Review: A dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons
(A Song of Ice and Fire # 5)
By George R.R. Martin

Publshed: 2011

Synopsis (via goodreads): In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again--beset by newly emerging threats from every direction.And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all. . . .



I can't believe I've already finished the series! I really should have slowed myself down so that I wouldn't have to reread it in 5-10 years when GRRM finally releases the next book in the series! It's going to destroy my patience trying to wait out the next book's release...waiting is not my forte. Anyway, onto the review of the recently released book five of the wonderful and magnificently large A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. Obviously since this is book five it'll contain spoilers from the previous four books so if you haven't read them yet and you don't want them spoiled do not read on!

Ok so my previous review for book four, A Feast for Crows, stated my ambivalence for this book. Partly because AFFC didn't really live up to the previous books and because A Dance with Dragons takes place at the same time as AFFC but tells the story of the characters who missed out getting in to AFFC. So my verdict? Well...I'm torn. On one hand I raced through this book and at no time did it feel like it was a chore or difficult to get through the 961 pages (my edition) but on the other hand...meh. I'm going to do my best to describe what I liked and disliked about this book but I'm having trouble actually putting it into words it was just...meh.

So as mentioned the book continues along the timeline set in the previous book, but this time we get to hear from my favourite characters, and in my opinion the more interesting characters, Jon (at the wall), Tyrion (escaping from King's Landing) and Daenerys (struggling to rule Mereen), as well as characters like Bran, Davos, Quentyn and a few others. Because I've read these books in pretty quick concession I had no issue picking up where their stories had been left off but I imagine anyone who has had a bit of time lapse in between reads might have difficult remembering all the smaller, yet important, details and more importantly they may have issues recalling exactly who all the minor characters are. Especially those around Daenerys in Mereen with all their ridiculously similar names Hazayrr, Kazayrr, Khazzyr or whoever they are!

It did take a little getting used to the pace of this novel because even though chronologically it's in line with AFFC it doesn't exactly match up. So when Jon's chapters start up Sam seems to linger around for a lot longer than he did in the previous book (where we read from his perspective) because for Jon there was more that needed to happen before he could send Sam away. And at times I'd find myself a little muddled and confusing action from the previous book with this book, "wait I thought Sam was on his way south, why is he still at the wall?" for example. This was mostly an issue at the very start of the book, once Sam had headed south, it was a lot easier to fall into the rhythm of the book.

One of my chief concerns was that this book would waste chapters rehashing an event from another perspective. There were perhaps two chapters where a large chunk of the dialogue/action was exactly as it had been in the previous book. Again the example coming to mind is when Jon tells Sam he's sending him to become a maester. There is dialogue and interaction that occurred before this conversation and we get a bit of insight into why Tilly ran crying from Jon while Sam was waiting to speak with him, but a large chunk of the chapter is simply what we'd already read with the occasional input of internal dialogue from Jon. I found that beyond boring and I found the internal insights confusing because even though I knew they were giving explanation to why Jon made faces at Sam or paused in his speech in Sam's version from AFFC I couldn't actually remember exactly what happened in Sam's version and I wasn't interested enough to pull out that book and read them side by side. Luckily this only happens in one other chapter (that I can recall) but for those chapters it is a little clunky and awkward and really could have probably been edited out or down.

What it does do with this chronological format is provide the full story behind some of the rumours in AFFC. Early into AFFC Cersei receives word that Davos, Stannis's hand also known as the Onion Knight, had been beheaded at White Harbour. In this book we find out what really happened, in much more detail, and this new aspect adds a whole new dimension to the news and information those in King's Landing receive. In my reviews of the earliest books I expressed my delight over the secrecy and double-crossing that was had a constant presence in the books. Basically that's what happens in this book, except rather than just realising it from chapter to chapter when you see what news different characters receive and how they react/act around different people in small groups (most commonly in King's Landing) you see this behaviour taking place across the kingdom. The two sub-plots that blossom in White Harbour with Davos (one that begins to take shape, and one which is left for the next book) are only small but they have the potential to grow greatly and I found them very, very interesting!

