The hairy bear

They are great, worth-reading books. Great characterizations all arround, and there are even some snipets of early ideas of ASOIAF. That said, IMHO George is top notch at almost everything except with the endings. I found all of them lacking in a way or another. My takes: Dying of the Light: Good first novel, but overall perhaps the weaker of the three. The thing is that it takes place in a dying world, with a heartbroken protagonist, and George is so good at transmiting this pessimistic mood all throughout the book, that while it's a fine read, it's a little depressing. Fevre Dream is a really cool vampire story set on 19th century steamboats. Great characters, and great atmosphere. One of the most interesting takes on vampires I've ever seen. I still don't understand why it hasn't been adapted. The first 90% of Armageddon Rag is one of the best books I've ever read. The characterization of the members of the Nazgul and the old friends of the protagonist is superb. The dialogues are great. The mystery and the tension are palpable. But then, the ending is rushed, nonsensical and unfulfilling, in a way that greatly disminishes the whole story.

"Likely they were too shy to come out," Ned jested. He could feel the chill coming up the stairs, a cold breath from deep within the earth. "Kings are a rare sight in the north." Robert snorted. "More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!" It'll be king Jon.

The named characters are: The 6 characters that were supposed to be included in AFFC's prologue: Initally, AFFC was supposed to start with a 6 POV prologue with Dornish and Iron Islands characters (Aero, Arys, Arianne, Asha, Aerion and Victarion). Since they were all intially prologue characters, George had to think of a title to distinguish them. Those titles were kept when the chapters were distributed through all the book. But when those characters have further chapters, they are title with their names. The characters that change his identity, from AFFC. George thought of changing Sansa and Arya's names to reflect their change of identity. He didn't start doing that in ASOS because he still hadn't thought of it. Jon Connington: George couldn't title his chapters with "Jon", so he had to think of something. Barristan: no idea here, but perhaps George did it so that Jon Connington didn't stand out that much.

No, it's not a First Law universe book. It's set in a parallel version of our own world. Apparently the geography it's the same, but demons and cannibalistic elves inhabit the earth.

Gollancz has made available the fist three chapters from the Devils, the first book of Joe's new trilogy. They are real fun. The style is 100% Abercrombie, but it feels something completely new. I'm already sold!

They seem good choices. Dunk really looks thick as a castle wall, and he's nearly as tall as he should be. And I guess they can made him seem even taller with high shoes and forced perspectives.

The looks of the show is getting better with every season. Many truly amazing shots.

Keep dreaming?

I think it has been a good resolution. I was fearing that they'd abuse the supernatural element, so I'm happy that there was a logical, earned answer to the mystery. (except for the tongue, which I think they should have dispensed with).

I think that there was certainly something fishy going on. If we look at the family trees of the Starks and the Lannisters, going back for many generations, we see that lords almost never married with families from outside their regions, and never with other Great Houses. The information we have for the other regions is consistent with that pattern. And then, suddenly, we have Starks bethroting Tullys, the Martells proposing betrothals to the Lannisters, Lannisters and Tullys negotiationg marriages, two great lords sending their sons as wards to another,... it's as if suddenly the entire paradigm for marriages had changed.

Nice theory, but I'm afraid it's not possible. We are told Elys Waynwood is the uncle of the current Lady Waynwood. That means that he was a younger brother of Lady Waynwoods father. If Elys descended from Jocelyn, so would his elder brother. Therefore, any claim to the North that may stem from Jocelyn would have gone to the main branch of the Waynwood family, not to Harry. If we ignore the fact that Edmure no longer is Lord of Riverrun, and Sansa is nowhere to be found, then yes. Being the heir to the lordship of the Vale is a huge thing by itself. Specially when the current lord has very bad health and is in no position to sire children. I do not think that Littlefinger's interest on him is disproportionate at all. That said, there's certainly something going on with those tapestries.

It won't be easy to make sympathetic protagonists out of three incestuous polygamous siblings who routinely burn thousands to death to satisfy their lust for conquest. It's a show that, in order to work, will require to make up much more stuff than HotD.

@sifth After Harys Swift complains that the Tyrells have filled their coffers with the plunder of Dragonstone, Mace replies: "I resent your implication, Swyft," Mace Tyrell said, bristling. "No wealth was found on Dragonstone, I promise you. My son's men have searched every inch of that damp and dreary island and turned up not so much as a single gemstone or speck of gold. Nor any sign of this fabled hoard of dragon eggs." It's just that. Mace talks about his son's men, not about him.

I wasn't convinced after reading AFFC, but once Dance came out, I came to the conclusions that the events happened more or less as Auranne Waters described. The last chapters in Dance take place about three months after the fall of Dragonstone. By that time, many people have come and gone between King's Landing and Dragonstone, including many of the soldiers from the West that participated in the assault. It seems to me that it would be impossible to maintain any significant foul play in that context. That conspiracy would require far too many people with different allegiances to agree on a lie, with huge risks associated and no apparent benefit for any of them. I'm not sure what quote you are referring to. In ADWD's epilogue Kevan thinks that "Loras Tyrell is gravely wounded on Dragonstone". A few chapters before, in Cersei I, we have "At last report the Knight of Flowers had been dying on Dragonstone of wounds received whilst taking the castle. "

That's not even true in real life. It is very common to have blond-haired individuals with only one of the parents being blond. And it's more unusual, but far from impossible, to have to blond people produce a brown-haired child. Af course, as Alester Florent says, Martin's genetics do not work as Mendel's.