Earth VS Mars VS The Belt

Hola Readers, sorry for the lack of posting, but 110 hours in 8 days on an ambulance makes this little bookworm a wee bit exhausted.  I have however gotten some sleep and finished an awesome book so lets ramble for a bit shall we?  The book is Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey...which is actually the pen name of two authors by the names of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  It is the first book in the Expanse series which is a pretty epic story in space.  My Mamma recommended it and as always she knows what I like.  Let's dive right into it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

The book is pretty much divided between the perspectives of Detective Miller and Captain Holden.  Each chapter switches between the two characters and is labeled as such and makes the reading experience very clear and concise.  Before all that though we start with a proloug in which we meet Julie.  Julie appears to be a prisoner and we watch her escape onto an empty ship where she makes a horrifying discovery of her entire crew and her captors turned into a weird pile of sludge and still living body parts...pretty blechy if you ask me.  She makes her escape and our story starts.  On Ceres station, in an area of space called The Belt, Detective Miller is tasked with finding Julie Mao, the daughter of a wealthy business family who has run away to join the OPA (Outer Planet Alliance) a loosely formed group that runs the gamet between an advocacy group and out and out terrorists.  Essentially people who live outside the inner planet area (mostly Mars and Earth) feel that they are discriminated against by the inner planet folk.  I could really write pages about the politics, but I think this is enough for the current story.  Detective Miller starts his research and he and the reader start to get to know Julie through various means as he searches for any sign of her.  Meanwhile on a ship called the Canterbury XO Holden takes a group of people to check out a ship called the Scopuli which is giving off a distress signal.  While exploring a mysterious force destroys the Canterbury leaving Holden and his crew (Naomi, Alex, Amos and Shed) as the remaining survivors.  Holden makes a discovery that the equipment used to send the fake distress signal was of Martian origin and he sends out a broadcast to the universe to that affect.  This essentially sets of a war between the OPA and Mars.  Holden and his crew then begin a series of moves and discoveries that eventually coincide with Detective Miller and his search for Julie.  Holden and his crew end up on a station that specializes in construction and is run by Fred Johnson, a former military hero turned OPA leader in a "commandeered" ship that the crew now call their own.  They ally with Fred as he is willing to be reasonable and utilize his resources to get to the bottom of the whole mystery.  Eventually the crew meets up with Detective Miller on Eros station where they finally find the body of Julie Mao...after a pretty bloody fire fight.  The body is growing weird growths of various shapes, sizes and textures.  After this discovery, the station goes into lock down and the inhabitants are herded into various "safe" zones.  Miller and Holden get separated and discover that the lock down is just a ploy to get the people gathered so that this mysterious group can experiment on them...without their knowledge of course.  After much stuff and things we finally discover that an Earth cooperation had discovered a block of ice embedded with an alien virus that was meant to rewrite DNA long before humans came along.  The cooperation wants to find a way to modify the virus to rewrite human DNA for various means.  The cooperation is ended, but they are still left with the problem of Eros.  Video and audio feeds from Eros reveal a horror show of growths, human remains acting in unnatural ways, and the station itself reacting to all attempts to destroy it.  Eventually Miller realizes that Julie is still alive in some form and that the virus is using her experiences and mind to do its dreadful work.  Miller boards the station and makes his way through the haunting and terrifying situation to find what is left of Julie and convinces her to crash the station on Venus, a planet that is still inhabitable by humans.  There the virus starts to rework the planet.  The rest of the human inhabited universe learns what is going on and goes back to some semblance of normalcy and Holden and his crew fly off to further adventures.  Obviously a very abbreviated version of a fairly complex book, but it's the gist of the story if nothing else.

World Building - This book is set apx 200 years in the future, in a combination of space, ships, stations and planets.  The authors did a fantastic job in setting up a complex and sweeping universe without boring the crap out of anybody.  The "science" of things felt plausible, which for me is always a plus as when things get tossed in with no sense it takes me out of the world.  It was not overly explained, nor was information withheld just to try and up the tension.  I felt like I had a good grasp of the asthetics, politics, and society of this books worlds. While reading it was easy to get immersed in the world as it unfolded in a natural and complete way.  World building gets an A+++++ from me :-)

Story - I loved the story put forth in this book.  With all of the complex politics and world building it would be very easy to loose the story in all of the details that the author could have piled on us.  Instead we get a clear, engaging mystery that has a beginning, middle and end while still leaving tons of room for future stories.  I am always impressed, especially in hard core sci fi and an author(s) can produce a readable story that is as fresh and original as this one.  I think the fact that the authors pulled in elements of noir, horror, mystery and a the perfect amount of humor really brought this story into the realm of a great read.  In the end we are left with an intriguing mystery that has just the right amount of twists and reveals that also lets us learn about the characters and the universe.  Good show guys good show.

Characters - The characters of this book were spot on.  Each main character was full developed with their own stories, belief's, moral code and attitude.  I felt like I could walk up to any of them and know exactly who they were.  The interactions between the characters was superb, with each interaction adding to the story and the picture of each character.  Miller and Holden's interactions were my favorite as the authors used them to show both sides of almost every situation.  They would have discussions and arguments and by the time they were done, you could at a minimum agree that they both had valid points.  I love this because it made the book feel balanced and fair and that the authors were not trying to shove any sort of agenda down your throats.  I also liked how every character stayed in character...what I mean is nobody did anything wildly out of character just to further the story.  Character rocked it.

Editing - The way the book was set up, with each chapter focusing on a specific character that we got to know very well was the perfect format for this book.  It was easy to follow, engaging and we got all the information we needed to understand exactly what was going on.  Sometimes in these epic sagas I have to flip back a couple pages to make sure I understand what I am reading, but this book flowed so smoothly.  Considering that two separate authors worked on this book, makes this feat even more amazing.  Go editors!

Language - The use of language in this book added a lot to the clarification and understanding of the various places in the universe.  For instance the Belters have their own lingo, stringing together words and phrases in a way that would only make sense to a native.  The closer to the inner planets you get the more refined the language becomes.  The characters also have a habit of giving names to things they have never seen before.  My personal favorite is vomit zombies, which is what they call the inhabitants of Eros station that have been infected by the alien virus.  It has got to be one of the most descriptive yet simple labels I have ever heard and I now use it in my everyday vernacular.  Each character also has a distinct voice that the authors wrote to reflect each particular individuals background and life.  Overall the language of this book was used to enhance the world building to a very effective degree.

