Dancing With Dragons

I am officially all danced out. Or rather I’ve danced my partner to death. I have finally reached the end of the epic Game of Thrones series, the books that is. I’ve had to be very disciplined with myself not to watch the more recent series of Game of Thrones and end up spoiling the more gradual, slow unravelment of the truly wonderful books. Alas, I have now reached the end and am free to watch the TV series as I wish, although it has been so long since I’ve seen the earlier couple of seasons that I am thinking of going back to the beginning and watching all of the episodes again. They are that good.

Now, in reference to my opening, it would in fact be more accurate to state that I have danced my able, nimble-footed partner into a coma rather than to death because of course George Martin is in the midst of writing the next chapter The Winds of Winter with the author commenting as recently as earlier today that he is hoping to have the newest book released before the next TV series begins. If I haven’t communicated it strongly enough to readers, let me simply state that these are GREAT books and you cannot help but become completely immersed in Martin’s fictitious world. I warn against dismissing this series as “fantasy” if you are someone who typically has no time or tolerance for fantasy books. I will give anything a go but saying that, I am not someone who naturally veers towards the fantasy aisle in the library and I don’t generally read any “fantasy” books. Yet, I am an avid fan of A Song of Ice and Fire series and frankly say enough good things about it.

This is not fantasy that is completely ridiculous or outlandish – there are no ridiculous creatures created from the author’s mind or monsters that can speak. Think of it more like the Tudors but on a much bigger scale, with a lot more people plotting to be King a lot more characters. The characters are, by the way, my favourite part of the books. Martin has created so many brilliant characters – so varied, so colourful and so human that you feel like you know them. This is the skill of the novelist and while a good writer will often succeed in rendering their protagonist true to human form, someone who you think on long after you’ve finished reading the book or someone who you actually quite miss for a while afterwards (ahem…Lisbeth Salander), it is a brilliant author who can do this for an entire world of characters. This is what Martin has done and I love him for it. It’s also why I’ve cried at numerous points during A Dance for Dragons and the earlier books when some of the characters have been killed off. Don’t worry, I don’t do spoilers so you’ll have to read them yourself to find out who gets the chop!

I read the first instalment of A Dance for Dragons (Dreams and Dust) in February (yes, I know I’ve been a bad blogger…) and then took a short break before taking up the second chapter of A Dance for Dragons: After the Feast. A Dance for Dragons runs parallel with the timeline from the previous book A Feast for Crows, but deals with different characters whose stories were left aside in A Feast for Crows but only up until a point. Once everyone is all caught up again, the story moves on. This was very hard for me when I was reading A Feast for Crows because I really missed some of my favourite characters like Tyrion, Arya, Daenerys and Cersei. However, it only served to make it even more enjoyable when reunited in A Dance for Dragons.

So to update the list of books which I have read this year to date. Since my last blog, I’ve read the following books:

1. Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H Lawrence

I FINALLY got around to reading this book after looking at it on my shelf for months. Meh. I can understand why this novel was considered controversial at the time it was published and most certainly why it was viewed as racey but I was underwhelmed by it and didn’t think it merited its huge reputation as a classic to be read by all. Far too predictable and I didn’t like any of the characters. It was okay but I won’t be re-reading it.

2. Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

I love Hornby, will read anything he writes, which is why I dived at this book when it hit book shelves this Christmas. And also, unfortunately, why I was ultimately disappointed. It was another “meh”. A couple of funny moments but not great. Not a great storyline, not great characters and really not in any way memorable. You might categorise it as “could do better”. I still love Nick.

3. Us by David Nicholls.

David Nicholls is the author of one of my favourite novels ever – One Day. Again, I was eagerly awaiting this novel as he hasn’t written any novels since then and I was truly excited to start into Us. Perhaps I was again expecting too much because although it was quite entertaining at times and very easy to read, it wasn’t anywhere as good as One Day. Not bad, a good airplane read but unlike One Day , I won’t be re-reading it either. Having said that, if he writes another novel, I will be reading it.

