epic fantasy – Cindy Young-Turner

Thief of Hope free for Kindle 12/26-12/28

Thief of Hope is currently free for Kindle! If you don’t have a copy of the newly revised version, now is a great time to get one for your e-reader: http://www.amazon.com/Thief-Hope-Cindy-Young-Turner-ebook/dp/B00QGBFWHS/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_2. Limited time only, though, 12/26-12/28! After that it goes back to the regular price of $2.99.

Thief of Hope blurb:

Sydney, a street urchin and pickpocket in the town of Last Hope, has managed to evade the oppressive Guild for years, but there is no escaping fate when she’s sentenced to death for associating with the resistance.

After she’s rescued by a wizard, Sydney is forced to accept that magic—long outlawed throughout the Kingdom of Thanumor—still exists, and the Tuatha, a powerful faery folk, are much more than ancient myth and legend. When the wizard offers a chance to fight the Guild and bring Willem, bastard prince and champion of the Tuatha, to the throne, Sydney embraces the cause as a way to find her own redemption.

But Sydney’s fear of the Guild, distrust of authority, and surprising connection to the Tuatha threaten Willem’s success. Can she untangle the strange threads that entwine her life not only to the fate of the kingdom, but also to Willem himself?

And then they all die: thoughts on Storm of Swords

Warning: Winter is still coming, and there be spoilers in this here post.

I previously proclaimed my love of Game of Thrones and recently finished reading Storm of Swords, book #3 in the series. For those of you at home following the HBO series and not the books, the most recent series covered half of book 3. I have to say, I was about halfway through (and that’s only about 500 pages or so into the book) before I really got invested in this one. I don’t know why the openings of the past two books have been so uninteresting to me. Maybe it’s because they take the point of view of characters who play a very small role in the story. Still, I persevered because I was certain it would get better. It was a slog to get to that point, but the pace did eventually pick up, around the time when VERY BAD things started to happen. I’m starting to think of these books like a train wreck that I just can’t look away from. I know the characters I really like are going to die. I’m just sure of it. (And don’t tell me. I’ll read it when I get there.)

Aside from the ho-hum beginning, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. The characters are usually what draws me into a story, and GRRM is great at creating compelling/repulsive characters. I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers for the series, which is hard to do because I can’t just avoid the internet while I read thousands more pages, but one tidbit I’d heard is that people seemed to start liking Jamie. This is a character I loathed in the first book. He threw a child out of a window and has a thing for his sister. No sympathy from me. And yet, I started to change my opinion of him in this book. I applaud the author for showing us this kind of character growth and making me grudgingly have a bit of respect for someone I previously despised.

As for the HBO series, I’ve only watched the first season on Netflix so far. It’s a bit graphic and over the top with the sex scenes, but the acting is great and season 1 was close to the book. I hear the following seasons start to change the plot, so I’m curious to see what I’ll think once I get through them. Still, the books are far better.

Biggest pet peeves in the book: the detailed descriptions of food (dear god, the number of courses at Joffrey’s wedding almost did ME in) and the endless cast of characters. My eyes glaze over whenever there was a long list of so and so, lord of such and such… I’m lucky I can keep track of the main characters.

And speaking of characters, here’s the rundown of my current favorites and those I love to hate:

Favorites: (I know, this means they’re going to die, right?)

Jon Snow: Still a favorite. Very pleased by the ending of the book, but it makes me worry for his safety.

Arya Stark: Again, still a favorite. I was hoping she’d stick with the Hound for a while. They make an interesting pair.

Ygritte: I liked the wildings a lot. They even seemed to have some gender equality. I really wished Ygritte and Jon had stayed in the cave, though.

Samwell Tarly: For all his whining, I really like Sam. He’s like an everyman and he’s so earnest and wants to do the right thing. I kept worrying he was going to be killed. Not yet, anyway.

Tyrion Lannister: Gotta love him, but I fear Tyrion is in way over his head. Shae’s betrayal just about broke my heart.

Jamie Lannister: Yes, he really did grow on me. He’s still an ass half the time. I keep hoping he and Brienne will get together.

Characters I despise:

Cersei Lannister: Still can’t stand her.

Tywin Lannister: Now we know why his kids are so screwed up.

Joffrey Baratheon: His wedding was indeed a joyous occasion.

Lysa Arryn: She is really messed up. I feel for her son.

Hmm, I can’t think of any others I truly loathed in this book so I have another category:

Characters I didn’t care much about:

Catelyn Stark: I still couldn’t get interested in Catelyn. I sympathize with her, truly I do, but she continued to put me off.

