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BoldAsYouPlease

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Everything posted by BoldAsYouPlease

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. That about sums it up for me, too - been meaning to for years and instead the complete letter 'F' set just keeps growing...
  4. 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.
  5. 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'.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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:
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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:
  14. 8/10. Best episode of the season for me. Good: Remarkably good scenes by the actors playing the Lannister twins. Of all the cast, the actor playing Jaime comes closest to how I envisioned the characters and he made the most of some very substantial scenes in this episode. Cersei is actually something of an improvement over the book version at this point - she's more of a fully realized woman than book-Cersei, and her obvious realization of what Joffrey is and her guilt over her part in creating him were quite effective. Dinklage didn't have much to do, but he conveyed Tyrion's essential nature as he sought to comfort his sister - "decent", just as he described Myrcella and Tommen. Dance and Maisie Williams were again interesting, and it was a relief to finally see Lord Tywin impose some limits on the amount of presumption he was willing to put up with from a serving girl. Bad: More pointless and annoying squawking by Dany. Bad writing, but the actress is also just not very strong. Why would anyone ever follow this Daenaerys, dragons or no? Pyat Pree appears to be insanely overpowered - with such abilities he should have taken over all of Westeros and Essos long ago. The Jon/Ygritte scenes became tiresome enough to negate the beautiful northern scenery. There really is no suspense to Theon's reveal of the two child corpses - no one believes Bran and Rickon are dead, the sacrificial-lamb status of the "Winterfell refugee boys" was telegraphed too blatantly. Oh, and I'm really, really sick of the Robb/Talisa nonsense.
  15. My guess is that the producers aren't too concerned with the impact on future story-lines from the books because they know they'll need to write their own ending to this show. Even if they manage to milk two seasons out of each of the next three books, they will have caught up to Martin's written story in 6 years, and there's no guarantee that TWoW will even be out by then. Further, it's questionable if HBO will continue with an expensive series for 8+ seasons - has any HBO series lasted longer than 6 seasons? I think the divergence from the written story is only going to increase - the question is whether the conclusion of the books will in any way match the ending of the TV series which will have ended years earlier.
  16. If by "perfect" you mean "exact word-for-word fidelity", you're right. But that's a strawman - I've yet to see any critic of the show demand that the book be followed to the letter, only that the changes make sense and prove worthwhile. Things like Amory Lorch flopping in Lord Tywin's doorway like he's trying to draw a personal foul or Tywin discussing his son's learning disability and his father's personality with a serving girl or Littlefinger zipping to and fro to have a revealing talk with every major figure in the realm or a royal procession bedecked in jewels and finery marching on foot through the slums of the capital - yeah, stuff like that doesn't make sense and isn't worthwhile. The source material is very strong - presumably that's why the producers decided to adapt it in the first place, not because they decided that the books were merely OK and could be punched-up by Hollywood scriptwriters. Changes for television are necessary and inevitable - but bad changes, or changes that make no sense, aren't necessary or inevitable and deserve to be criticized.
  17. The Myrcella of the books is a dignified little princess - she might not have been happy about being shipped off to Dorne, but she didn't cry like a little girl of our times would. The scene is jarring - it makes Tyrion look like an unfeeling man who uses his niece as a pawn regardless of the impact on her but doesn't provide the context that this was how all the children of the nobility in that world are treated and raised to expect. The emotionalism of today is not the norm for that world or for most of the history of this world - children were expected to grow up, work and act like small adults at a much earlier age.
  18. 6/10. The crowd riot scene was good, as was Sandor's rescue of Sansa, though the show's actors are all apparently allergic to horses - it was strange that a royal entourage would walk through crowded, rough neighborhoods on foot. The Tywin/Arya scenes continue to impress, though the implausibility factor continues to grow, with Tywin promoting his unknown child prisoner from cupbearer to personal confidante. Amory Lorch falling on his face in front of Tywin with a brightly colored blow-dart sticking out of his neck was silly and needless. The actor playing Theon was quite good. The scenery north of the Wall was again beautiful. The Dany scenes are uniformly bad. The Dany character relentlessly issues loud, shrill and empty threats. She does not act like a girl who has been on the run her entire life but instead like an entitled, empty-headed brat - in the books it took until ADwD for her to get this annoying. Bran's hysteria and Myrcella's tears were appropriate reactions for modern American kids, not for the children of nobility in a medieval world. Why didn't Qhorin and the other rangers catch up with Jon and Ygritte? They didn't get that far. All in all, an equal mix of good and bad for me - some interesting parts, but not interesting overall.