Julie Mao - I'm gonna give this character her own space 'cause for all that she is only physically present in the book for a couple of pages, her existence is pretty much the whole basis for this book.  I found it brave and interesting that the actions of this girl, who made choices and decisions that any of us would have made are pretty much the catalyst for so many things in this book.  I also like how well we got to know her as a person and how the characters also got to know her in their own ways.  This is all very crucial near the end, when this feeling of knowing...and in Detective Millers case, loving Julie, leads to the understanding of how the virus is controlling the station.  Julie is very much a present character through out the entire story despite her pretty much being dead from the beginning. She is important to us not only in the beginning, but through out the book as she becomes part of each step of the mystery and in particular what she becomes to Detective Miller.  It is a great way to add a bit of an unusual twist to the story.

TV Show - The Syfy channel has attempted to make this into a tv show called The Expanse and in all honesty it's not bad.  My biggest issue with it is that after the clear and directness of the book, the tv show actually feels overly complicated...which is weird 'cause usually I'm upset because they over simplify things.  That being said the show really tried hard, and in most cases succeeded in showing us the various places in the universe and their disparate societies.  It is visually stunning and the casting is pretty well done.  I know they are trying to get the politic and such across...I just wish they had stuck to the cleaner format.  I will however be watching the next season so there is that.

Overall Impression - In case you hadn't figured it out, I really enjoyed this book.  It is everything I want a science fiction book...well any book really to be.  It avoided many of the pitfalls that these sweeping epics tend to fall into and left me with a very readable, very enjoyable, very good book.  I am desperately hoping this quality keeps up through out the series and will without a doubt be picking up the next book. I give this book 8 out of 10 textured fungus skewers and recommend it to any fan of science fiction, epics, or just a great combination of story, world building and character.
Happy Reading Everybody!

A Rant Of Thrones

Just finished watching season five of Game of Thrones and now I need to rant really obnoxiously and what better place to do it then on my very own blog YAY.   Anyways.  We all know I have read all the currently written books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series and I've already rambled on about what I liked and didn't like about them.  I have also already stated my opinion on how I feel about the tv series out running the books...so yeah essentially this bookworm has a ton of opinions about this book series and show...so let's have some more.  My rant essentially comes down to this.  (SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE BOOKS AND TV SHOW AHEAD).  The books are pretty...how should I say this...graphic, twisted, crazy, and all around gasp inducing.  These books have way more then their share of violence, sex, language and some of the most shocking scenarios I have read in a mainstream series.  This is not a bad thing, it is what the books are known for and it is a bit exhilarating and terrifying knowing that pretty much ANYTHING can happen to ANYONE at ANYTIME.  

So we have established pretty well that the books are pretty much up for anything, so here I am watching the show and WTF!  Seriously I know that in TV I have to be willing to accept some deviations from the books and that is fine...and truth be told I even enjoy some of the changes the show made.  Then they went completely off the rails, changing the story completely, having characters in situations that they were no where near, and at some points making this season borderline unrecognizable as coming from the books at all.  This is disappointing as I thought the first couple seasons stuck at least with the story line fairly well and this complete departure is jarring and sad.  I think the worst part though is how the show has taken the already over the top horror show that is the books (again, this is not a bad thing...well usually not) and going above and beyond what even the author has written.  I think the final straw came when Stannis allowed his young daughter to be burned alive, screaming and pleading as he watched her die a painful death.  This did not happen in the book, though there was talk of killing an infant, John Snow along with the very brave Gilly came up with a plan to save the kid...but nope the show decided that all the sex, violence and insaneness of the books were not up to the viewers standards of the sick and twisted and so we get a father murdering his daughter.  I found this and a couple other unnecessary over the top scenes just sickening and distracting and didn't even have the saving of grace of being in the book.  I don't know why the people behind the show felt the need to add these extra scenes and scenario's.  I feel there was plenty of gory, twisted material to work with in the books and  this is just wrong.   After that rant you may think that I am going to boycott the show...I'm not...mostly 'cause I want to see where the "story" goes now that we don't have any more books to follow...not that we have been following the books anyways.  I will however reserve the right to write long rambling posts on my complete and utter disgust if it continues to disappoint.  Rant Over...for now.  Happy Reading Everybody!

A Game Of TV

Reading random book news today and read that unless a miracle happens, George R.R. Martin will not complete his epic series A Song of Ice and Fire before the HBO TV series does.  The various articles pretty much say that the tv series will finish up long before us readers get our hands on the last books and that it is a possibility that the tv series story and ending will differ from the books...cause they won't be written yet.  For some reason this made me really mad.  Completely unreasonable and petty and a true first world problem, but still...kind of pissed off.  Now to be fair, the show has recently gone WAY off the rails in staying true to the books, so I guess I'm not all that surprised to here they are just gonna go their own way.  My true anger comes from the idea that an author would allow his work to be essentially taken away from him in this way.  The idea that the end of the story has not been written yet (there are at least two books left according to the author) makes me leery to read them when they do come out because a) they will be somewhat spoiled by the tv show, and b) I won't help but feel like the tv show influenced the books instead of the other way around.  Again this is all my own personal gut reaction feelings and that is all they are.  For all I know Mr. Martin already has all his own stuff set in stone somewhere, or he secretly never watches the show...I don't know.  Just thought I would share my two cents :-)  Happy Reading Everybody!

TV That Needs Its Books

As much as reading is my favoritist thing in the world, I also really like to watch TV.  I was sitting here trying to figure out how to mush the two, when I realized...a lot of the shows I like have books as an integral part of their appeal.  Here are a couple examples.

The Gilmore Girls - This show is all about the books, quoting the books, mentioning books, reading books, hauling books.  If there was a show ever made just for me this would be it.  The fact that it is about a mom/daughter best friend duo is just icing on a literary cake

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - If any of had illusions to my true level of nerdism, then this should clear it up for you.  I really love the fact that this kick-ass girl show spends a good amount of time in various libraries, using books to find the best ways to defeat the bad guys...as it should be.

Warehouse 13 - This show is chock full of literary goodies.  It mostly deals with artifacts from various authors, everything from Lewis Carroll's Looking Glass (which contains an evil Alice entity) to Edgar Allan Poe's Pen (which makes anything written with it become real).  This is just the start of the bookish aweomeness that is this show.

