Book Review: A Dance With Dragons

Let me open by saying I am a massive fan of George R.R. Martin’s work. In his A Song of Ice and Fire series, he has created what is probably the best work of fantasy since Tolkien wrote his opus. The depth of characterization, the complexity of the plot, and the excellent writing all make for a truly great series. Nothing being written today in the genre compares. If you haven’t read these books—even if you’re not a fantasy fan—read them now. Like, now! Or at least watch the HBO series (itself remarkably true to the books. From this point forward, spoilers for the books previous to Dance may be written, though I’ll try to avoid any Dance spoilers that weren’t well-known before the book came out.

Harry Potter spoiler: Snape kills Dumbledore. A Song of Ice and Fire spoiler: EVERYONE YOU LOVE IS KILLED
via gameoflols

A Dance with Dragons picks up where A Storm of Swords left off, following the events in the east (Tyrion and Daenerys) and at the wall (Jon Snow). Eventually, it catches up with the events of A Feast For Crows, and we see a number of returning viewpoints.

As always, Martin’s writing is spectacular. The prose is engaging, and the constant cliffhangers leave you always wanting more. The entire series is next to impossible to put down.

One of my most hated characters in the series has always been Theon Greyjoy—at least since the events of the second book. Whenever he came onscreen I would gloomily mutter, “Fuck you, Theon,” to myself. However, in this book, he has actually become someone worth rooting for. How does this turn around? Ramsay Bolton.

We got a little bit of the Bastard of Bolton in A Storm of Swords, but now we truly see how horrific a man is. He is probably the most axe-crazy guy in the entire series. And for y’all who have read this, that’s saying something. I mention it because it shows how adept Martin can be at manipulating his audience when he wants to. Taking someone I reviled and turning him into someone I practically cheered for? Well played.

The most agonizing moment came at the end of one of the final chapters had me shouting “NO!” at the book, only to have my protests reduced to a low whimper as I turned the page.  It’s a massive spoiler, so no more for now.

A common complaint that I’m seeing online is that, while the Westeros stories are engaging, the Essos stories revolving around Dany and Meereen drag. In hindsight, this is to a certain extent true. But to me, this did not truly disrupt the flow of the book. The problem is that Martin is setting up his chess pieces for the final two books—there’s a lot of maneuvering, but not a whole lot of checkmates. I fully understand this, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I actually really enjoy seeing Martin maneuver! Just know that there isn’t much resolution in Dance. It truly raises more questions than it answers.

What I did miss was Sansa and Sam’s POVs. I don’t really care about Sansa, but I wanted to read about Littlefinger! And Sam is one of my favorites, even moreso now that we know the maesters are up to… Something.

Mmmm... Frey...

In terms of favorite characters? Barristan the Bold came into his own, serving as a highly effective foil to Quentyn Martell. Both are idealists, but Barristan has the experience to fit his idealism into reality—and that makes all the difference. It was good to see the return of Jon Snow. Tyrion was fun, but much darker after the events at the end of A Storm of Swords. His and Jaime’s relationship had always been one of my favorite in the series, but that seems shot to hell now. I’m glad to see Ser Robert Strong is back, and I’m looking forward to that plotline developing in King’s Landing. Lord Manderly gets a special shout out for me as my favorite “new” character. He was a true Magnificent Bastard. Think about what’s in his pies. 

A bit of painting and storyboarding (and Ben Drowned)

Spent an hour today doing a bit of painting--nothing fancy, just painting flesh-tones on hormagaunts (I use Dheneb Stone). I'll do the carapace next (Dark Angels Green) later, along with some detail work, washes. etc. I think I'm doing orange or orange/black CCW symbiotes, but I'm not sure. I still need to figure that out. But hey, I'm not doing any tournaments any time soon, and I have no compunction about playing with unpainted models. Not that I'm planning on playing anytime soon, either, lol.

I had an idea for a new book today, with a tentative title of "The 5th Contact Saga." I know how the story will be told, I know why it's being told, but I'm not sure what the story is yet. I was hoping to get some writing done after work, but I sat down with my computer, and I realized I didn't know where I was going! Slightly problematic.

I also found the Ben Drowned ARG via TVTropes today. That is some creepy shit, right there. Apparently the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) is on hiatus right now, so I'll need to check back there every now and again.

There will be an A Dance With Dragons review coming up soon. It was an excellent book--to any who have not read A Song of Ice and Fire, I highly recommend it!

Book Review: The Power That Preserves

Donaldson’s final book caps off the series rather nicely. Taking place 7 years after the events of The Illearth War (in the Land’s timeline), Thomas Covenant is once again summoned to fight Lord Foul. Covenant and his allies must make their way to Ridjeck Thome, while Revelstone is besieged by the forces of Satansfist, the third and final Giant-Raver.