This book has a much quicker pace but I think that really comes down to the characters it focuses on. In King's Landing things had begun to stagnate. Cersei was losing her mind to paranoia and struggling to maintain her power through her son around the shifty characters she'd surrounded herself with. It was quite small scale and for the most part concerned only King's Landing and a few characters. Similarly Brienne's chapters were basically her saying "I'm looking for my sister, a girl of three and ten" over and over as she rode through the ruins of Westeros. However this book had Quentyn (son of the prince of Dorne) struggling to make his way to Daenerys to swear his allegiance through marriage, Tyrion racing away from King's Landing and his sister's clutches and falling in to some interesting company (on more than one occasion!) and Jon struggling against the Wildings, the Others and the obnoxious King Stannis and his red witch. So immediately this book covers a far greater area and looks at several different conflicts and issues taking place across the seven kingdoms and beyond. That said it still is a little slow. Not snail pace, but it's filling in a lot of gaps, reminding audiences of earlier conflicts and providing new details of back stories which had previously been hinted at.

I had no real problem with this slower speed especially when about two thirds of the way through it actually overtakes the previous book and begins to give us completely new stories. Cliff hangers from AFFC are answered or at least re-glimpsed and the action takes off at a much faster pace. It really needed those slower two thirds to set up the scene for the last part of the book and hopefully this means the next book will begin at an equally fast pace and really snowball the story home.

So I had no real problem with the pace of the story but I did feel like a lot of it was unnecessary. Did GRRM really need 2000 pages and two books to tell this part of the story? One of the things I really loved about GRRM was how he managed to write this huge, all encompassing story but still maintain it fairly succinctly. I feel like he's perhaps lost control of these books. Davos was given four or five chapters to do very little and as soon as things got really interesting it was left. Bran spent a long time walking north and once things got interesting the chapters ended. Brienne and Jaime were reintroduced at the two thirds mark, we were teased a little and that was it. Jon didn't really develop too much that hadn't been introduced in the previous three books and Daenerys lingers on in Mereen even though nothing happens except people hate her or want to marry her. Ultimately it was 961 pages of story which really could have been worked into the previous book if GRRM had a more concrete idea of where the story was going and what needed to be included, and what was merely interesting filler. I guess this is where the meh reaction comes in. I enjoyed reading the book, I like the characters and I love the world he's created and his writing is still fantastic but did I need to read it, did it advance the story at all? No, not really, and I imagine those fans who've waited five years for it will be a little let down.

Which I guess brings me on to my final point, his unbelievable overuse of cliff hangers! In the first two or three books these cliff hangers weren't really an issue because more often than not the cliff hanger was resumed in the same book at a later chapter. Now that GRRM has so many characters (I think he's literally bordering on a cast of 1000s) if he leaves a chapter as a cliff hanger, especially one of the minor characters like Davos or Sam, there is a chance it won't be picked up again in the same book. So at this point there are literally dozens of story lines left hanging, some since two books previously, which perhaps won't be resolved any time soon. It makes it a little frustrating and a little confusing. There are only so many sub-plots and frayed story lines that can be remembered at any one time and as time goes on they'll need more background provided to rehash them (you can't expect your audience to reread every book again each time you publish a new one) which will take up unnecessary space and waste yet another book.

I feel like this has come out really negative which wasn't my intention at all! I really did enjoy the book, some of the story lines were fantastic and I jumped around in anger/happiness/fear more than a few times! But I guess once you start to think about it for an extended period of time you start to realise the inconsistencies and the difficulties the series is up against. If you haven't read the series yet (but have decided to risk spoilers to read this!) don't let this be a deterrent, it's a wonderful series and has some great potential to go into new, uncharted waters. If you've read it, I'm interested in what you think about this book, let me know in the comments!

Monday Links

*Hunter S.Thompson's fantastic novel The Rum Diary has been adapted to screen. Actually it was adapted awhile ago, the film has been in limbo land for over a year now (why would anyone hesitate to distribute a Johnny Depp film?) but it has only just received a release date (October this year) and a trailer. It seems very different from the novel, far more light-hearted comedy, but perhaps just the way they've skewed the trailer. Who knows, I trust Johnny Depp to do HST proud so I'll definitely be checking this out.

