Game of Thrones: A Clash of Kings Book 2 Review

I was just sitting down to a much deserved cup of cocoa and a long awaited late night tryst with A Storm of Swords, when I realized I was remiss in reviewing A Clash of Kings. Somewhere in the all consuming compulsion to devour these books, I had failed to digest book two here. I will attempt to remedy this immediately.

A Review of A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin:

When autumn begins its descend into Westeros bringing with it dark whispers of winter and a burning comet in the sky, the land falls into turmoil and treachery. The cold and empty iron throne beckons to many, but whose claim is true and whose is born of smoke, deceit, and furtive villainy? A boy king born of incest, a pale haired princess the last  of a dying line of past kings, a brother battle hard and iron willed, and a younger brother benevolent and beloved-- on whose head would the crown of the realm peacefully rest?

The kingdom cast about so like a storm ravaged sea breaks upon the iron throne and shatters. The dead walk with ice blue eyes and coal black hands. The wildlings are gathering north of the wall, but to what purpose? Even the shadows honed sharp and dangerous by the words of the woman in red offer no shelter.  As every player of the game seeks advantage, the land, its people, and the very heavens burst forth in blood, magic, and fire. "For when kings clash; the whole land trembles."

Many a time, I have found the middle books in a series a bit of a drag-- long winded, detail riddled, important plot building installments but ultimately cliff hanger kindling that adds more to the anticipation of the next read than the true enjoyment of the current book. This time that was not the case.

George R. R. Martin does it again. The ridiculously good story seems to fly out in so many unanticipated but highly entertaining directions with twists and turns leading the reader further down the rabbit hole to Westeros. These books are literary genius! He is a master character smith. The absolute scale of this interwoven tale is unbelievable. So so so so good. Seriously.

I have some new favorites to love and hate in this book. Here's the dish.

To Love:
*Ser Davos Seaworth- known as the Onion Knight for past good deeds as a baseborn smuggler/siege breaker made knight by his king
*Ser Byrnden Blackfish- a knight that understands the importance of family and honor, he is a key advisor and confidant of his nephew Rob Stark
*Qhorin Halfhand- the first ranger from the Shadow Tower well renowned as a wildling slayer and master swordsman
*Jaqen H'ghar- the faceless man from Braavos who keeps his promise to aid Arya Stark
*Brienne Tarth- a brave yet unlovely valiant knight-- strong of will and sword

To Loathe:
*Melissandre- a scarlet eyed, crimson cloaked priestess to the lord of light, loves to say, "The night is dark and full of terrors."
*Craester- the ickiest man north of the wall with nineteen wives and nineteen daughters, but there are only nineteen women... you do the math. But no sons...
*Walder Frey- the yellow bellied guardian of the Twins and the river crossing, doesn't lend aid until most battles are over
*The Mountain- Lord Tywin's personal headsman, raping, pillaging, and burning anything in his path
*Theon Greyjoy- the ironborn ward of Winterfell and last living heir to the iron isles (read to find out why I detest him)

This book will make you turn a suspicious eye every time you see a raven. "Dark wings, dark words" is a theme in this book. Every raven sent throughout the realm seems to carry doom and destruction, fear and fighting, shadow and secrets. You will wait with baited breath to hear the tale they bring.

This book (most likely all books in this series) is a 5 Commendable Yarn. I can't seem to tell you enough how much you will enjoy reading these books. There is something in them for everyone. Get reading!

Game of Thrones: And so it begins...

I typically wait until a series of books have reached completion before starting them. I know this a a bad habit, but being a voracious reader such as myself... I like to know I can get to the end-- the real end --of a story before I start it. I am a bit impatient, as Tom Petty says, "The waiting is the hardest part", right?

Any-who I succumb to absolute unadulterated peer pressure (from my husband and brother) and broke down and read the first book anyway. That leaves the fantastic HBO series season one temptation without saying. So here is my review of Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice

George R. R. Martin is a literary crackerjack. His episodic, massively detailed,  completely fleshed-out, throughly chronicled world of Westeros complete with a multitude of characters is an undeniable page turner. Starting in the cold hard packed lands of the north filled with honor bound men and many a thing that goes bump in the night, the reader is led south to the seat of power in the Red Keep-- the iron throne. On this journey, you meet both pawns and kings and realize quickly that every act in public and promise in secret is building towards a power coup that could end the realm. Trouble descends from every direction. Intrigue is plotted in every shadow. And no one-- I mean no one-- is safe. Who will win the match and live to see another day? Because in the game of thrones you either win, or you die.