Ok so it is now obvious that I am not only super bookworm girl, but super nerd girl as well :-)  It just goes to show how intertwined books and tv and art and anything creative can be.  Happy Reading (and watching) Everybody!

Reading The King

After all of our talk of mythical and legendary figures I now want to go read all of my books that pertain to King Arthur, here are a few of my favorites.

Le Morte D'Arthur

This book is the most "historical" of all the books, it try's to put together all of the disparate historical literature and stories into a cohesive time line.  

The Pendragon Cycle

I love love love this series.  This five book series completely encompasses the entirety of the Arthur story, while lending a bit of history and awesomness.

The Avalon Series

This lush version of the Arthur story is told through the voice of the various women who played a crucial role in this epic tale.  This new perspective is interesting and a wonderful read.

Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica 

This is not a strictly Arthur book, but based in a world that is a conglameration of all the big myths and stories and the Arthur story plays a huge role in the series.  Also it is just an awesome series.

Merlin

Ok ok so this is not a book, but I love this semi cheesy, totally awesome show about a young Merlin and Arthur :-)

What is your favorite Arthurian tale?  Do you ever get stuck in a reading theme?  Should really great TV and Movies be included in book posts?

This Is Why You Should Always Read The Book First

YAWWWWN!!!  Hmmm oh hi...is it morning? afternoon?  I may or may not have stayed up to the wee hours of the morning binge watching Game of Thrones.

You see I just got season 3, and of course we had to watch the first two seasons to makes sure we were all caught up sooooo....yeah.  I have gotten my sweet Hubbin hooked and he is just as bad if not worse then I am about binge watching this show.  It is kind of weird watching this show, knowing what is coming up, and since my husband likes spoilers he has to put up with me getting pre-sad or happy over various character happenings. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BOOK AND TV SHOW.  Of course season 3 is the season that made all the non-bookies go running for the books as to never again have to live through the agony of another Red Wedding.  I however do not get the pleasure of watching Hubbin get all shocked since after the Dobby incident I have to tell him who and how everybody dies, but still pretty funny to watch all the non-bookies freak out.

If they thought that was shocking, just wait until Season 4 and the second half of book three (am I right my fellow bookies!) I am still thoroughly enjoying the vast majority of the TV show, almost as much as the books, the casting is still about 98% spot on and very much enhances my enjoyment of both the show and the books.  Well I still have a couple more episodes to watch before I head off to the fire station for two days, so if my posting is spotty that will be why.  Happy Reading (and watching) everybody!

So Many Babies!

I had a fantastic weekend and hope yours was the same.  I got to help celebrate my nephew E's first birthday (ha you can't see it but I just tried to type first and birthday at the same time...my spell check hates me ha ha ha ) which was wonderful, watched a bunch of boy movies which was interesting, actually got to spend some time outside with the Hubbin which was glorious, and was even productive enough to get to sessions of CMU's in.  And of course I read, oh I read and read and read.  Finished a book, started two others and bought two more YAY ME!  One of the interesting things about this weekend was a conversation I had with Hubbin about crowded and potentially unsafe living conditions in the area.  As an EMT I see every kind of living condition you can think of, this paired with my Baby E time and my CMU's in patient care all came together to remind me of a book I just finished reading.  Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Joy, Birth and Hard Times by Jenny Worth.  I picked this book up 'cause I love the BBC series by the same name and was in the mood for something a little different.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD (kind of)

This book is not one that has a plot so much as it has a bunch of stories all strung together.  The memoir format is not one I have read in a while, being more of a fiction person, but this book reminded me why I used to read a lot more of them.  Quick synopsis.  Jenny Worth arrived in the East End of London in the 50's to what she refers to as Nonnatus House, a pseudonym to protect the privacy of the patients and caregivers involved in these stories.  The author takes the name from St. Raymond Nonnatus who is the patron saint of childbirth, midwives, children, and pregnant women.  The author takes us through her first year or so as a trained midwife in this new and different environment.  In the 50's in the after math of WWII people live in crowded tenements  where running water is a luxury and a whole floor, or even a whole building sharing a lavatory is not uncommon.   Families often had children into the double digits all living in two or three rooms, heated by a stove that doubled as the kitchen.  In these conditions our young midwife had to learn to how to deliver babies as safely as possible.  She tells us of the various patients she saw and the various circumstances in which the births occurred.  Some of the stories are sweet, some silly, some sad (obviously I am in an alliteration phase today) but all of them real.  My favorite stories are the ones about Conchita Warren and her 25 live births, there a couple stories about this exotic woman who spoke no English yet seemed to be the paragon of wife and motherhood.  Both stories she is involved in makes me want to stand up and cheer.

This memoir is fascinating to me as a health care professional because it shows in some ways how far we have come (gloves were rarely used, shaving and enema's before birth were the norm, hygiene was optional for most patients), but also how we are starting to lose some of the personal touch that makes a nurse or doctor or even EMT a good one.  I also noted how much more parents were involved in making medical decisions for themselves and their children.  Now day's, especially if you go to a hospital to give birth, the mothers are made to feel that they must do everything the Dr. or Nurse says.  Now the vast majority of the time this is a good idea, but sometimes a Mamma has to go with her gut and say no, or speak up about something wrong.  In the book a baby is premature and the consensus is that he should be placed in an incubator in the hospital, but his mother refuses to let him go, knowing that she can give him the best care.  In the time period this happened, there was not a whole lot the Dr. could do but come check on the little guy, now days there would have been court orders to take the child away to be placed in a sterile incubator with minimal human touch.  Again, Drs. usually know what they are doing, and Nurses tend to be top notch, but this example of society allowing a parent to be a parent seems to be missing now days to our detriment (that was an awkward sentence, but I think I got my point across.).

The TV show so far has followed most of the stories fairly faithfully from the memoir.  I watched the first season before I read the book and was surprised at how closely they followed it, with a few tweaks of course, but totally recognizable.  It will be interesting to see if the future seasons follow the later memoirs, or if they go off on their own, but either way I am enjoying both immensely and cannot wait to get my hands on the next book.  Books like this remind me that as much as I will always be a fantasy/sci fi/fiction girl, that real life is just as exciting, varied, and interesting if you look for the right opportunities...it also makes me want to write down some of my favorite calls for future people to read.  I give this book 8 out of 10 babies and recommend it to anybody who is interested in post WWII history, midwivery, a couple good stories, or enjoy the tv show.

