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Busy week. Spent today learning a new financial system, which I can add to a long list of financial database systems to my repertoire. This one like all the others seems to be Oracle based, making me wonder if Oracle has a monopoly on financial databases. Get to go back on Friday and Monday to resume training. It's a complex system - which means it will fail massively, causing much chaos in its wake, until we get used to it.
People can be irritating. We don't agree on anything. We whine incessantly when we don't get our own way. And we stubbornly adhere to our convictions, no matter how wrong we are. And no, I'm just talking about fandom - sigh, I wish. I'm actually talking about work.
Got "Advair" - which doesn't appear to be doing much of anything outside of leaving behind a bad taste in my mouth whenever I take it. But to be fair - have only taken two dosages. Doc did not prescribe antibotics this round - because I don't have bronchitis or pneumonia - just a bit of irritation. Which I'm guessing is good news, since I hate anti-biotics. Bad news, since when I did have bronchitis - the anti-boitics got rid of it rather quickly. Also got more codeine laced cough syrup.
Finished Storm of Swords last night, finally. Great book by the way. Just incredibly long.
1563 pages with small type. But it was quite amazing. Each character was in a new place and drastically changed by the end of it. Considering he had 10 points of view, that's an accomplishment.
He also states something in the end that I thought rather interesting:" If bricks aren't well made, the wall falls down." Good analogy for writing. If you do not lay down good bricks for your story, it will fall apart. While it is possible to lay a wall of loosely laid bricks and not have it fall down, the bricks themselves must be sturdy and mortar as well. Having built a wall of handmade bricks and mortar - I know this from experience. Same is true with stories. While the writer doesn't necessarily need to know where his tale is headed, he does need to know his characters and stay true to them - his characters are his bricks, his world (particularly in fantasy) is bricks. If you don't, your story will fall apart no matter how much motar you use to cement it into place. Okay maybe I took that analogy too far?
Another interesting bit about Storm, it may be the only epic fantasy novel I've read that is not sexist or misogynistic and written by a man. Granted I haven't read that many. And I tend to be fairly tolerant, all things considered. But...in this novel the women are strong. But not unrealistically so. They are permitted to be as multifaceted and in as many shapes and sizes as the men. By making the women realistic and fully fledged characters - not sexist stereotypes or fantasy, Martin is able to comment on the power-play between genders, and how women are treated in a world based on physical power and prowess - and dominated by men. Yet, the women are not quelled, they are not meek. Catelyn Stark, Ayra Stark, Daenarys Storm Born, Cersei Lannister, Ygritt, Melisandra, and Sansa Stark are anything but weak. They have power of their own. Ayra for example kills a man, she's a child of twelve and a survivor. I'm rather impressed, because I've read so many fantasy and science fiction novels that do not do this. Tolkien (sigh), CS Lewis (ugh), Terry Brooks (groans), Stephen Donaldson (groan)....the women fantasy writers are obviously better than the men at this. But it is rare to find a popular male fantasy writer who does it this well. Also issues of minority and race are handled well here.
My only quibble? He spends a lot of time giving me nitty-gritty details on gore and violence...which I could do without. Too much detail. Little less may have made the book move faster and resonate more for me emotionally. But that's clearly a subjective thing.
Last night - I bought The Hunger Games for my Kindle for $8. Am currently finishing up Side Jobs. After Xmas, I may pick up Feast of Crows by Martin - but no rush, considering he's still working on it's sequel.
Okay off to make dinner. And watch tv. And hopefully get off my butt and buy Xmas gifts via Amazon.
People can be irritating. We don't agree on anything. We whine incessantly when we don't get our own way. And we stubbornly adhere to our convictions, no matter how wrong we are. And no, I'm just talking about fandom - sigh, I wish. I'm actually talking about work.
Got "Advair" - which doesn't appear to be doing much of anything outside of leaving behind a bad taste in my mouth whenever I take it. But to be fair - have only taken two dosages. Doc did not prescribe antibotics this round - because I don't have bronchitis or pneumonia - just a bit of irritation. Which I'm guessing is good news, since I hate anti-biotics. Bad news, since when I did have bronchitis - the anti-boitics got rid of it rather quickly. Also got more codeine laced cough syrup.
Finished Storm of Swords last night, finally. Great book by the way. Just incredibly long.
1563 pages with small type. But it was quite amazing. Each character was in a new place and drastically changed by the end of it. Considering he had 10 points of view, that's an accomplishment.