4. A Dance with Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust by George R. R. Martin

5. A Dance with Dragons 2: After the Feast by George R. R Martin

6. Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Irish author Liz Nugent opens her novel in dramatic form with her protagonist Oliver abruptly exploding at the dinner table and beating his beloved wife into a coma. From there, we gradually learn how they came to reach that point, what made Oliver become the man he was and what drove him to that point. Intriguing, isn’t it? I was hooked. That was chapter one. She had me until about chapter 4 or 5 and then I was just reading to finish it because it was annoying me, boring me and because I cannot start a book and not finish it. I was tempted. It was a great opener, a good idea but it just seemed to lose its direction, the good story and in the end, or rather before halfway…it just fizzled out. I didn’t even really care about the wife by the end of it. Or Oliver. Sorry. Give it a miss.

7. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

From the acclaimed writer of the recent blockbuster movie Child 44 comes his most recent novel. A retired couple living in London decide to move to rural Sweden where they plan to spend their retirement years. One night, their only son, living in London, receives a phonecall from his father who is agitated and upset. He tells him that his mother has not been well, that she’s been having issues and that she has had to be admitted to a mental hospital. Shortly after, he receives another phonecall, this time from his mother. She tells him that everything his father has just told him is a lie, that there is nothing wrong with her, that the father is conspiring to make her look mad and that she needs the police. It’s a hooker, isn’t it? This is a good thriller. You are pulled along from opening chapter, intrigued by what is going on and who to believe. Gradually the story unfolds and the reader is slowly fed more background as you are left to try and solve the mystery for yourself. You really are left uncertain as to who to believe until the very end so if you like a good thriller, read this. It’s not going to rock your world but it would make for a good beach / holiday read.

That’s all folks! Next on my list is this good looking lot:

1. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
2. A Bleak House – Charles Dickens
3. Everything I Never Told You – Celeste N.G
4. The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters
5. Under the Greenwood Tree – Thomas Hardy
6. All the Light We Cannot See

Dickens the First: A Tale of Two Cities

My first Dickensian novel and my last of all novels of 2014, A Tale of Two Cities aptly ended my first year of trying to read as many novels as I can possibly fit into 12 calendar months. Aware of his much famed and critically acclaimed skills and accomplishments as a writer, I approached this book with a high expectations that within its pages would be waiting a marriage of one marvellously crafted plot, told in elegant, flowing language by a highly skilled hand. Perhaps I set my expectations too high and perhaps I overshot with allowing A Tale of Two Cities to be the first of Charles Dickens’ novels to read but I was admittedly somewhat disappointed. I should also point out that having picked up this novel on the back of having just finished Tess of the D’Ubervilles, which I thoroughly enjoyed to the point of fast-tracking it into my top 10 books of all time, it is likely that whatever book came next was almost bound to be something of a comedown. Dickens’ Tale is set in the late 18th Century against the backdrop of the French Revolution, the plight of the French peasantry, the contrasting class situation among the aristocracy in England and in particular, it centres around the story of a man who has been imprisoned in the Bastille before he is found and returned to England by his daughter. It explores themes including justice, poverty, revolution, the role of women and love. Dickens’ novel relates an interesting story and while never boring, I found it more of a chore to read than Hardy’s Tess, though admittedly they involve rather different plots. There are some wonderful paragraphs in Tale and some very astute lines in this book that seem to perfectly capture certain moments, lines which I have marked for revisiting in the future. His skill as an observer, as well as a writer in terms of his ability to aptly capture and describe particular scenes and moments shine through in the pages of this book. However, as an enjoyable read as a whole, the book falls down somewhat and I found that, for me, at least, it did simply did not flow with the ease I had expected it to. Nevertheless, I will read more Dickens and without giving into the temptation to once again set my expectations at too high a level, I hope to have a better experience the next time.