What type of memoirs do you like to read?  What era interests you?  Did you ever think a tv show about midwives would ever be so popular?

Whoa Nellie!

Don't know why but I have been in full on nostalgia mode lately, everything reminds me of yesteryear and has that hazy film of softness like you see in flashbacks in movies.  Maybe it's cause my nephews are all having birthdays and making their own memories, or maybe 'cause I get to see the whole clan next week (more on that awesomeness in a later post), or maybe it's Netflix and all the old school shows and movies I used to watch as a kid, or possibly it's because of books like this Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I survived Nellie Olsen and Learned to Love Being Hated.  This is a memoir by Alison Arngrim who play Nellie Olsen on Little House on the Prairie.  I picked this book up for many reasons, one being I love the books, to this day they still hold a place of honor on my all time favorites shelf.  Two I grew up watching the TV show and forcing my siblings and most of my friends to reneact it (with certain amendments as I saw fit of course) on a very regular basis.  Three, I have always adored the character of Nellie Olsen, I don't know if it is because I started reading so young, but I have always understood that a story is only as good as its conflict, and the main conflict in Little House tv series was Nellie.

Alison Arngrim has a fantastic tone to her writing.  She covers a lot of ground in this book, everything from her parents origins all the way to the present day.  She is the daughter of a formerly closeted gay stage actor and a glamorous character voice actress, who roles included the voice of Gumby...yep that creepy green claymation dude.  Alison also has an older brother who was a brooding child actor who never really got it all together. Ms. Arngrim takes us through her young years, growing up and moving around constantly.  Landing the role of Nellie Olsen on the TV series, her amazing friendship with Melissa Gilbert who played Laura Ingalls and all of the funny, frustrating, sad and silly stories of what it is like growing up on a television show.  She talks about how playing a hated bratty villian forced her to come out of her shell and taught her how to deal with other people.  The role gave her the freedom to not have to constantly portray the idea of a sweet tractable girl as so many others had to do during that time period.  Alison seems to be able to find the humor in almost any situation and seems to recall the feelings of witnessing all kinds of events and scenarios as a child, comparing and contrasting how she felt then with the knowledge and understanding of a child, with what she knows now as an adult.  She also does not shy away from hard issues.  She tells us early on that she was horribly abused by her brother, and could not ever get anybody to believe her.  This spurs her on in adult hood to try and promote the striking down of laws and loopholes that are written into most state legislation that actually use incest as a way to LESSEN the penelties given to a sex offender.  Yep if the

molestation is done in the context of incest is was considered a lesser crime then if some child was molested by a stranger...seriously no words.  This was on the books in California and was vehemently defended until 2005!!!!! This only changed when Ms. Arngrim was brave enough to go on national television and tell her story and essentially shame the legislators into changing the law.  She also does a lot of work with various AIDS groups.  She has lost dear friends to the disease and works on promoting knowledge, care and help for people suffering and the general public to become more informed.  She is married to a fellow AIDS volunteer and at there wedding everybody wore tuxedos, bare feet and black toenail polish, how awesome is that.  She embraces her most famous role as the bratty Nellie Olsen, allowing fans to talk, scream, yell, cry or whatever at her, all in the name of defending there heroine Laura Ingalls.  Alison has turned all the bizzarness surrounding peoples reactions to her into a stand up comic show that does quit well.  All in all she seems to be a trooper who knows how to take hard situations and turn them into a way to make life better for herself and others.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it went by pretty quickly the pacing is spot on.  She spends about 2/3 of the book talking about her Little House years, which is what people want to hear about.  There is a good mix of on set stories, personal information, facts, feelings, assumptions and a fair amount of well placed profanity.  To me the mark of a well written memoir or biography is one where I would like to meet the person after I

have finished reading it.  After this book I want to invite Alsion Arngrim over for a couple bottles of wine and a slumber party :-)  This brought back some happy memories, and reminded me that no matter how good or bad the past was, the only good option is to move forward. I would recommend this book to anybody who has ever seen even one episode of Little House on the Prairie, needs a good laugh, wants a child actors insiders perspective on Hollywood, or is interested in activism...and doesn't mind a bit of swearing. I give this book 8 out of 10 horse and buggies.
What type of memoir/biographies do you like to read? Does learning about your favorite character as an actor make the character better or worse for you? How weird is it to read a book about a tv show about a book?

The Biggest Library In The Universe

So if anybody missed it I am a super geek.  I am also a very behind the times super geek, there is all this fantastic geekiness in books, movies and television and I have to admit I am about 3 years behind the curve.  To start to remedy this situation I have been binging on various geektastic series, shows, and movies.  On Sunday I had a few free hours and instead of doing laundry, cleaning the house, paying bills or showering I decided to get a marathon Dr. Who session in.

To all of you who got to watch the 50th anniversary this week..pbltttt, I will get there when I get there.  I have a confession to make about this show, as much as I absolutely love it, I can never watch more then a couple episodes in a row because folks I am telling you it is brutal.  There is an emotional raking over the coals that happens in even the most light hearted of episodes.  I broke that rule yesterday and have been trying to keep my heart wrenching sobs to myself.  What does any of this have to do with a book blog you may ask.  Well for one thing all of my books are taking to long so I am running out of material to write about ;-) Two the episodes  called Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead was all about the books (Spoilers ahead).  Seriously it was literally the biggest library in the universe.  A planet built around a computer core, filled with a print and digital version of every book in existence, and being added to all of the time!  The

visuals were stunning, the whole of the two episodes set in rooms full of books, buildings full of books, gardens full of books...made me want to start construction on my 33 story library tower of awesomeness.  The worst part of the whole thing is that eventually it has to be abandoned because of stupid flesh eating swarming alien dust thingies so nobody can ever visit this amazing wonder again (sob).  The computer at the core of this massive library houses the mind of a girl who was dying of an incurable disease and her father built here this library for her mind to live in for all eternity...how cool is that!  Anyways that is how my love of books and my love of the good Dr. dovetailed neatly into one beautiful, traumatic, amazing, brutal two episodes.
What do you think of using books in TV shows?  How great a dad is he that he gives his kid an eternity of books?!?  Am I stretching this whole books in other media thing to far?  Do you know that even though I am an EMT and have to write the word stretcher in every single one of my hundreds of reports that I cannot spell stretch without spell check?

