Spaßvogel

I've been reading Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. series. I'm up to book 7. There is a sort of background meta-plot concerning the main character's country's nearly perpetual war with a rival that is woven into the story brilliantly, and causes the fortunes of the city to ebb and flow along with it, even though it's just in the background. Amazingly well done. This series is pretty much Sam Spade in a Fantasy setting, and I can't help but think it influenced what we now call Urban Fantasy, especially in the tone and actions of its narrator.

OP is not alone. I appreciated Perdido for its prose and a couple of its concepts but when I finished it, there was no momentum propelling me to read the next book. My favorite of his, strangely enough, is King Rat, but it also helps that I was very much into the music scene that it's partially set in. I got to meet and hang out with CM when he was on the book tour for The Scar. In conversation he expressed a disdain for Tolkien and was trying to create a world that was completely the opposite. He was also greatly influenced by M. John Harrison who isn't known for his upbeat tone. (If you've read the Viriconium series, it starts off as a sort of pessimistic Space Opera/Space Fantasy series and soon devolves into a surreal and depressing fog). When he signed my copy of PSS he signed it "Read M. John Harrison...read him now." I started a couple of his other books and didn't finish them. He's currently on my "try again someday" list. I have a good pile of his books in my library. I guess it means something that I haven't sold them. It's funny that when I hung out with him 16-17 years ago he said that even after his first couple books RPG companies and TV producers had made overtures. I always thought there'd be a Bas-Lag RPG. I was surprised when I saw his name on a Pathfinder sourcebook from Paizo.

The first two volumes hint that there is a magic that alters reality by writing down the story you want to tell. I have just figured that Kvothe was turning himself into the person he wishes he could be and that the next books would be the "real" story, but at this point, who knows.

I forgot all about Rothfuss. I've even stopped getting the Heifer International mailings. Hmm.

Could they cross the plane of the wall itself, or did they just immediately veer back? It's all a bit fuzzy to me. I wonder if they don't cross because someone knows that they're the only thing that can bring down the wall and Brandon The Builder built that aspect of the wall's magic too.

I think D&D just ripped off "Miracle" from Mel Brooks' History of The World Part 1.

Some of them are very intense. Vachss is a fascinating character, and he freely admits that Burke is an analog of himself for the most part. Burke is a criminal through and through and while he has a code, he also is very flawed and fallible. The first book or two are a bit pulpy tonally in places, but they get more hardcore realistic after that. There is one book about midway through the series that has long, almost academic explanations of a lawyer's theories about false abuse claims by adults and it drags on and on. Some novels contain non-fiction essays after the story concludes. One thing I admire about this series is that continuity and consequences are huge. Stuff that happens in early books resonates through the others. Some of the things even fade away as the character finally moves on. It's a bit fascinating to binge read them because you can really notice it happening. Anyway, I'm up to the 13th book in the series, and it's been interesting ride. Another long crime series I'd read was the Matthew Scudder series by Lawrence Block. It started in the late 70s and continued up until 2011 (although a new book may be coming out). Vachss is about 50 times as gritty.

Currently reading Andrew Vachss' "Burke" series. I remember James Ellroy commenting on how he found Vachss to be an inspiration. Vachss started writing novels because he wanted to address issues in a medium that could reach as many people as possible. The books are a pretty good commentary on the white-knight genre of detective fiction, too.

The question is, will dragonglass kill a Qyburn-Zombie the same way it does an Others zombie? Does the Hound still have his axe? Or they will have Arya loan him her V-steel dagger.

At least they covered the cup after the episode: https://i.imgur.com/dLFNyTS.jpg

If we get a 5 minute scene of Tyrion or Varys explaining the entire history of the Golden Company at the beginning of the next episode...

Another one I liked. Not sure why I hadn't listened before. I was aware of that one from this forum, but somehow it slipped through the memory holes.

Listened to that one during another long drive yesterday. Enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for the recc!

Thanks for all the replies. I will give each a try. I tend to listen to lots of podcasts during commutes. The ones I tried so far were: Cast of Kings (I was familiar with both hosts from their other media, but ultimately found their discussions unfulfilling. The Variety author seems unwilling to jeopardize her access to cast and crew and Dave Chen has never read the books). Second was Podcast Winterfell which had zero book content in the episode I listened to and two hosts who could find no wrong. Everything was the best and greatest ever. Sigh. The other two I'm not even going to mention because I don't want to chance driving any traffic their way. They were that bad. Stitcher even had a whole category just for "Winter Is Here" shows.

Are there any podcasts out there that cover GoT (The Show) but with hosts who are actually well versed in the books and lore? I have been stuck on some long drives recently and tried a couple GoT podcasts out, but the hosts either had never read the books or spent a good amount of time openly mocking the books. Of the four I've tried out so far (they were all on Stitcher, btw) the hosts seemed to be primarily fawning sycophants which made for tough listening because they could find no wrong or even worse, wished that the show had gone even further in the wrong direction. Any help would be appreciated!