  19. I gave it a 7. The good: I'm really liking the actress playing Brienne - she's not what I picture when I read the books, but she does a very good job of capturing the power, purity and naivety of the character. The scenes with Arya and Tywin, which never took place in the book, were quite good mostly due to the talent of Charles Dance and Maisie Williams. The Tyrion/Bronn scenes were good as usual. The scenes of the Night's Watch north of the wall were spectacular to look at - great, snow-covered desolation and harsh mountain peaks as far as the eye can see. And the best thing about the episode: no 10 minute detour from the actual story for another episode in The Erotic Adventures of Ros. The bad: The actress playing Asha/Yara is still unconvincing - when she told Theon her crew would wait for a year if she told them to...yeah, not buying it. I still have no idea what Littlefinger is doing in Renly's encampment and why he's spending so much time doing it. How can the Master of Coin and professional whoremonger deliver on his promise to open the city gates for Renly? Why would Renly (who spent much of his adult life in King's Landing and knows the workings of the city) ever believe him capable of delivering? And Littlefinger's exchanges with the Tyrells - instead of a master of deception and misdirection, he comes across as a master of the plain wrong and the bleeding obvious. Most of Renly's strength is Highgarden's strength - why do Loras and Margaery need to run for their lives from Stannis, surrounded by legions of their father's soldiers, knights and bannermen? How is Joffrey able to make defensive plans on his own? If he has the power to order the defense of King's Landing, he has the power to dispose of Tyrion right now. Also, a question: why does Bran have the dream about the sea invading Winterfell instead of Jojen? Where are Jojen and Meera? Aren't they going to be necessary when Bran and Rickon eventually flee Winterfell?
  20. Just wanted to agree with these two points. In the books we saw how the "smallfolk" of Westeros suffered during the War of Five Kings through Arya's eyes. In the show Arya's travels through the countryside are discarded and instead we get Substitute Jeyne pontificating like a college freshman in her first social studies class and walking off in a huff. And the show's Joffrey is busy sucking up all of the "irredeemable sadist" oxygen that Ramsay Bolton will later need. It's needless - the book's Joffrey is also a one-note caricature, but at least there we had glimpses of a boy desperate for his father's attention and approval. The show's Joffrey is a cartoon, an R-rated Snidely Whiplash. I'm getting a little tired of the lame excuse that TV isn't capable of conveying a single AGoT story point with the slightest subtlety - "The Wire" managed to deal with far more complex societal and personal issues far more intelligently and did so without straining the reasoning capacity of HBO viewers. I'm sure this show could manage at least 25% of that if it weren't so busy trying to live down to the SNL parody.
  21. I rated it a 4. I don't mind the fact that changes are made from what's in the book - it's TV, changes have to be made. But so much time devoted to wholly new scenes that add nothing new and take time away from an interesting story, or else change the story in ways that make no sense to me. OK, we got it - Joffrey is a very bad person - why spend more time trying to convince us he's no good? He's already one of the most one-dimensional characters in the story. Where are they going with Robb and this battlefield surgeon working for the Lannisters? Dany is for some reason rejected by Qarth and threatens to come back when her dragons are grown and wipe out the city of Qarth? Why wouldn't they simply exterminate her now? Catelyn meets Littlefinger with anger and hatred, rejects his baffling attempt to woo her and yet is manipulated into the start of her decision to free Jaime? Oh, and why is the smoke monster from LOST crawling out of Melisandre? As the saying goes, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. The show is starting to get boring.
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