the worry about the Others, they turn out to be fairly harmless - Sam encounters one and you wonder why he bothered to hide. The Other's skin is pretty chapped, but you have to expect that when you lead a parade in a snow-storm with no shirt. Isn't the newly anointed Lord of Harrenhal, that master of subtle intrigue, even a little concerned about the consequences of walking out in the middle of an official court function to go and chat with the king's freshly abandoned fiancee in front of the entire court? Did Cersei, Varys, even Joffrey really not notice? How does Tyrion talk so loudly and effortlesly the second he wakes up with a raw, red, stitched up slash through his face? Doesn't it hurt? For that matter, Maester Luwin's fatal wound apparently didn't stop him from moving a considerable distance away from where he was speared and talking at length in a dramatic stage voice to Bran and Osha - since he seemed in a talkative mood couldn't he have at least told them and us who burned down the castle? And Xaro, king of Qarth - do they not believe in security guards in Qarth? Daenerys came to Qarth with a pitifully small following and proceeded to lose more in the city - how is she now able to ransack the halls of Qarth's ruler? Is everyone in the city asleep? As for TV Robb - in a world in which arranged marriages are the norm, he forswears himself and shames the one ally who can block his route home not as a matter of personal honor (as book Robb did), but as an act of "I'ma do me" childishness worthy of Jersey Shore. And then there's the return of Ros the Prostitute, now Varys' partner. Blah. Last week's episode wasn't just good - it was truly exciting TV. This week's episode wasn't just bad, it was silly.

Actually the Red Wedding sort of ended the first half of ASoS. If they indeed split ASoS into two seasons then the Red Wedding episode definitely needs to be the finale of next season - hopefully Martin will script it. It'd be a phenomenal, devastating conclusion to the season.

9/10 for me. Good: This was the first time I really liked the performance of the guy playing Stannis - not the Conan stuff, but for the first time I saw some of the implacable will and iron determination of the Stannis in the books. Stannis was about business tonight. I continue to be impressed with the woman playing Cersei, both in the scenes in the Maidenvault and in her scene with Tommen on the throne. It's become routine to praise Peter Dinklage but he deserved it even more than usual tonight - every Tyrion scene tonight was riveting. The confrontation between Bronn and Sandor was odd, but it worked out pretty well. And for the first time in the show I was really feeling Sansa's plight tonight. All in all, very nicely done. Bad: Can't think of anything much, really. More CGI ships and troops would have helped, but that's a quibble. They stuck pretty close to the written story, and the script benefited enormously. P.S. Just remembered that Martin wrote the script, so of course it stuck close to the written story :laugh:

I guess people who pick and pull at the episode are similar to football fans like Martin - I assume he'll be rooting for the Jets this year, though they produced an 8-8 mediocrity of a season last year. We're fans of the story, we're interested in the show, we see good things and bad things, and we want them to do better - but calling them good when they're bad is sort of like calling the Jets good last year, or pretending Mark Sanchez was a quality QB, etc. Being a fan doesn't mean being uncritical or blind to what's glaringly bad - and there was a lot of glaringly bad in this episode for me. In turn, I'm not sure why some who love the performance of the show have difficulty accepting the views of those who don't.

3/10. I wondered if this was unreasonably harsh so I watched a little of it again after dinner - nope, 3 is about right. Dull episode filled with bad writing and bad decisions. The corresponding parts of the book simply aren't this boring or this silly. Good: The chemistry between Dinklage and the actress who plays Cersei. I like her Cersei - more than I like the book Cersei. More human, less of a caricature. Bad: Everything else. Too much to list fully but among other things - I thought the invented Dany story-line was intended to inject a little excitement. Why is nothing happening? If nothing is happening, why take up screen time with her? Can't Catelyn even get the motive of learning that Bran and Rickon are dead before turning Jaime loose? It's almost like the writers knew their attempts to portray the boys as possibly dead in the last episode were so weak that they didn't even bother trying to fool Catelyn. When did Bronn the sellsword from the Vale become an expert on the psychology of cities under seige? Are Rattleshirt and his men all deaf? I know Qhorin is a ranger and not a spymaster, but discussing his secret plan with Jon in a normal tone of voice right in front of Rattleshirt's men before starting his fake fight just doesn't seem meant to convince. Nice scenery, though. Just a lot of nothing in one of the last episodes of the season. I wouldn't even have minded a dumb sex scene to liven things up - oh wait, we got one of those and got to see what Charlie Chaplin's great-granddaughter's butt looked like (quite nice), and it still didn't help. And I'm trying to keep an open mind about changes from the book but I can't think of any tonight that improved the story-telling in any way.

I don't think the magic == dragons formula holds. My understanding is that the coming of dragons into the world specifically amplified the fire-magic practiced by the followers of R'hllor, giving them the power to divine the future in fire, animate dead flesh and give birth to the smoke monster from LOST. After all, it would hardly make sense for Pyat Pree and the other warlocks of the world to go to the trouble of learning to practice something which didn't exist. For example, the magician who castrated Varys to summon a demon clearly did so at a time when no dragons existed. The Others made their appearance in this cycle before the birth of Dany's dragons. Bloodraven was renowned as a sorceror, merged with a tree and kept his consciousness going for decades with no dragons. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that these sorts of "non-fire" magic have been affected one way or another by dragons. And whatever Pyat Pree is practicing does not seem to be related to fire, either - I believe he's had the ability to dominate the world and creep people out long before Dany's dragons also :laugh: