Sunday, December 25, 2011

The Prophecy by Chris Kuzneski

I started reading this book on 25th December, 2011 around 12 PM and I had the book finished by around 7ish in the evening.

So, is this a good book? Yes.

Is this a fast read? Yes.

Should you read this book? Definitely YES.

The story follows two ex-soldiers who were part of MANIACs which stands for Marines Army Navy Intelligence Air Force and Coast Guard.

Pretty cool.

I liked the pace of the book. The sense of mystery. The constant exchange between the two lead characters which was pretty funny. The jokes were good and the action was okay. This is no Matthew Reilly or James Rollins. The characters here have more personality than Scarecrow or Painter Crowe. Jonathan Payne and David Jones in The Prophecy keep the action rolling and there is not a dull moment in the book. What I really liked was the the author gave just enough information about the "historical mystery" in the book without it becoming a history lesson. And I learned lot many things from the book. Which is always good.

Yup, enjoyed reading this one. Will be looking forward to his next book "The Secret Crown" which will be released in January 2012.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Reading :: A Storm Of Swords

This is book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire. The action heats up in this one more than the first two books, because, well, there are swords in the title and by now, the readers are well familiar with the characters and they WANT to know what happens with the titular characters.

I am not a very good reader of long series and that too when I'm reading them so close to each other. And that too, when I am in a little bit of a stressful environment while reading those (a story for another day). So, in my head, it's all kind of muddled up. There are too many characters to think about, but if I focus on the few 8-10 characters that are the main people, i think i have a pretty good handle on the story.

The length of the series and the scope are the things that kept me off this series for a very long time. I mean, I'd heard praise about a song of ice and fire from people all over, but it takes a great level of commitment from a reader to start reading, and when I start reading books, I do that with the idea of finishing them all. And this is a story that is not even complete yet. The sixth book is yet to be released and there are going to be seven books, as far as I know.

About the story, well, there is a lot of things happening here n' there in the book. People are dying, people are having sex, people are betraying, main characters are passing very close to each other and still not meeting, the wolves are howling and stuff. So, yeah, you know the deal. It's entertaining stuff, but I fail to understand, what message am i supposed to take back from all this.

If a book is a letter from a writer to a reader, then what is the inherit message in that? I don't see the message in A Song of Ice and Fire. It's like delicious fantasy, good to read, good to understand, but I am lacking there.

So, if any of you have got any meaning out of reading the books, please drop me a line. Comment or email, nothingman at in dot com.

Cheers!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tyrion and Glokta :: Similarities

Tyrion and Glokta

 

Tyrion and Glokta are two very interesting characters from A Song of Ice and Fire and The First Law trilogy written by George RR Martin and Joe Abercrombie, respectively. These are the two characters that stand out from the thousand extensive cast of ASOIAF and the still expansive vista painted in TFL. 


The benefit these two have is that they are the prime story movers in both the novels and there are so many common instances in both these characters that one cannot help but think of them on similar terms. The similarities start at both being broken individuals, while Tyrion has made his mocked name "The Imp" his own, Glokta has also come to terms with being called the cripple. Both have less power when it comes to weapons but in the weapons of the tongue and the mind, both are sharp as any sword-wielder. 


In ASOIAF, we see Tyrion taking charge of battle on a few occasions and he is a daft hand with an axe and can even ride a horse, while (spoiler ahead) Glokta wields a sword only once in The First Law books and By Jove if that's not the moment when the readers cheer for him.

 

Both have a patronizing and scary figure overshadowing them, in case of Tyrion it's his father Tywin Lannister and in case of Glokta it's his superior torturer. Both have hired help to do their dirty work, while they don't mind getting their own hands dirty when need be. We often see Glokta torturing his victims by hacking off their fingers, and there is Tyrion who deliberately poisons his sister so that she can't attend the court proceeding and mess with his "evil" plans. Glokta's hired help is his assistants, Severard and Frost while Tyrion has his own set of sellswords Bronn and Shagga who are killing in his name when needs come up.

 

And the best part of both the characters, both end up getting married to pretty girls who were incidentally about to be married to the king figure in the book. Who are these girls, better read the books to find out, I am not giving any more spoilers here. 


This is it for now, more when I feel like writing more.

Do you think there are any similarities between Glokta and Tyrion that I've missed? Drop a comment :) I'll add it to the post. Cheers!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Scarecrow and Army of Thieves :: A Rant

I read the book the day I got my hands on it. Suspended everything. Turned off the phone and for about a good 6-7 hours I was lost in the world of Scarecrow and the problems he was facing and how he was facing them and all the awesome shit he was doing to get out of trouble.

BUT

While I was reading the book, I felt cheated.

I felt cheated because Matthew had already used all these tropes before in his books.

The plot with missiles was already done in SCARECROW

The part about a team of soldiers on an island in HELL ISLAND

The part about a hero dying and coming back to life FIVE GREATEST WARRIORS

There were instances when "Scarecrow said nothing." was used in same tone as "Reacher said nothing."

There was an instance where Scarecrow is thrown out of the plane again and he escapes because of the maghook.

I mean, alright, Matthew Reilly is a big shot, big selling author and he is awesome at what he does and I am sure that Scarecrow and Island of Thieves sold a lot of copies, but for readers who've been waiting for a book for a long time, at least there should be something new, something novel, something awesome which is NEW too. Yup, I also realize that all stories are basically about good triumphing over evil, but come on. There are ways to do it, 1001 and more. And with Scarecrow, we expect high volume, mad and apocalyptic intensity.

But it was just not there in Army Of Thieves.

Call it high reader expectations or call it it anything else, there is a lot more Matthew can write than make something that has shadows of his previous works.

That's it. I wanted to rant a bit about it.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Reading :: A Song Of Ice And Fire :: Book 2 :: A Clash of Kings

The first book went by pretty fast and I started on the second one. Lot of commotion in this one. There were two new character chapters introduced, Cerscei and Theon. I don't think the queen was in the first book,  but I am not really sure.

Anyway, Tyrion in now in the kingdom and he is now involved in the kingdom's politics. This echoes too much of Inquisitor Glokta going to the besieged city in Joe Abercrombie Book 2 of First Law. (I need to do a future post on comparisons between Glokta and Tyrion.)

So, almost 65% done with the book. Going good so far.

The chapters I like most are of Jon and Tyrion. Sansa and Arya are okay-ish. The chapters of Bran are also interesting. I don't really like Catalyn's point of view, but hey, anything that moves the story forward.

Once I am done reading this book, I'll finish the two hanging books Plugged by Eoin Colfer and The Cold Commands by Richard K Morgan. I hope Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch releases soon. I really want to read that.

(Future post idea :: Why I didn't like Scarecrow and the Island of Thieves)

Two future post ideas in this one post. GREAT!