Stannis Baratheon: I struggled with the Davos chapters because I find Stannis so uninteresting. Not sure exactly why.

Daenerys Targaryen: She started off being interesting and the dragons are cool and I’m happy she’s freeing the slaves, but there wasn’t a lot of forward motion with her in this book. Maybe that will change in the next one.

So there you have it, my musings on Storm of Swords. Have you read it? What did you think? And if you’re watching the HBO series, how do you feel it compares with the books?

Meet the newest Game of Thrones fan

Winter is coming and there be spoilers ahead.

Yes, I’ve finally jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon. I’ve heard people raving about the books and the HBO series. I don’t have HBO, but I wanted to read the book before watching it anyway. Reading on the Kindle is deceptive, though. I knew the book was long, but I was thinking maybe five or six hundred pages. No, the book is actually 800+ pages. I had no idea until I looked it up. Good thing it was a compelling read!

I won’t say it was an easy read because yes, the story is grim. Bad things happen to good people. A lot of very bad things happen to good people. I hear that George R. R. Martin isn’t afraid to kill off main characters, which makes me worry that many of the characters I like won’t survive to the end of the series. There’s lots of violence, sex, rape, incest, cruelty, and more violence. I know people who were turned off by those things and didn’t like the book. Frankly, I’m surprised I liked it as much as I did, but I loved the realism. Life in the society Martin has described would be horribly grim. I love the political scheming. I love the shades of gray in all of the characters. No one is a hero. In fact, the people who try to stick to their principles and do the right thing (yes, I’m looking at you, Ned Stark) have a hard time surviving in the lion’s den. And the people you want to throttle most (can someone please hurl Joffrey off the castle wall?) seem to be winning.

Writing chapters using many points of view is an interesting technique. Each chapter is told from a single character’s point of view, so at times you go for many chapters without going back to that particular character. I worried it might be confusing at first, but I rather liked reading the different perspectives. I’ll have to see what I think after I’ve read one or two more books in the series.

Lest it seem all praise, there were a few things I didn’t like. Every time someone used the f-word, it took me right out of the story. It just didn’t fit with the language Martin had used. Finding good curse words is a challenge in fantasy. If you make one up you can end up with something like “by the balls of Baldur,” which just sounds silly, like something we would have said while playing D&D. I’m not sure what the solution is on that front. And some of the realism got a bit crude at times. Fine, you want to have your character go take a piss, but really, I don’t need to know that he’s shaking himself afterwards. Ick. Sometimes less is more. That goes for the sex scenes as well. I think Catelyn and Ned were the only ones with a normal, healthy relationship.

Maybe it’s just been a while since I’ve read epic fantasy, or at least a really good epic fantasy novel, but this book was a breath of fresh air to me as a fantasy author. It’s the kind of fantasy I like, very medieval, with plenty of sword fights and politics. The magic and magical creatures are subtle for now. I have a feeling the dragons and the Others are going to play a bigger role in future books, but I like the fact that there aren’t dragons on every corner and powerful wizards in every camp. I also felt the female characters were portrayed well. They were all strong in their own ways.

Favorite characters:

Tyrion Lannister: Hands down, I loved reading his chapters. He’s got to be one of the sharpest characters in the book and he has the best lines. (please please let him make it to the end of the series and get rid of the rest of his obnoxious family)

Arya Stark: I love a tomboy with a sword.

Jon Snow: I warmed up to him as the book went on and was a big fan by the end. I was going to be really disappointed if he deserted from the Wall, so I’m glad his friends brought him back. I think he belongs there.

Ned Stark: Well, I liked Ned a lot at first, but as I mentioned above, his sense of honor and duty got to be tiring after a while. I lost a lot of respect for him after he confronted Cersei because it was such a terribly stupid thing to do. People, if you know an important secret, tell someone who needs to know while you have the chance!

Robert Baratheon: He was a fun character. Pig-headed, narrow minded, all of the things a good king shouldn’t be. I kind of wished he did have the chance to give it all up and ride off to be a sellsword king.

Characters I love to hate:

Joffrey Baratheon: Sansa should have pushed him when she had the chance.

Cersei and Jamie: I can only hope they get what’s coming to them.

Viserys Targaryen: The crown he finally received was much deserved.

Sansa Stark: She was an incredibly annoying character. The constant mooning over Joffrey was too much for me. But she faced a rude awakening at the end of the book, so I’m curious to see how she might evolve in the future.

I’ve watched the first two episodes of the first season. So far so good. I think they did a good job staying true to the book, although there is so much that doesn’t make it on screen.

And now on to Clash of Kings.