Sleepy Hollow

Sometimes it surprises me where pop culture icons come from.  Most people in America (and other places I am sure)  know about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving...or at least they think they know the story.  This is a great little short story that is left open and ambiguous enough to not only be a great little story in its own right, but to be the basis for a whole host of awesome adaptions. (SPOILERS TO ALL KINDS OF BOOKS, STORIES AND MOVIES AHEAD...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)

The story is a simple one.  A little village in Colonial New England is the site for several tales of hauntings, and ghoulies and ghosties.  The very atmosphere of this little village just begs for spooky story's to come into being.  Enter our "hero" Ichabod Crane, a foppish dandy of a school teacher who thinks highly of himself.  He falls for the coquette Katrina Von Tassel and makes a play for her hand in marriage.  This does not sit well with the resident "it" boy Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, a fun loving mischievous bear of a man who rides with his posse through out the area, causing mayhem, but not maliciously.   Ichabod attends a party with the hopes of gaining the lovely Katrina's interest and is regaled with many eerie stories.  The main story in the area is of a Hessian soldier who's head was shot off by a cannon ball.  He is called the Headless Horseman and can be said to be seen riding between the battlefields and the church searching for his lost head.  After being rejected by Katrina, a dejected Ichabod starts his ride home, the tales of the Headless Horseman fresh in his head.  He see's a shape and hears a sound and is set upon by a giant on a horse wielding a fiery pumpkin for a head.  The apperation chases our hero across the bridge and to the church, where he proceedes to hurl his pumpkin head at the unfortunate Ichabod. Over the next week, no sign of Ichabod is seen, other then his hat lying next to a smashed pumpkin.  Some people claim to have seen him back in the city, continuing his educational goals.  Others claim that he was taken away on the back of the Headless Horseman's horse.  Brom however gets a certain gleam in his eye every time the story is mentioned.
Just a quick little 20 page story, but it has become the basis for many popular and on occasion terrifying movie, here are three of my favorites based on this little tale of terror.

Yep this is Sleepy Hollow the tv show and I am not ashamed to admit I am a little obsessed...it may have a bit to do with the delicious Tom Mison, but I love this crazy, convoluted tale of awesomeness.

Sleepy Hollow the film takes each bit of this little story and expands it as far as it will go...also Johnny Depp

This combo Disney show The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is probably the most faithful adaption of the original tale.

Between the story, tv, and movies hopefully you will find a version of this classic American scary story to suite your needs, or if none of these do it, feel free to make up your own version.

What is your favorite version of Sleepy Hollow?  Do you prefer the scary versions or the silly versions?  Who loves the Horseless Headsman commercial by Snickers?

Faking Fall

I am very much an environmental reader, meaning I usually get the most enjoyment out of certain books, during certain seasons. The problem being we are still in the summer that never ends and I am craving everything fall so bad!  I have a whole stack of books just waiting for that cool crisp air, leaves falling from the trees, the anticipation of the holiday season to come...but with the lovely 90+ degree weather we have

been having since February it just does not work.  So being the rule breaker that I am, I decided to fake fall I waited for a day that was a bit overcast and cranked up the AC.  I got myself a cup of delicious spicy hot apple cider and burned my cinnamon apple candle.  Once that was all set up I grabbed my bag of carmels, my soft purple blankie and my extra pillows and cuddled down into my chair with to watch Gilmore Girls (which is most definitely a fall show).  Once I finally was in a fall state of mind I pulled out The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, because seriously what book screams autumn more than one where the main character is named September while wearing an orange dress?  Also I have just gotten the second book in this little series The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There and wanted to refresh my

memory on the happenings of the first book.  Sadly real life intruded before I got to finish reading it, but that's ok I will finish it off tomorrow and do a second look rambling. Hopefully we can get through August quickly and fall weather actually starts happening so that I can finally make the full time transition to my fall books, until then Happy Reading Everybody! (regardless of the weather)
Do you think I'm nuts to have to create different environments to get the full enjoyment out of books?  Do you have any books that can only be read in certain times or at certain places?  Do I spend way to much time in preparation to actually read the book?

Let's Get Political

Just finished watching the first season of the American version of House of Cards and I have to say I am a little disturbed and a little in love.  It was a bit like watching a train wreck, you know the outcome is going to be horrific, but you just can't help but watch the process.  To be fair, when it comes to shows about politics I am definitely more of a TheWest Wing fan, it is a bit more optimistic then most other shows about Capitol Hill.  When it comes to reading politics can be hit or miss for me.  If not done correctly it can get confusing and boring, but done right it can be as exciting as any battle scene.  Here are a few of my favorite books/series that have a strong political theme to them.

The Newsflesh Trilogy

Zombies and Politics what could be better!  Seriously though, this series is not what I thought it was gonna be, it turned out so much better, and involved, and fresh and different and...well you get the idea.  The politics are a central part of this story and it is extremely well done.

The Dragonriders of Pern

Dragons and Politics who knew they would turn out to be such a good mix.  Another series that on the surface seems to be about one thing.  Brave daring dragon riders battling an evil threat, but the more you read the more you realize it is about a whole world and it's way of life, with a heavy dose of conflicting politics thrown in for fun...and it actually is fun.

Ender's Game

Politics in Space with a side of ethics and morals.  I love this book for so many reasons, one of the chief ones it the look at a global political system.  I love how involved the children get, either by choice or by circumstance. This book really explores all the different ways you can use politics to manipulate just about anything.

Crown Duel

Politics at the Castle, this is actually an interesting duo of books.  The first half deals with a renegade noble trying to get her brother on the throne, along with politics there is a lot of swordplay and typical fantasyish mayhem.  The second half is an awesome contrast to the first half where our heroine has to battle using words and influence in a political arena instead of her fists, very very cool.

Seraphina

Politics and Religion in a land with an uneasy truce.  I loved how different this book turned out to be.  Aside from my few minor frustrations I liked how politics mingled with religion, fear, biases, and practicality.  I also liked how the politics were shown from different views, the higher ups, the lower class, the different age groups etc.  I also liked how the humans and the dragons had two completely different political and governmental areas.

As you can see I don't read a lot of realistic political books.  I figure if I want to deal with that crap I can just turn on any of our zillions of 24 hour news channels.  However I do like a book that can explore the politics of different times and places adapting it to things we don't have to deal with and yet making the struggle feel familiar.  There are tons of other books that do the politics well, these are just a select few of my current favorites. Happy Reading.