He also states something in the end that I thought rather interesting:" If bricks aren't well made, the wall falls down." Good analogy for writing. If you do not lay down good bricks for your story, it will fall apart. While it is possible to lay a wall of loosely laid bricks and not have it fall down, the bricks themselves must be sturdy and mortar as well. Having built a wall of handmade bricks and mortar - I know this from experience. Same is true with stories. While the writer doesn't necessarily need to know where his tale is headed, he does need to know his characters and stay true to them - his characters are his bricks, his world (particularly in fantasy) is bricks. If you don't, your story will fall apart no matter how much motar you use to cement it into place. Okay maybe I took that analogy too far?
Another interesting bit about Storm, it may be the only epic fantasy novel I've read that is not sexist or misogynistic and written by a man. Granted I haven't read that many. And I tend to be fairly tolerant, all things considered. But...in this novel the women are strong. But not unrealistically so. They are permitted to be as multifaceted and in as many shapes and sizes as the men. By making the women realistic and fully fledged characters - not sexist stereotypes or fantasy, Martin is able to comment on the power-play between genders, and how women are treated in a world based on physical power and prowess - and dominated by men. Yet, the women are not quelled, they are not meek. Catelyn Stark, Ayra Stark, Daenarys Storm Born, Cersei Lannister, Ygritt, Melisandra, and Sansa Stark are anything but weak. They have power of their own. Ayra for example kills a man, she's a child of twelve and a survivor. I'm rather impressed, because I've read so many fantasy and science fiction novels that do not do this. Tolkien (sigh), CS Lewis (ugh), Terry Brooks (groans), Stephen Donaldson (groan)....the women fantasy writers are obviously better than the men at this. But it is rare to find a popular male fantasy writer who does it this well. Also issues of minority and race are handled well here.
My only quibble? He spends a lot of time giving me nitty-gritty details on gore and violence...which I could do without. Too much detail. Little less may have made the book move faster and resonate more for me emotionally. But that's clearly a subjective thing.
Last night - I bought The Hunger Games for my Kindle for $8. Am currently finishing up Side Jobs. After Xmas, I may pick up Feast of Crows by Martin - but no rush, considering he's still working on it's sequel.
Okay off to make dinner. And watch tv. And hopefully get off my butt and buy Xmas gifts via Amazon.
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It took me three-four months to finish each one of these.
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I also hope characters that I like don't get the Axe but I am positive they will be killed soon enough.
I love Arya, I have to admit. I wonder if there is too many POV's in the story. Some characters I just...kind of want to rush through to get back to the ones I care about. Like Bran's story, I am really interested in him and what interesting adventures he will have.
Do you have any Epic Fantasy stories, most especially series(longer the better!), that you would recommend to read? I'm in a big fantasy faze right now. I just read Jim Butchers Codex Alera series in a less than a week. So good!
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I liked Stephen R. Donaldson's White Gold Welder series - about a man with leprosy - who journeys to another world and his wedding ring is a source of healing.
Martin's series does have a lot of characters that...well, I kept wishing I didn't have to suffer through. I remember disliking Catelyn in the first two novels, and not being overly fond of Robb - who bored me.
But I got intrigued by Jaime Lannister, Arya, Daenrys, and Tyrion so kept going. It's not for everyone though. I like detailed fantasy novels, with multi-character pov. Terry Brooks bored me. And CS Lewis got on my nerves eventually. But I adore Tolkien.
So...depends on what you like? There's the Circle of Light series, and Lois McMaster Bujold has a series out that is similar in style to Butcher's which I couldn't get into. Also you can do Andre Norton's Witch World series. If you prefer comedy - Terry Prachett's Discworld (not a fan, but others on my flist adore it).
Those are the popular ones though.
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One fantasy book that rocked my world was The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I think that book might be making all the other books I'm reading after it seem pale in comparison, good thing the next book is out in March.
On second thought maybe I'm not so new to Fantasy. I've been a big fan of the Harry Potter books, Inheritance Cycle, and plenty of others I'm sure I am forgetting now.
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A much more epic, and really excellent standalone novel is "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay. Most of his stuff is worth a look, but that is his best, IMO.
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Although...SPOILER ALERT........
Catelyn doesn't really die, does she?
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On the sexism...hm...I agree that the female characters are as sophisticated as the male ones and that's a rare and good thing. Also that like Mad Men Martin holds the camera full on the sexism happening and shows how ugly it is.
My only quibble is that with all these POVs he never introduces a gay or bisexual character. They are so many meanwhile that it somehow feels like an under-representation to have none.
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