*I want to buy an iPhone just so I can buy this bookish case from Out of Print!

*I'm considering proposing to Tom just so I can hire Emily Bawn to create similar save the date cards for our wedding. Hint, they're far more undead than the usual save the date fare!

*Melbourne Writers Festival is in full swing (finishes on the 4th September). I've been enjoying keeping an eye on the twitter updates, if you want some bookish tweets by and about wonderful authors and books follow them here.

*By the time this is posted Hurricane Irene should be over and hopefully all have come out the other side unharmed and with minimal (if any) damage to your homes/neighbourhoods. Hopefully you all fared better than Tucker Barnes. Yuck!

*Gelaskins have partnered with Geek Cool to sell their vinyl device covers to us in Australia. So if you have an mp3, smart phone, laptop, game console you should take a look and start personalising your things! I personally recommend the Bookshelf (on my Nintendo DSi) and the Dr Gonzo (on my iPod) for some bookish wickedness!

*The new season of Doctor Who is out! Yay!

Zombie fact of the day

The whole "brains...braaaaaiiinnnns" thing was started thanks to the team behind Return of the Living Dead who decided the zombie would be better if it had an unquenchable desire for human brains. Thanks to the popularity of this film and shows like The Simpsons jumping on with this version it's one of the most popular phrases used in conjunction with zombies in popular culture. However, very few films picked up on it, instead prefering the good old fashioned cannibalism George Romero used in his phenomenal film series.

Weekend bonus...Do you know how many of these Shepard Fairey/Obama-Hope posters there are floating around the net with a zombie and the phrase 'Brains' underneath? Hundreds. Seriously, it's insane.

Fanart Friday on hold!

Hi all,

Just a quick post to let you know Fanart Friday will be on hiatus until I finish up my thesis. It's just too time consuming to search for images, contact artists and package them all up into blog posts alongside everything else. So until late October there won't be any new ones...but they will be back! I really enjoy posting all those beautiful images so they'll definitely make a comeback when I have more time. If you have any requests for me to look into when it returns please let me know in the comments!

Review: Brightwing by Sullivan Lee

 Brightwing
By Sullivan Lee

Published: 2010

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Edgar and Mallory Battle are on the run after a spectacularly violent escape. Now, with a trail of bodies behind them, they need a hostage against the inevitable standoff with the police. Their first doesn't last long, thanks to sociopathic Mallory. Edgar has been hiding his brother's crimes since they were kids. Now he's torn between family loyalty and self-preservation.They carjack Lucy Brightwing, a criminal fresh from her own heist, with a fortune of uncut gems hidden in her vehicle. She could escape - but she won't abandon her millions. She could kill the Battle brothers, but she has to be careful. For one thing, if the law investigates, they'll find her ill-gotten loot. For another, her own life is sacred. She's the last member of a Florida paleoindian tribe thought to be extinct - the Tequesta. With her share of the money she plans to buy, bribe and blackmail her way into her own ancestral tribal lands in the heart of the Everglades: a Tequesta nation. Lucy leads the brothers into her beloved swamp, determined to kill them. But when she falls for Edgar she must decide whether to risk her heritage and the future of her tribe to save the doomed brothers.


Before I begin I just want to state out in the open that I received this book from the author and in return I am providing her with an honest review. Hee hee, I've been waiting for an age and a half to be given the opportunity to say that! Brightwing marks my very first author requested review and my very first self-published book and luckily for me I was offered a pretty good book to kick start both off with!

As the synopsis describes this book is part love story, part crime story, part Native American history lesson and part moral minefield. That's a lot of parts I know, but this book has just the right mix and makes it work. Before I get started discussing the characters and the story I just want to explain a particular source of pleasure I came across with this book. When the author sent me the request email she told me a bit about her history. The name Sullivan Lee that this book is published under is actually a psyuedenym. Her actual name is Laura Sullivan and typically she writes children and YA novels published by MacMillan/Holt. Now I don't know about you but I get a bit of a perverse pleasure knowing that I'm reading the antithesis of what authors normally publish. When you know that this is an author whose writing is usually used to soothe children and calm them before bed it just makes it oh-so-much better when the novel begins "it was a shame about the hooker," and is followed a couple of pages later with the line "Two minutes later, before he could quite discover the ambivalent joys of erotic asphyxiation, he was choked unconscious, then encouraged to remain that way somewhat longer by a precise blow to the head". It's just so devilishly good!