What is your favorite type of politics in books?  Do you like politics in your fiction or do you read to escape all that?  If you could invent a political party what would it be?  Is it bad that I can finish a 13 episode series in a single weekend?

 

Your Nose Is Growing

I may have mentioned it before, but I have a thing for the show Once Upon A Time, this season not as much as last season, but it still holds a place in my cheesy Disney loving, fairytale hoarding heart.  One of my favorite characters in the show is the grown up Pinocchio, let me show you why mmmmmm.

Mmm seriously yummy little wooden boy :-)  My Hubbin, being the wonderful guy that he is has been buying me all of the movies, books, and TV shows that include all of these great characters.  Once of the books was the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.  This story is a bit different from the normal fairy tales because instead of a short story it is a full blown book.  It is a bit crude and a bit out there, but I found myself enjoying it immensely.

The story starts out in Master Cherry's work shop where a bit of wood starts being very rude.  Shocked at this woods behavior he sells it to his friend Geppetto who then carves it into a puppet.  This puppet is Pinocchio.  Alas our little puppet boy is a very selfish creature demanding food and clothes. even though the woodcarver is desperately poor, he supplies his puppet son with paper clothing and what food is in the house.  Geppetto sends Pinocchio to school, selling his own cloth coat to buy his puppet son a proper school book.  Pinocchio is told to go straight to school, but is enticed to sell his book to get admittance into a puppet show.  Pinocchio makes friends with the other puppets.  He is then caught by Fire Eater, the puppet master who intends to us him for fire wood.  Pinocchio's friends implore Fire Eater to release him, which he does, but informs them that he will use another puppet instead.  The horrified Pinocchio will not allow this and offers himself in the other puppets stead.  Moved by this loyalty Fire Eater decides not to burn any of the puppets and sends Pinocchio on his way with five gold pieces.  Pinocchio is very excited to bring the gold home to his Papa Geppetto, so that he can buy a new coat and have food in the house.  Along the way the

hapless puppet meets up with Fox and Cat who convince him to plant his gold pieces in a special field that will grow a tree full of gold.  Pinocchio thinks that this sounds like a good idea and goes off with the unsavory duo.  The trio stop at an inn, where the Fox and Cat order a feast and tell the puppet that they will start their journey at midnight.  Alas when the puppet is woken at midnight by the landlord of the inn, he informs him that Fox and Cat have already left without paying for their board or meal.  Pinocchio gives the innkeeper a gold piece and hurries after his supposed friends.  While out he is accosted by a hooded duo who try and rob him, thinking quickly Pinocchio puts the gold pieces in his mouth and refuses to open it.  The shadow figures hang Pinocchio in a tree and wait for him to die so that they can get to the gold. Luckily for Pinocchio the beautiful Child with the blue hair spots him and sends help.  He is taken to her house and put to bed.  He is seen by multiple doctors who come to the conclusion that he must drink a bitter medicine or die.  The naughty puppet does everything he can to not drink his medicine, until they begin preparing for his funeral, which is just what he needs to finally take his medicine.  Pinocchio then proceeds to start lying to the Child and his nose starts to grow, with every lie he tells his nose gets bigger and bigger until he is trapped.  After finally confessing to the lies the Child has birds come in and peck Pinocchio's nose back to its normal size.  Pinocchio vows to be a good boy and the Child tells him that his Papa Geppetto is coming to live with them.  The excited Pinocchio begs to go meet him.  Along the way he runs into Fox and Cat, who once again convince him to go and plant his gold in the fields.  Of course this is all a ruse and when he goes to check his gold is gone.  Heartbroken the puppet gets into a couple more scrapes and ends up in jail.  Upon his release he sadly discovers that the Child has died of a broken heart and his Papa Geppetto has gone off in search of his missing puppet son.  Pinocchio sets of to find his Papa and ends up in a small town trying to beg food.  He is not willing to do any work, so nobody will give him anything to eat.  Eventually he agrees to help a woman who turns out to be the Child grown up into the Fairy with the blue hair.  Pinocchio does his best to be good and worthy of the Fairy and applies himself to his school work diligently.  The Fairy informs him that because of his hard work he will be turned into a real boy the following day as long as behaves.  On his way to invite his friends to his real boy party,

Pinocchio gets enticed to run away to the land of Boobies where nobody ever has to work or go to school.  After a time of leisure and fun the puppet discovers that he is turned into a donkey! He is sold and has a few more adventures before turning back into a puppet and getting swallowed by the giant Dog-Fish.  Inside the Dog-Fish Pinocchio discovers his Papa Geppetto and devises a way for them to escape.  Alas all of the time inside the fish has made Geppetto unwell, so Pinocchio goes and finds work to help care for his beloved Papa.  On his way to work one day he meets up with a friend of the Fairy's who informs Pinocchio that she is sick in a hospital with no money to feed or care for herself.  The puppet gives the friend all the money he has and tells him to come back in two days for more.  Pinocchio determines to work twice as hard to make twice as much money so that he can care for both Geppetto and the Fairy.  The next day he wakes up as a real boy.  The Fairy comes to him and tells him that though he has been a bad puppet in the past, he has taken care of the people he loves and has earned himself real boy status.

My synopsis can not do justice to the flavor of the writing of this book.  It is hilarious.  It does not read like a children's book at all, even though that was the intended audience.  There is a lot of violence and insolence and all around mayhem. Doing some research the book was initially supposed to end with the naughty Pinocchio being hung from the tree until he died as a warning to children, but the editors wisely thought that might be a bit much and so the second redemptive half was written.  The version I have has the original font and illustrations which are just really weird and wonderful all at the same time.  I'm not sure what else to say about it other then I recommend it on its oddities alone. Seriously go read it :-)

How do you think children's tales have changed over time?  Do you like the more gruesome original tales for kids, or do you think they need the less violent versions?  How old is old enough to learn some of these harsh realities?  How crazy are the 19th century Italians?!?

