Ahira's Hangar

TONS OF SPOILERS -- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!








Nearly finished with the book; just a few initial thoughts:

In a way, Asha was truly the only realistic candidate at the kingsmoot. If the circumstances had been under more normal conditions, I think she might have been a very good leader for the Iron Islands. Does the fact that the Drowned God not object (or at least Damphair only feels silence at the time when the king is chosen rather than an objection) mean that this god wants Euron to be the King? And that the god wants Dany and her dragons to come to Westeros, since that is why Euron says he should become king because he will bring them over the sea? And what's with the noise of the rusty door that Damphair keeps hearing???

Religion really comes to the fore front in this book. We see priests of the Drowned God in action in the Iron Islands. We see Arya in a fascinating temple in Braavos, and learn more about the Many Faced God, who seems to be the Stranger of the Seven in Westeros. And the social unrest and Civil Wars, with both wolves and lions preying upon the litttle people has fermented great religious unrest in Westeros. And that brings me to a very big point -- Cersei is an idiot!


Since her father just died, and not that long after her eldest child, I would love to cut Cersei some slack due to her grief. But the fact cannot be questioned, that while she sees enemies everywhere, the woman is her own worst enemy. Driving away her own family, like her very competant uncle, and driving away Jaime? Letting religious groups arm up? Treating the Tyrells, her greatest allies among the Great Houses like crap? Discarding some very great suggestions from Margaery about Tommen sitting on ther Small Council and taking lessons both in martial arts and statecraft. Seeing Margaery as an enemy and rival due to a prophecy about how a younger and more beautiful queen will pull her down, while completely blowing off anything anyone tried to tell her about Dany and the dragons? Cersei is not only going to get herself killed, she will be getting her poor remaining kids killed with her. She's a horrible leader, and she has the blindness and arrogance not to even see it, even a little bit. I think that Jaime will be the little brother prophesied to kill her, rather than Tyrion.

Tommen is a very sweet little boy, but I have a very bad feeling about things that Joff might have done to him. Cersei is doing him no favors by her wrecking the Westeros economy and trying to put huge wedges between him and the other Lannisters and with the Tyrells so that she can keep her power. One of the first signs of an abuser is separating the victim from other people, and that seems what to be what Cersei is after...

Mycella seems like a very nice little girl, and there might have been a real love match between her and her Dornish prince. But her future is very questionable now, and the poor girl was permanently maimed by an attack by one of the Daynes. I think she is eventually doomed with all of the needless enemies her mother has been making right and left...

And as for Dorne -- wow. How long has the Prince been secretly working for the return of the Targs? That will be one Great House that will be working with Dany rather than against her...

What is with all of the people being maimed or permanently disfigured?? Myrcella. Loras. Brienne...and that's with a handful of chapters yet to go...

Lady Stoneheart is hideous and terrifying.

The Maester Aemon storyline brought tears to my eyes more than once. One of the great unsung heros of Westeros...

When I went to the book signing Martin said that this book would be twins with A Dance with Dragons. They would both begin before the end of ASOS, and overlap in time. This book is obviously setting things up for the Dany storyline, with all of the rumors about her and the dragons swirling over and around Westeros, and the common people calling for a true leader, and someone who will protect them rather than hurt them in the way the Stark and Lannister followers have in the Riverlands. There are at least two delegations going to her now (not counting Tyrion) and Cersei is busy destroying what was left after the War of the Five Kings (such as the economy). Martin is carefully setting up the stage for Dany and a possible invasion in the next book.

But he is also setting up the stage for an even greater story -- as everyone is still focused on King's Landing and on the ongoing fighting between the Iron Throne and the Stannis supporters, and the siege of Riverrun by the Lannisters and the Freys, and with the new attacks by Iron Islanders on Tyrell holdings, and as winter is coming and it looks as if the survivors of the civil war in the Riverlands might all starve -- no one is paying attention at all to the North and the Others.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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NO one else has read this yet???? ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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Sorry--been waiting for it to come out in paperback. I do need to start reading Crows now--will be prefect successor to Black Jade and fun accompianment to my rereads of The Power Preserves and (hopefully) the proposed Dissection of Runes this Summer at Kevin's Watch *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Well, here's hoping, Danlo. I have been waiting to discuss it in depth. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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My plan now is to purchase the book, before I leave for New York! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Well, up to about pg 550. I've really enjoyed being back in Westeros but the book is finally dragging a bit as Jamie enters Harrenhal. I love the way Jamie's changing and this chapter is the begining of a sense of some real upcoming action. If people think the book drags at all it's probably because there's so much set-up going on--we can't always have huge wars, beheadings, murders and poisonings going on all the time! Still, it's picking up speed again and it has me in 'must read mode' so I should be done quite soon. *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

So how come no one's bothered to comment on this in over a year-I did end up really enjoying the book.

I'm about 200 pages into re-reading this book, and it amazes me how slow it is. I don't know what George was thinking. If he'd written A Storm of Swords the same way he wrote this, that book would've been 4000 pages long. So far, Jaime has spent 20 pages standing over his father's body pondering stuff. Fascinating. And Brienne has walked up to every random person north of Kings Landing and asked them if they've seen her sister of 10 and 3 years travelling with a fool. Good lord, he should've started the book months after Tywin's death, and just summarized most of the junk that's happened so far in a few random paragraphs. Starting off immediately after Tywin's death was a huge mistake, imo. In the earlier books, he did such a great job of summarizing important events that occurred elsewhere (like Robb's victory at the Golden Tooth, his injury, then his getting married). I just don't understand why a chapter with Cersei waking up to find that Tywin is dead and Tyrion has escaped is at all necessary. It just slows everything down to a dribble.