Ok, so on to the actual content of the book! There is a lot that happens in this book but the real focus is on the Battle brothers, Edgar and Mallory and Lucy Brightwing, the girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time but is more than capable to take care of herself. For me the real interest was watching the characters unravel and struggle and learn new things about themselves thanks to the new and unusual surroundings and people they were thrust amongst.

 The Battle brothers are incredible different and incredibly (stupidly!) loyal to one another. Edgar is perhaps like a few people you know, well except for the professional crook aspect, but Mallory...well Mallory is a whole different kettle of fish. Basically he's batshit crazy.  He's obviously not quite right and there is this strange separation between what he does and what he thinks. Because it's so obvious that he isn't ok mentally there is this innocence about him even though he's a gun-wielding rapist and murderer who acts first and thinks never. He's dangerous but not because he has a gun and isn't afraid to use it. He's dangerous because he doesn't recognise life. He sees himself and his brother in the world everyone else is a thing to be used, abused or disposed of. Edgar on the other hand is the older brother who promised his mother he'd look out for his crazy brother. Unfortunately that means his life is anything but easy and he finds himself holding a gun to someone's head more often than he'd probably like.

Interestingly we're introduced to the brothers at the start of the book not so much through their physical appearance or dialogue but through descriptions of their outlook or reactions to their crimes. Not only did this tell you a lot about how well they work together (or perhaps work not so well together) but it gives a really interesting take into what makes the character who they are and also paves the way for the tension that is looming so very ominously from the start of the book. I found it really effective and a breath of fresh air.

Parallel to these brothers is the character of Lucy Brightwing. When we meet her she's just robbed a jewellery store of millions of dollars worth of uncut jewels and has done it with such ease and panache that she makes catwoman look bad. Immediately we're introduced to this intelligent, crafty, smoking hot Native American who is unlikely to take shit from anyone. As you read on though you learn more about her and see these different facets to her character. She's this incredibly natural and almost mystical woman in terms of her connection to her land, animals and history. She's self-sufficient and can look after herself better than Bear Gryls (and without drinking her own urine) but she's also got this vulnerability about her because she's the last of her tribe and she loves her heritage so, so much and is willing to do anything to maintain it.

When the Battle brothers and Lucy come crashing into each other's lives there is this interesting tension set up between them, and not just because Lucy is there hostage and Mallory is insane. On one side you have these two brothers who are inseparable but Edgar is constantly considering how he can deal with Mallory and release himself from his family ties. On the other side you have Lucy, last member of her tribe and desperate for a family. Even as imperfect as the Battle brothers are it's hard not to see Lucy longing for the relationship these two men have and I suppose that's part of the reason she takes care of them and puts herself at risk so often at the start of this book. 

The story itself builds rather slowly, developing the relationship between these characters, putting them out of their comfort zones and seeing what they'll do. There are constant threats to all of their lives but it isn't until the final 70 or so pages that the action really starts to push home. After some initial tension things began to look like they were calming down and that this weird triangle of people hidden in the Floridian forest might actually manage to make things work. Then suddenly, with the slightest hint of foreshadowing their fragile semblance of normal life is dashed against the wall and all three are struggling to make it to the end of the book alive.

My only complaint would be of the ending. After struggling against the current for so long it comes together almost to neatly. However there is a sequel in the works and there is a suggestion of some added tension in the final pages that I think could redeem the ending for me once I read on in book two. Ultimately though it was an enjoyable and interesting read and a welcome break from my current rather intensive fantasy reading schedule!

My rating: 3.5/5

Film Review: Inside Job

Inside Job

Released: 2010

Written/directed/produced by: Charles Ferguson

Synopsis: 'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.