This book just does it for me on so many levels. Martin's style is fully detailed but not overly flowery. I appreciate the succinct way he describes the people, the places, and the power struggles. It allows you to get engrossed in your imagination without getting swamped in the mountains of words on the pages. That is not to say that this is a brief read. This book is long, but I think even the faint of heart will look up several hours later and realize they have read 200 pages. Don't let the thickness of the book dissuade you from the fabulous story inside.

Characters are the mortar that binds this book together. Martin's story is chocked full of some amazing people. Some of my personal favorites are:

*Jon Snow the bastard(Martin's words not mine) son of an otherwise honorable man who leaves his family in search of adventure beyond Winterfell. 

*Arya Stark the rough and tough young lady of the north using a sharp tongue and shaper sword to get into all kinds of trouble and scrapes both at home and in the capital. 
*Tyrion Lannister the ill-begotten dwarf son of the richest of men who uses his brain in the absence of brawn. 

Martin is also talented at writing characters you hate. Some that I loathe are:

*Prince Joffery Baratheon the cruel, painfully immature, and frighteningly merciless king to be.
*Ser Ilyn Payne the mutilated and muted knight bent on delivering the king's justice... with his axe.
*Queen Cersei Baratheon the cunning, manipulative, and grasping woman beside the king who'll stop at nothing and step over anyone to stay on top.

And this is really only the briefest of lists. So many characters to love and loathe and then loathe and love in turns. Get reading! 

The book is so good that I need to give you a disclaimer. DO NOT watch the HBO series first if you can help it. Season One of GOT did such an amazing job recreating Martin's book that it steals a bit of the glory from the novel if viewed before the book. Many of the conversations and small details are EXACTLY like the book.

But some things just can't be transferred to the silver screen. The book has a several first person perspectives that really add to the feel of the tangled tale not to mention the overall story that I believe Martin is trying to tell. Knowing some things before hand can cause the book to feel like a doomed march to destruction, an illusion that Martin meticulously suspends-- until the silent sword is already swung catching the reader unawares and doubtless unprepared on several occasions. Besides, the series will rob you of the opportunity of imagining some of the characters-- personally, my favorite part of reading books like this. 

Overall this book is a 5 Commendable Yarn. I say 5 because I stayed up until 2am on several nights reading, the consequences of a tired day with twins to come be hanged. That and I am telling absolute strangers to read this book. I am hooked. I am trying to pace myself so that I don't finish the books too soon before the next one comes out, but I started Clash of Kings yesterday and am halfway through... 

Review: In Cold Blood

I must admit that I approached this novel with many a bias and preconceived notion. I was curious about the claims that the author, Truman Capote, had created a new type of book-- the nonfiction novel.

Let's use a word nerd alert to get down to the marrow of those two words:

nonfiction |nänˈfik sh ən|

prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography or history.-and-novel |ˈnävəl|a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.

How can a novel which is by definition a fictitious tale with realistic leanings be nonfiction? Can one possibly glean enough fact, setting, character descriptions, and plot to flesh out an entire novel worth reading? I suspected not.So how do I feel now that I have read the book? I have several thoughts... here a  few.The tone of the novel is journalistic in nature with a sympathetic overtone interwoven towards the victims -- and also the killers. I'll admit that this was off putting for me. The title for the book is a duplicitous moniker. "In Cold Blood" refers to the way the Clutter family was brutally murdered, but it also reflects the opinion of the author regarding the judicial treatment and sentencing of the murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickok. When reading a book about a horrific mass murder, one does not expect to cultivate tender feelings for the people holding the guns. And yet, Capote tries his darnedest to incite empathy for the tough, neglected, even abusive past of these two individuals.
A greasy, charming, sticky fingered ladies man -- Hickok is always at the ready with a dirty joke and a hot check. He is apparently ashamed of his tendency to rape young adolescent girls, but that doesn't seem to impede his impulse to do it... several times. He is classified as knowing right from wrong, but due to a car crash that could possibly have damaged his brain-- he now only lives on his impulses with no thought for the consequences. His parents are present but poor. 
Perry Smith has a troubled past to be sure. His parents --former rodeo performers turned cross country impoverished gypsies-- separate after his mother turns to alcohol to assuage her anxiety. After a particularly bad fight, the mother sweeps off with the children. The father does very little to reclaim his children over the years. The mother finally drinks herself to death, but not before turning all of her children over to the state. Perry's sisters and older brother are reprimanded to an orphanage. Perry has a horrific experience at a catholic institution where a nun tortures him for wetting the bed. He later begins to act out his aggression and is sent to some sort of detention center where he is again abused. He becomes ill and hospitalized --only then does his father find him and take him in. (But they have a tumultuous relationship that ends in Perry nearly killing his father and abandoning him for the merchant marines.) Perry's character is the oddest combination of an uneducated intelligent poet type with an unchecked thinly veiled murderous rage. His demeanor is disarming, his crippled physicality mollifying, his internal dialogue is haunting. He truly scares me. A shrouded menace that beguiles it's prey into believing itself nurtured and safe...