Really Rosie

I have been having the most wonderful time this last week playing Aunt to all of my nephews and nieces, both blood and adopted.  We have been singing, dancing, farting, laughing, and telling silly stories.  All of this silliness and laughter makes me think of my Mamma, mostly because she is the one who taught us that silliness is what makes the world go round :-)  One of my most distinct memories of growing up is listening to my mom sing the songs from Really Rosie a TV special based on the books in the Nutshell Library

Sadly the recording of the show is only on VHS, but the songs are available for purchase. I remember Really Rosie being inventive and loud and fun...just like my Mamma.  The stories in this collection are awesome, my favorite being Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue.  Mamma played the lion in this story when she was in school and we used to love to listen to her gobble up the troublesome Pierre.  These books were written by Maurice Sendak of Where the Wild Things Are fame.  I think everybody needs to get a set of these books pronto and find the nearest kid and read them out loud, cause these are the type of books best read out loud.

What childhood books remind you of a certain loved one?  Do you have a shelf solely dedicated to nostalgic books of your past?  How sucky is it that I can't find this on DVD?!?!?

Is My Shirt Red...Crap

I love Star Trek.  I love every incarnation of it, series, movies, books, parodies, all of it.  I spent many a happy Saturday night lying on the floor with my whole family, munching on popcorn, cheese and crackers and Daddy's all whip cream sundae's  To this day every time the opening theme of any of them come on and I am taken to a happy family place.  All this being said, I also am very aware of some of the shortcomings of the franchise, especially the older versions.  One of the biggest phenomena if you will is the Redshirt.  The redshirt was a minor (usually you did not even know their name) character that was put with an away team, or on a mission, or even just at a strategic bridge station...only to be killed in some manner.  This brings us to an entertaining little book aptly called Redshirts by John Scalzi who along with being an author, was also a creative consultant on one of my favorite shows Stargate Universe (man I miss that show).

Quick synopsis along with SPOILER ALERTS!
Ensign Andy Dahl has the great honor of being assigned to the Intrepid, the flag ship of the illustrious Universal Union (also known as Dub U).  He is joined by a group of other new recruits and is assigned to xenobiology to do whatever it is xenobiologists do.  Dahl notices strange things right off the bat, like when a main bridge Lt. Kerensky comes down with a mysterious flesh eating plague that killed off the other member of his away team (what was his name again) and the crew only has six hours to find a cure before the Lt.

succumbs to this dreaded mysterious plague.  The crew in xenobiology show Dahl "the Box" which is exactly what it sounds like.  They put the sample in the box, hit a button and in 5 hour and 50 minutes a "cure" pops up on there pads, the only problem is that is it missing one crucial component.  Dahl is then told to run to the bridge and present there findings to the main science officer.  Dahl questions why they can't just send it to his pad since that would be faster and less confusing, but the team is adamant, the cure will only work if Dahl presents it in person and then the science officer can give them the last piece of the puzzle. Dahl does as he is told, and oddly enough the cure works, not only does it work, but it works so well that Lt. Kerensky has no lingering effects and is ready for the next mission in less than a week.  Already on alert for strange things, Dahl and some of his fellow recruits are sent on an away mission with the miraculously healed Lt. Kerensky and find themselves in ludicrously contrived situations.  The recruits also find themselves acting in ways that are contrary to survival, and find random facts popping into their heads.  Eventually all of this strangeness leads the friends to Jenkins, a recluse who lives in the walls of the ship after his wife was killed on an away mission shortly after joining the Intrepid. He informs the friends that he has figured out that they are characters connected to a badly written Science Fiction show from the past. He shows them some pieces of data that suggest that Intrepid is a badly written rip off of  a show called Star Trek and that when they find themselves in these crazy situations that is when the Narrative takes over.  When the show is not running everybody is free to attempt to live normal lives.  Part of this Narrative is that the main bridge crew never die, but on every mission at least one of the "newbies" always bites the dust, usually in a very pointless and horrific manner.  Another part of the

Narrative is the ridiculous time limits put on certain things, as a way to raise the tension.  The friends decide to travel back in time to when the show is being produced and try and convince them to quit killing of minor characters in non-sensical ways, or better yet, quit making the show all together.  They kidnap Lt. Kerensky to ensure the success of the mission and land in the year 2012.  After a bit of wrangling they manage to get a meeting with the shows producer.  The weird thing is all of the crew have doppelganger actors who look just like them.  They finally convince the cast and crew of the show of what is happening and they agree to wrap up the show without any unnecessary deaths and then end it.  They also discover that the son of the producer (who played one of the extras on the show) is in a coma.  The friends decide to switch the actor for the crewman and in some sort of mumbo jumbo, heal the actor who has become the crew member in the future and allow the crew member turned actor to finish his life (I know it dose not make a whole lot of sense in he book either).  The friends return to their own time and hopefully become the masters of their own lives again.  Dahl is still troubled and talks to one of his friends who was the only one who did not seem to have a role to play in this story.  Dahl surmises that the story was never about the main bridge crew, but about him and his friends stopping the show.  There are a couple of what the author calls codas that are written from the viewpoint of the people in 2012 after learning about the crew members wrapping things up in a nice big red bow.

I found that I liked the first half of the book much better then the second half.  The minor crew members finding out that they were merely pawns in some badly written TV show and then the things they would do to try and circumvent it were both intriguing and hilarious.  I loved when the author showed the duel thought process in the characters that were about to die, and I liked how ludicrous some of the situations these poor people were placed into (ice sharks! I'm pretty sure the SyFy channel has made this movie :-) )  The rituals

and rules the crew came up with to try and survive this randomly present Narrative were well done and showed a desperateness to stay alive along with a dose of humor.  Once the crew got to 2012 things got a little less entertaining.  There were some great parts right when they arrived, meeting there alternate selves, trying to navigate "the past" and all that good stuff.  After they got to the bigwig meeting, everything just got weird.  They never tried to explain the connection between the TV show and how or why it affected supposedly real people from the future (which is fine, not everything needs to be explained.), but then they would throw random stuff in an almost afterthought manner into the mix.  The way they healed the producers son, and some of the coda stuff, just felt unnecessary and in a different vein than the rest of the book.  Overall I enjoyed it.  I was looking for something a little bit different, and something with some humor, and this book provided both of these things for the most part.  I would suggest this book for anybody who has watched any sort of SciFi show on a regular basis.  I give this book 7 out of 10 tricorders.
What shows did you watch with your family growing up?  Do you still get nostalgic chills when you here "Space the final frontier..."?  Are any of you even remotely shocked to find I am a Star Trek fanatic?