This series kept getting better and better as the books continued. Over the course of the trilogy, Donaldson creates a plethora of extremely complex characters, with deep underlying motivations and personalities, not to mention development. Many of these come to fruition in The Power that Preserves, meaning that we see what really makes these people tick. I like that a lot; good character development is one of the things that really draws me into a story.

Thomas Covenant’s Unbelief also comes to a head. As with many things about Donaldson’s work, it isn’t until a subject reaches its conclusion that the reader fully understands it. At the books climax, the reader gains an even deeper understanding of Unbelief, the oft-spoken of but seldom described force that allows Covenant to accept the Land as a delusion.

Even that description is pretty poor—a “force”? Bah.

If you are interested in a different sort of fantasy, I hesitatingly recommend The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Be forewarned, however: the first Chronicles were written at the same time, even if they were published as three different books.

Right now I am reading something which I would call far superior—A Dance with Dragons! That will be the subject of my next review. 

So, yeah...

I've been quiet for a while-sorry 'bout that. I'm getting used to living in my new apartment. I just got my wifi up a few days ago, and living on my own is different, as is having a full-time job. I'm getting closer to being a grown-up. That's a terrifying thought.

At any rate, I'm settled in Houston, hoping to be more frequent about the internets. I'm well into Mass Effect 2 as I perfect a file for the upcoming third game, and A Dance with Dragons is great so far. The next book review will be up soon--it's sitting in my hard drive, but I thought I'd do a "sorry for not posting" post first.

A recent game of Apocalypse--Thoughts and Conclusions

The other night, I had a big game with a bunch of my buddies. We usually try to get in a big one with everyone while I'm in town, but this one was a little bigger than usual. There was a little bit in excess of 17000 points per side, I believe. On the other side of the table were IG, Tau, and Blood Angels. On my side were Chaos Space Marines, Daemons, and Tyranids & DE (me).

We set up in pitched battle, 24 inches away, with a table on either side of the main one. Chaos, 'nids, and DE deploy on the front line, while BA deployed across from the 'nids, and Tau and IG deployed in depth throughout their own table.

We were soundly thrashed.

There were a few problems that I faced with Dark Eldar and Nids. Some of it was due to my list--my friends usually don't use flyers, and the Tau player (not someone I usually play with) brought 3. The BA player used a formation that turned 3 Stormravens into flyers. Tyranids have no good defense against flyers using the current Apoc rules, which screwed us over to some degree. But I could've proxied Tyrannofexes, so I can't really complain.

Something more important, of note for all Apocalypse games, is however, board size. Large boards (more than 2x normal size, near as I can tell) take away large advantages for both. First, the Tyranid.

I simply ran everything I had, about 2000 points of normal tyranids plus a Scythed Hierodule. My force was concentrated into one side of the board, across from a blood angels column and some miscellaneous guardsmen. They were deployed back, towards the edge of the main table. And I found that I really struggled to reach them. Tyranid lack the mobility to advance on a board of Apocalypse scale.

Next, the Dark Eldar. Our main advantage is our mobility. When we can cross the board in a turn, we do well. When that merely brings us into the teeth of the enemy guns, we do less favorably.

And that brings us to the crux of the matter. USE TERRAIN! Lots of TERRAIN!!! We skimped on it because it would clog up deployment, and daemons would have trouble deep striking. Tyranids and Dark Eldar need terrain when facing an Apocalyptic gunline from Tau or IG. There is no way to make it across a table and a half with paper planes or footslogging monsters without cover and such to utilize.

My two cents, not well edited or thought through. A bit of tl;dr word vomit.

Super 8, Game of Thrones, and some 40k

Super 8 is a great movie. I have a hard time finding things that I did not like about the film. The child actors were excellent, the writing was superb, and I enjoyed the direction. J.J. Abrams must have a soft spot in his heart for monster flicks, but after Super 8 and Cloverfield, I have to say he's just about the best person to make them.

I consider A Song of Ice and Fire to be just about the best fantasy series written--certainly the best modern fantasy. After having a passionate love for years for David Eddings' work, this is hard to admit, but I believe it's so. Over the past couple of days, I've finally been able to catch up on the Game of Thrones HBO adaptation. I must say, I'm impressed. They stick very close to the original story, the acting is excellent, and they do a phenomenal job of visualizing Martin's universe. I cannot wait to see them bring even more to life in Season 2.

On a related note, Dance with Dragons should be out soon, and that will definitely getting a book review!