Capote also gives us some psychiatric jargon to back up his feelings that these two praire-billy slaying thieves were simply overly vilified mentally inept victims themselves. However, this doesn't ring true-- with this reader at least. They had hard lives, physical and emotional trauma, and yet I couldn't find it in my heart to leap on the weep wagon for them after reading the descriptions --personal interview descriptions-- of what they meticulously did to the entire Clutter family. I will not go into those details here, but the level of callus premeditated apathy for human life is appalling.
The book is well written and does softly tread the line of novel and fact. I believe there to be several embellishments but none that detract from the horror or heart of the story set before you. I was held captive, suffered, and was sentenced along with the characters in the story. To put it lightly, I was enthralled and would read many a more book written in this style.
This book was a heavy hitter, and the actual facts made it that much more serious and engaging. I rate this book a 4 because I haven't stopped thinking about it since I put it down.

Review of The Yellow Wallpaper

I, personally, am a wusspuss when it comes to scary stories, but in keeping with the honor code of our book club, I read this one.  (Quickly, at night, and alone in bed) That wasn't exactly to keep the code, but it did do weird things to my dreams...

The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman is more of a psychological narative than a ghost story. It is short and to the point written in a series of journal entires following the prescribed secluded and deluded life of a wife suffering from a nervous condition as she is sequestered in a hideous nursery with some unsavory wall decor. And that is all I am going to say... Doesn't sound thought provoking? You'd be wrong. Doesn't sound like a much of a thought provoker? You'd be mistaken. And I'll go as far as to say, you'd be remiss in not reading this story immediately because I need to talk it out with someone -- anyone. Please.

 I read it in 15 minutes, and thought about for 2 days after that. I'd say that is a good story. Like oatmeal-- it sticks to your ribs, invades your mental revelry and has you asking questions. I even went back to reread some parts to make sure I didn't miss something. In short, it is wackadoo tale that details sticky mind trickery madness spiral of an isolated individual.


Read and let's discuss!
On the stocking scale I give it a four for Darned Good. It was thought provoking, discussion inducing literary candy as far as I am concerned! And at 6,000 words it's a story short enough for any reader.

Review of Gameland: The Ultimate in Undead Fiction

My heart is pounding, my eyes are wide, and the first utterance I made after finishing this episode was, "Unbelievable!"

I am now a zombie convert. Prior to this amazing story, I was the girl who would shy away from the realm of horror books and films. If coerced into consuming these works, I merely caught glimpses of terror between my shielding fingers. This story has changed me.

A tale of a post-apocalyptic future where the IU (infected undead) have been first quarantined into submission and then enlisted into a variety of servitude, Gameland follows a group of youthful albeit gifted rebels with a penchant for all things technological. Jessica and her friends embark on a final and ill-fated summer adventure into the forbidden zone of Long Island chockfull of shocking surprises including a few encounters with zombies.  

Tanpepper's writing is sharply succinct- thrusting the reader into the fast paced thrilling scenes with amazing control over detail and dialogue. Creating a new genre of episodic made for TV stories that leave the reader gasping for more; Tanpepper had me sitting up and taking notice from the first few lines. This is an author to follow! I cannot wait to read the upcoming stories!

A rare 5 stars folks a commendable read for young adults, and that is a lot coming from me! J

Review: Between Boyfriends (Not what you think...)

Okay. I am going to go out on a literary limb here and make a confession.

My name is Jessica, and I have read romance novels. (GASP-all caps for loud gasping)

And for those of you shaking your head and judging me from your high & mighty cultured horse, I have a quick statement. Unless you are an ostrich - and kudos on the whole reading thing if you are - you cannot tell me that you haven't seen such films as The Notebook, Titanic, Casablanca, (insert classic chick flick of your preferential choice). If you have even merely caught reruns on TV of these while folding laundry, you - my friend - have basically read a romance novel albeit using someone else's imagination. And to that I say, "J'accuse!" on count of hypocrisy.