 Well this was a terrifying film. I'm the first to admit that I'm not so great at economics, finance or business studies. Frankly they go right over my head. Too many buzz words, abbreviations and complex ideas. When the GFC (global financial crisis) went down I relied on the "Dummy Guides" published in the papers and online in order to grasp an idea of what the hell was going on and even then so much of it was abstract and hypothetical. Australia, for the most part, escaped unscathed so much of the numbers (the amounts of people losing their homes, their jobs, their money) were removed from my reality and hard to grasp.

This documentary really hit home the realities of the GFC. Not only did it present the events in the lead up and the actual collapse in easy to understand terms but it conveyed the enormity of the banker's actions and the resulting chaos in simple and terrifying clarity. The film is broken into five parts which examined the financial history of America post Great Depression, the political changes made to the financial system, previous recessions and bubbles, popular financial 'games', the main players, as well as looking at the results of the crash and where we are now. By looking at the past, present and future the film-makers managed to demonstrate the causes as well as the hints towards a crash that then serve them well in their interviews with prominent bankers, academics and politicians.

Before the movie looks at the American crisis though, it looks at the economy of Iceland which went from a successful, stable and thriving economy into a complete mess when the banks were deregulated and big businesses were given right of way to do as they please. This small case study works to show the effects that can happen when financial institutes are given the opportunity to do as they wish and borrow in a large, unregulated manner. The basic thrust of the documentary is the role that deregulation played in the collapse. Now as I've already stated I'm not expert when it comes to this stuff but they sure do make a persuasive case for regulation in banks. As the banks shifted from reg to dereg and the cold war ended bankers started to play around more with making money; borrowing, lending, predicting trends etc. The doco educates it's viewers on derivatives and the instability and risk that these ploys brought to regular people like you and me. Basically banks believed they could make more money from less and they did that by gambling and by playing around with the money they had.

Alongside demonstrating the role deregulation played the documentary makes an effort to educate their audience on accountability. This was a big lesson for me. As you watch the evidence of these men and women defrauding innocent people into signing up to mortgages worth 99.3% of the property value, investing their money into "safe" options which were destined to fail, spending millions of dollars on hookers, drugs and frivolous purchases, and betting on their investments to fail so they can claim the insurance...it's madness. Pure and simple. These people have been allowed to play hard and fast with other people's money with no consequence. They've been encouraged, every time they make a bunch of money they receive massive bonuses and when the investors and bankers do well the economy also thrives. Unfortunately when they do badly, so does the rest of the country. And as this particular collapse demonstrated, so does the rest of the world.

The final part focuses on where America is now, financially. It shows the tent cities, the foreclosed houses rotting street by street and the bonuses bankers are still making while the rest of the economy falters. It looks at the recovery attempts, the bailouts, the supposed political movements being made to stop this from happening again. But as it examines these areas it highlights the fact that the people responsible for this not only haven't been prosecuted for their actions but many of them are now serving on academic boards, financial committees and for the Whitehouse. The financial world is a small one and by letting the responsible people return to their careers without penalty nothing will change. Instead these actions have tainted the respectability and integrity of the entire economics and financial field and left unchecked we're likely to see the collapse of 2008/09 happen again.

Of course, considering this is a documentary it obviously has an angle it wants viewers to lean towards. There are many top people that decide not to participate in this film and considering the fact it's edited there is potentially a score of well reasoned arguments made by the 'guilty' that we are never privy too. That doesn't mean you can't take anything away from this, or that you have to take it all with a grain of salt. Much of the documentary is an education, hopefully enough of one that people won't blindly place their trust in the hands of bankers or traders or insurance brokers. I highly recommend this documentary to everyone, regardless of whether you already know all about this stuff or if you're rather uneducated on the subject like me. It's made for people like you and me. As the documentary states in it's conclusion, these men and women are going to push to avoid prosecution, saying they did the best they could, that it couldn't be avoided and that their jobs are difficult and that they can't be replaced easily. The job of the 'financial engineer' is a diffcult one, but that doesn't mean they should avoid investigation. The livlihoods of entire countries are placed into their hands and they should be held accountable when things go bad. A must-see.

My rating: 4.5/5