Feature and Follow Friday {3}

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. This week's featured blogs are Carmen Jenner and The YA Bookworm Blogger. 

This week's question is:

What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.

My answer:

When I read George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, at first, I had a problem with the multiple POVs. I hadn't read anything like that before, so it took me a while to adjust. Also, there's the abundance of metaphors in Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me. Some of them didn't make sense, but I still loved it. Overall, I think any device would work as long as it's executed well.

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Feature and Follow Friday {2}

Feature and Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. This week's featured blogs are Kinx's Book Nook and Book Liaison.

This week's question is:

When you step out of your usual genre, what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

My answer:

I usually read YA - I don't really base on genre, but I looked at my book stacks and noticed that I have lot of YA books - and the only non-YA books I have, aside from a few classics, are Adult Fantasy & Mystery/Thrillers. My favorite from the first is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and from the second, it's Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (which I'm planning to re-read soon!), particularly A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

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Book Review: A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin

 Title: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) - George R.R. Martin

Release Date: The edition I have was first published March 4th 2011

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 1177 (mass market paperback)

Goodreads 

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King’s Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world...

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...

THE COVER  

I've always loved the covers for the new editions of A Song of Ice and Fire. Simple but pretty.

THE STORY

HOLY SEVEN GODS, WAS THIS BOOK AMAZING. It was better than the first two, and in almost every chapter, an event occurred that made my jaw drop. There were a lot of happenings - unexpected ones, delivered in GRRM's trademark style. Numerous deaths, of course. By now, I've learned not to get too attached to most of the characters in this series because evil author is evil.

THE CHARACTERS

I'll start with the two characters who were added to my list of favorites in the course of this book: Sansa, because she's learning how to play the game of thrones - albeit really slowly, but all learning is learning - and Jaime, because he kept that snarky, smart egotistical attitude of his despite everything.

In the beginning of ASoS, Tyrion was faced with the problem of no I will not say his face lol being relieved of his Hand of the King position. Then towards the end, an even bigger problem was thrown his way. I really want to read AFfC soon but I'm afraid I would've forgotten everything that happened in it by the time the fourth season of the TV series begins airing.

Daenerys just keeps getting fiercer as her dragons grow, and I actually call her the "nomad queen". I can't wait for when she's finally able to go to the Seven Kingdoms- if GRRM lets her, lol.

And oh my dear Arya. You're too young to be living the life you have, but that'll only make you stronger.

MY FAVORITE PART was The Purple Wedding. One less villain in Westeros.

RATING: 78236427283/5 (Sorry, but five doesn't give this book enough justice.)

(photo and summary from Goodreads.com)

Book Review: A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin

Title: A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) - George R.R. Martin

Release Date: The edition I have was first published in 2011

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 1009 (mass market paperback)

Goodreads 

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Five words: HOLY GODS, OLD AND NEW!

A Clash of Kings picks up right where A Game of Thrones left off which means there's action right from the start. Robb Stark, whose original intention was only to avenge his father's death, gets proclaimed king  by the northerners. The Lannisters struggle to keep Joffrey on the Iron Throne. Stannis and Renly Baratheon, the late King Robert's brothers, gather their own armies and supporters to claim the throne for themselves, even if it means having to go against each other.

One of the most interesting things in the story was the war strategies, particularly the Lannisters'. I think it was especially hard for them because they had to keep their control over King's Landing and Casterly Rock while battling Robb who was marching from the north.

I love how all the characters (except Theon because he's still a vain idiot, and Rickon because he's still a whiny four-year-old) become stronger, wiser and braver. Tyrion goes about with his father's order to rule in his stead while keeping himself safe from his well-hidden foes. Arya tries to makes the right choices to keep herself alive when she's alone in the midst of her family's enemies. Even Sansa learns not to trust everyone, or anyone, because 'life is not a song'. But perhaps the one who has it the hardest is Lady Catelyn, what with the recent death of her husband, fearing for her children's lives, and facing the last hours of her father's life.

Unfortunately, there's a letdown in the ending. I don't know why but I found it somewhat dragging and because of that, I've decided to take a break from the events in Westeros and read more YA books. I'll start with A Storm of Swords as I watch season two of Game of Thrones in April.

My favorite part: Tyrion out-scheming Cersei. She just never learns.

Rating: 5/5
(photo and summary from goodreads.com)

Book Review: A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

 Title: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) - George R.R. Martin

Release Date: The edition I have was first published August 4th 1997

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 835 (mass market paperback)

Goodreads 

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.  

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

I first heard about A Game of Thrones when some people I followed on Twitter posted about how good the HBO series was. I google-d it and found out that it was based on a book so I decided to read first before watching, and that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

The story starts with the depiction of the lives of the Starks in Winterfell. It was generally peaceful until King Robert, Lord Eddard Stark's good friend, offered him something that he wanted to refuse at first but, thanks to a terrible turn of events, ended up accepting.

I totally regret not giving more time for reading this book (I read this for four weeks *kicks self*) because the story was really fast-paced and unpredictable. At first it was quite confusing, though that's probably because of my lack of imagination. I would recommend reading a quarter of the book THEN watching the first episode of the TV series so that you can associate faces with most of the names. Also, I think another reason for that confusion of mine was because Martin jumped from one person's part of the story to another in every chapter, but I got used to it soon enough.

In conclusion, I love how there's a perfect mix of reality and fantasy in this story. Halfway through, I told myself I won't read the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire until after months, but I changed my mind when I got to the ending which was a total cliffhanger! So I would recommend buying the sequel, A Clash of Kings, before you finish this one.

My favorite part: Every time Tyrion displays his wit and humor, and Arya being the bad-ass that she is.

Rating: 5/5

(photo from goodreads.com; summary from publisher's website)