I got in a game of 40k with some of my buddies. It was a 1v1v1 with me as Tyranids, one friend as CSM and the other as Daemons. Tyranids and CSM deployed pitched battle, and daemons just dropped in as they are wont to do. We were just screwing around, no objectives or keeping track of KP, just playing for last man standing (which was me :) ). There were a few fun moments--I had a heroic termagant, who survived the destruction of his brood and all around him, charging him into battle with Abaddon and his Terminator bodyguard (along with two hive tyrants, two tyrant guard, a trygon, a tervigon--chaos never even had a chance to swing), and who was charged by a demon prince specifically to spite me. Needless to say, I had to table the offending player for his insolence. All in all, it was a nice beer and pretzels game, and a good time was had by all, as far as I know.

The lightning storm is threatening to cut my power again, so I'm going to post this without any more description of the game or the movie as I had planned.

Book Review: The Illearth War

I'm back in Chicago! Wrote this up on the plane trip home. 29 hours of travel kills--my body is so confused right now...


The Illearth War is the second novel in Stephen R. Dondaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Once again, this book review will start in the middle of a series—sorry, Internet! [Though I end up reviewing the Lord Foul’s Bane too…]

As before, there are likely to be [read: are] spoilers for the first two books of the trilogy.

I’ll start with a quick recap of the premise and my thoughts on the first book, Lord Foul’s Bane. This first book follows one Thomas Covenant, a man turned extremely bitter by his leprosy, and society’s reaction to it. While walking into town in a blatant defiance of those who fear his disease, Covenant is nearly hit by a far and wakes up in the Land—a mystical world beset by The Despiser, Corruption, Fangthane: Lord Foul. Covenant names himself The Unbeliever, as the healing power of the Land threatens to destroy all of the caution which is necessary for a leper to survive. He refuses to accept that the Land is anything more than a delusion.

Now, you might be thinking at this point that Covenant comes into his own and gathers the courage within himself to defeat Lord Foul. Think again.

Thomas Covenant in this first book is one of the least likable protagonists I have ever encountered. Only my sheer will to finish any book I start* carried me through at certain points, especially where Covenant rapes a sixteen-year-old girl. (It’s not explicit, for those worried about that—I actually had to reread it to make sure it actually happened, through my shock.)

The setting is also a problem in the first book. Donaldson has a nature crush on the Land, and just about every chapter has some new glorious vista that is described in tedious detail. When not a lot is happening, this gets tiresome, and it’s not helped that what does happen is usually not committed by the Unbeliever. I kind of felt like RPing a character in a campaign with a great setting, only to have the GMPC railroad me through a plot I was not invested in. In the end, Covenant returns to the “real world,” and has only been in a coma for a few hours.

On to The Illearth War! Let me start by saying that I was much more impressed by the sequel. While Covenant has been away for 5 weeks or so, the Land has progressed by 40 years. Foul’s army is ready to march upon the Land, and another man, Hile Troy from the “real” world has also been summoned and was put in command of the Land’s army.

In this book, Covenant is a much more sympathetic character. I only began to understand him at the end of Lord Foul’s Bane, and armed with that knowledge, his self-hatred and regret turn him from a whiny little caricature to a man who is deeply flawed in The Illearth War. He hates himself and everything he ever did in the Land, and cannot accept that even those he harmed forgive him, and he cannot accept the responsibility that the people of the Land lay on his shoulders.  

The plot is also much more exciting than the Quest of the first book. The book is written in three parts, but contains four real storylines. The first part, Revelstone, sets up the action for the story. Not much need be said, plot-wise, although some nice character introduction and development occurs. The second part, The Warmark, follows Hile Troy as he leads the army of the Land against Fleshharrower, commander of Foul’s armies. This moved well, and was rather exciting, given that most of it was marching. Included in this was the third storyline, the Bloodguard’s mission to discover the fate of the Giants. Although it only comprised two chapters at different points in the book, I could not put these chapters down. They were the best parts of the book, in my opinion, building dread reminiscent of Lovecraft’s scarier work. The fact that certain elements were left unresolved makes me eager to read the next book of the series. The fate of the Bloodguard Korik is something I eagerly wish to know! Part Three is relatively short, and follows Covenant and the High Lord as they attempt to uncover a source of ancient power.

Overall? The Illearth War was well worth my time, and was a very good piece of High Fantasy of the old school. I’m eager to learn what happens to Korik, as well what the third Raver, Satansfist, has been up to. Donaldson corrects the mistakes of Lord Foul’s Bane, creating more three-dimensional characters and cutting back on the gratuitous descriptions of the Land. Whether or not the series is worth it will depend on the quality of The Power That Preserves, which I’ll get to as soon as I read it. When that’ll be? Not sure. Now that I have a social life again, I'll be reading a little less. But I've already started it.

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*Except for Moby Dick, but one day I’ll slay that personal white whale. But dear God, Melville, have you ever heard of a bloody editor?! This is a rant for another day.