A Feast Of Meh

First off I just want to say I LOVE DR. WHO SO MUCH!!!!!!!  This actually has nothing to do with today's post but I thought I would throw that out there any ways :-)  Mostly I am stalling because I just finished A Feast for Crows and should be doing a review on it, but it was kind of really boring.  So we should just talk about how cool Martha is and how I thought I would never get over Rose, but a kick-ass female doctor as a companion, what is there not to love...oh wait right the review...sorry.  Ok here we go, as always

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert

We start this book with a prologue in Oldtown, home of the Citadel where the maesters forge their chains.  We hear a bit about dragons and meet some novices and of course somebody dies.  Moving on. The iron islands are up next and here is what is going on there.  Balon Greyjoy has died leaving no male heirs.  His daughter Asha wants the crown, but she is female so has very little support.  According to law the iron crown should go to Balon's next brother, the man they call Euron Crow's Eye.  The priest of the Drowned God  Aeron Damphair thinks that it should be the next brother Victarion, who keeps to the old ways.  Aeron decrees that a kingsmoot is what will determine the next king of the iron islands, trusting that his Drowned God will crown Victarion.  Euron Crow's Eys ends up with the crown and promptly starts raiding and pillaging all the surrounding lands, amassing an enormous fleet and becoming extremely formidable on the sea.  Brienne, the lady knight of Tarth is off with the sword "Oathkeeper" which Jamie gave her to go find Sansa Stark and take her someplace safe.  This would fulfill both Brienne's and Jaime's vow to find her and keep her safe.  Along the way Brienne runs into Podrick Payne, the Imps faithful squire and he comes along on the quest.  She also acquires another companion in the form of a knight by the name of Ser Hyle Hunt, not that she is all that thrilled with his company.  They continue their search for Sansa.  By the end of the book all three of them are in the process of being hung by the zombie Catelyn Stark...oh did I forget to mention that? Yep we get a whole 3 pages where we finally figure out that Mamma Stark has been brought back by as a zombie, why?  I have no idea, this book isn't big on answers.  Speaking of our dear Sansa, she is now known as Alayne Stone, the bastard daughter of 

Peter Baylish, who will as you remember in the last book, pushed his wife the Lady Lysa off a mountain and assumed the protectorate of her lands.  Little sickly Lord Robert Arryn, has taken to Alayne and will only follow her directions.  When we leave them, Peter has made plans to marry Sansa off to the heir to the Vale and tells her they will reveal her true name at the wedding, uniting two great northern powers.  Sansa's sister Arya Stark has made her way to the city of Braavos, to join the temple of the god of many faces.  Here Arya becomes Cat, a girl who sells clams and mussels on the docks and continually tries to become "nobody".  She is set the task of learning to control her face, and her words. She only succeeds so far and when we leave her she has awoken blind.  Samwell Tarly is sent to Oldtown with maester Aemon, Gilly and her baby, and a singer who ends up dead at the hands of Arya Stark (which is probably why she ends up blind.)  Maester Aemon dies on the voyage, Sam finally gets it on with Gilly, who he discovers is not escaping with her own child, but rather the son of Mance Rayder.  Jon Snow sent the child away to try and protect him from Melisandre, who wanted to burn him for on of her rituals.  Sam ends up at the Citidel to become a maester himself.  Back in King's Landing, Cersei is desperatly trying to keep control of the kingdom.  Margaery Tyrell has married the young boy king Tommen and is trying to use her influence to become the head honcho queen.  Cersei is of course having none of it and does her best to plot and scheme the little queens downfall.  Cersei authorizes the rebanding of the Poor Fellows, essentially religious holy warriors, which puts her in the new High Septons good graces.  Cersei manipulates various cronies and eventually finds a way to get Margaery accused of treason, fornication and adultery, which is punishable by death.  Unfortunate her plans go awry and she finds herself thrown in a cell, accused of the same things.  Jaime is off trying to set the country back to rights, including taking Riverrun without shedding any Stark or Tulley blood as he had promised Catlyn Stark when she freed him in the last book.  He is fairly successful at his task.  He is also secretly learning to use his left hand as his sword hand, hoping to regain some of his former skill.  Across the sands we see the country of Dorne and witness the princess Arianne attempt to crown the Princes Myrcella queen of the Seven Kingdoms.  She is found out and captured by her own father the Prince Doran, who is a more cautious man.  He has also had to imprison the daughters of his brother Oberyn who are intent on starting a war and avenging their fathers death.   We get a few other little vignettes from people we have never heard of before, half of which are dead by the end of their chapters. All in all this is about all that happened.

A lot of people loved A Storm of Swords  and did not find this book up to par.  I must confess I have to agree with most reviewers, especially in comparison this book just did not hold up at all.  After so much happening in the last three books, this one felt incredibly slow.  In fact most of these stories could have been told in one or two chapters.  I thought Brienne's chapters were especially overly long, and that she had many more chapters then she needed to get to where she was going.  I appreciated that the author was trying to give us some different perspectives, but sprinkling them into the main characters would have worked better for me.  One of the things I missed the most in this book was a sense of caring where the characters were concerned.  As a reader, in the previous books I had a vested interest in most of the characters, even the evil characters usually had their sympathetic moments.  In this book, eh I really did not care what happened to anybody.  By completely cutting out ALL of my favorite characters I found myself wondering what they were up to instead of paying attention to the story at hand.  This book wasn't all bad, and if I didn't have the last three books to compare it to, I may have enjoyed it even more.  I liked most of Cersei's chapters, watching her get more and more desperate was fitting, again it was drawn out longer then I cared, but at least it was a continuation of the previous books.  What I did really enjoy was Arya's chapters and getting to visit Braavos.  I loved the idea of the Many Faced god, and her conflicting desires make Arya a great character. Also the Venice like qualities that Braavos has makes me happy.  I liked seeing Dorne as well, it was nice to finally have an idea of all seven kingdoms.  I also just finished watching Season 2 of the TV version of this show, which corresponds to the second book Clash of Kings (which was awesome!) and it makes me excited for the next season, but it makes me wonder how they will film this book with all of it's main characters missing.  Overall I feel this book could have easily been edited down to about 10 or less chapters that could have been incorporated with another book.  I give it eh 5 out of 10 ruby covered swords.

What did you think of this book?  Were you disappointed or did you find more in it than I did?  Have you been watching the TV show?  Why is the author so obsessed with clothes and flags?