![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Apr. 1st, 2013 07:20 pm1. Finished The Captive Prince - and damn it, I want Volume 3 now. Stupid thing ended just when it got good. My main quibble with it - is that writer is far too interested in building up the romance and sex scenes, and less interested in the intriguing plot, which feels a bit cobbled together in places. But it did motivate me to go back to GRR Martin's Dance of Dragons - Martin is sort of the opposite extreme of SU Paget. Paget barely develops her supporting characters, who feel like snapshots, while George RR Martin over-develops his supporting characters - actually he not only develops them, he gives them a whole chapter to us their point of view. Say what you will about Martin, at the end of his books, no character regardless of how small or minor their role is left untouched - you even know what the character smells like by the time you're done. Undeveloped characters is not a crime that Martin is guilty of.
Also as much as I hate to say this ladies? But male writers appear to be a whole lot better at writing fight scenes and battle strategies. Maybe because they are just more interested in it? All that testorone has to go somewhere I guess - if you can't go out and fight someone, might as well write about it. Plotting a battle is a bit like plotting a football game - similar goals - get the ball in the other guy's territory without getting slaughtered.
While female writers are better at writing sex scenes - mainly because this is more like a game of cards or battle of wits...more focus on the foreplay, then on well on the actual goal. For women the longer it's drawn out, the more fun and better the climatic moment. It's all about the slow-build. The goal, eh...it's all about the means fellas. Two different ways of thinking at any rate. (Yes, I've clearly been jumping between romance fiction and violent guy books. You'd think it would be more jarring. Why I like both, is beyond me.)
2. Speaking of George RR Martin - had an interesting conversation with co-worker.
Co-worker: George RR Martin's books need to come with cliff-notes. You remember cliff-notes, right?
Me: Yep (although I rarely used them, being of the somewhat insane view that it was more fun to read the actual book and make up my own mind than read someone else's analysis of it instead. That said, I'd make an exception with Moby Dick and anything written by Henry James, who I was able to avoid - because I went to a Western Liberal Arts School as opposed to an NorthEastern Ivy League one...weird I know, but there it is. The US is oddly regional in its cultural tastes.)
Co-Worker: would certainly help with figuring out who everyone is. I'm reading Feast of Crows.
Me: Well there is a list of names at the back of each book - an appendix that has a list of all the characters in each house and their family trees and who's who, but you have to be careful about reading it. That's how I got spoilt on who died in the third book, Storm of Swords, which was frankly rather annoying.
Co-worker: I don't think I've read that book.
Me: You are attempting to read Feast of Crows without reading Storm of Swords?
Co-worker: is Feast the 3rd book?
Me: No, Storm is.
Co-worker: Oh I skipped that one. (So, basically co-worker skipped the best book in the series and started on the worst book in the series. Seriously if you wanted to skip one - it would be Feast of Crows. And even then...Granted co-worker has a low tolerance for gore, violence, and violent character deaths...so it may have been a good idea. Storm is the most of violent of the books, to my knowledge. And yes that's a warning to anyone who is about to watch the third season on HBO.)
Me: It's not going to make any sense. You should at least watch the tv series season 3 - it just started.
Co-worker: Oh I think I can figure it out.
Me: Okaay.
This reminds me of another work discussion regarding GRR Martin's books.
( eh spoilers in them there woods - for S3 and the books, don't read if you haven't read the third book and are into the tv series. )
There are spoilers in the comments for Game of Thrones Book 3, S3, and for Captive Prince, so may want to avoid reading them if you want to stay unspoiled.
Also as much as I hate to say this ladies? But male writers appear to be a whole lot better at writing fight scenes and battle strategies. Maybe because they are just more interested in it? All that testorone has to go somewhere I guess - if you can't go out and fight someone, might as well write about it. Plotting a battle is a bit like plotting a football game - similar goals - get the ball in the other guy's territory without getting slaughtered.
While female writers are better at writing sex scenes - mainly because this is more like a game of cards or battle of wits...more focus on the foreplay, then on well on the actual goal. For women the longer it's drawn out, the more fun and better the climatic moment. It's all about the slow-build. The goal, eh...it's all about the means fellas. Two different ways of thinking at any rate. (Yes, I've clearly been jumping between romance fiction and violent guy books. You'd think it would be more jarring. Why I like both, is beyond me.)
2. Speaking of George RR Martin - had an interesting conversation with co-worker.
Co-worker: George RR Martin's books need to come with cliff-notes. You remember cliff-notes, right?
Me: Yep (although I rarely used them, being of the somewhat insane view that it was more fun to read the actual book and make up my own mind than read someone else's analysis of it instead. That said, I'd make an exception with Moby Dick and anything written by Henry James, who I was able to avoid - because I went to a Western Liberal Arts School as opposed to an NorthEastern Ivy League one...weird I know, but there it is. The US is oddly regional in its cultural tastes.)
Co-Worker: would certainly help with figuring out who everyone is. I'm reading Feast of Crows.
Me: Well there is a list of names at the back of each book - an appendix that has a list of all the characters in each house and their family trees and who's who, but you have to be careful about reading it. That's how I got spoilt on who died in the third book, Storm of Swords, which was frankly rather annoying.
Co-worker: I don't think I've read that book.
Me: You are attempting to read Feast of Crows without reading Storm of Swords?
Co-worker: is Feast the 3rd book?
Me: No, Storm is.
Co-worker: Oh I skipped that one. (So, basically co-worker skipped the best book in the series and started on the worst book in the series. Seriously if you wanted to skip one - it would be Feast of Crows. And even then...Granted co-worker has a low tolerance for gore, violence, and violent character deaths...so it may have been a good idea. Storm is the most of violent of the books, to my knowledge. And yes that's a warning to anyone who is about to watch the third season on HBO.)
Me: It's not going to make any sense. You should at least watch the tv series season 3 - it just started.
Co-worker: Oh I think I can figure it out.
Me: Okaay.
This reminds me of another work discussion regarding GRR Martin's books.
( eh spoilers in them there woods - for S3 and the books, don't read if you haven't read the third book and are into the tv series. )
There are spoilers in the comments for Game of Thrones Book 3, S3, and for Captive Prince, so may want to avoid reading them if you want to stay unspoiled.