This small confession has nothing to do with my review, other than to tell you, this book is not a romance novel. :) It comes from a genre that I was not acquainted with prior to this novel. The illusive genre of chick lit. (No, this is no vending machine gum.)

It is defined as such:
 Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre became popular in the late 1990s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit. Although it sometimes includes romantic elements, chick lit is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because the heroine's relationship with her family or friends is often just as important as her romantic relationships. 

Thank you Wikipedia for clearing that up. :)


Now on to my review of Between Boyfriends by Sarka-Jonae Miller.

Jan Weston is about to receive a hard knock that she wasn't expecting. Entitled, selfish, pretentious, and manipulative - Jan finds herself suddenly single, disowned by her family, cut off from her familial line of credit, and a nuisance to her so called friends. What's a girl to do? Can Jan survive getting a job, paying for school, living on oatmeal, wearing last year's fashions all while swearing off men? Between Boyfriends follows Jan through her hard fall to reality and rise to self reliance. Jan takes it all on the chin and keeps on swinging for the fences. 

The book is a well written exploratory view into the life and inner machinations of a drama riddled juvenile group of girls. And while the exhibition is spotless, it smacks more of spectacle than of spectacular. I had an excruciating time trying to relate to the main character - hating her pity parties, drunken binges, and temper tantrums. She was sophomoric, and the more that happened to her the less I cared about what else might happen to her.

This feeling of apathy didn't last the entire book. By the end, I was glad that Jan had found her sea legs and was off to start her own adventure. But I don't think that the end completely redeems the story. And here's why: some of her issues, that the author wraps up in tiny little bows of success stories, aren't actually fully addressed. Jan's relationship with her parents is a doozy, and cutting her back into the will - doesn't exactly translate to healthy boundaries or healing.

I felt like too much time was spent in laying out the minutia of Jan's problems (social and otherwise) - that the solutions were mere flashes in the pan to glaze us on to the happy ending with the bowing and the skipping. The book just wasn't the lighthearted look at college angst that I thought it was. When you pull out heavy hitters like emotional neglect and abuse, I expect some concrete resolution.

All in all, I give the book a 3 for standard stock. I truly enjoyed the writing style of the author and would be happy to read future works. :)

Review: Death and Taxes

Have you ever wondered how everyday life - history, violence, and environmental negligence - weighs on the immortal mind of Death himself? Death and Taxes by Simon Whitmore is a droll look behind the veil of eternity into the inner-workings of the mind of the Grim Reaper. Spurned to striking off  his duty to ferry souls to judgement (largely due to a mayan miscalculation of Doom's Day), Thanatos (WORD NERD ALERT- this is the Freudian term for the death instinct) decides to take some time to himself. The only problem is that while he's on holiday... someone else decides to try on the cowl and scythe. How are people dying when death is on vacation?

Whitmore's writing is clever and succinct. His use of imagery, word play, and pop culture weave together to form a reality where the supernatural not only observes the "normals", but they also have a part to play. There are few if any immortals sitting out on the bench with such heavy hitters as St. Peter, Persephone, Gabriel, the Ferry Man, and the Lord himself making appearances. The question is which divine is  attempting to replace Thanatos? Whitmore has us suspecting them all.


I am particularly fond of his personification of Death. Whitmore fleshes out the Angel of Death's bones with a penchant for humorous expletives (My favorite was, "Great rancid apples of discord."), a passion for Lepidopterology (the study of butterflies), and an all around cantankerous attitude toward humanity and their basic disregard for the sanctity and innate beauty of the Earth.

This is Richmond from The IT Crowd, but you get the idea. Death with flesh. :)

However, Whitmore doesn't leave Death as the unchanging, unavoidable partner to taxes. We see Thanatos grow to appreciate and understand humanity through his relationship with a young boy. Already a card in Thanatos' inbox, the boy should have been taken but is spared due to Death's unexpected hiatus. Through him Death comes to say, "You taught me how to live - or at least to appreciate the beauty of life, and not just its flora and fauna. It's difficult for me in this position you know, but I'd like to thank you."

Well written, charming, and full of logic and lore- Death and Taxes is worth perusing for those who like a little intrigue and endearment along with their dose of demise.

On the bluestocking scale, I rate this book a 4 for Darned Good.