Loose Ends – DaneCobain.com

Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – The Long Utopia | Review

Title: The Long Utopia

Author: Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 448

Rating 3.5/5

At this point, I’m pretty much just continuing to read these books to see what happens next. It’s not as though there’s anything specifically wrong with it, it’s just that I think the series was best right at the start when all of the ideas were still fresh. The idea of people being able to step from one world to another is a solid one, but there’s only so much that you can do with it. By this point, the concept no longer feels freeing, because a lot of the possibilities have been explored by now. Now it feels as though the story line itself is being dictated by its own constraints, and that could be a problem – especially for the last book.

Still, I’m enjoying myself enough, and I will be picking up the last book in the series. I’ve also come around to the way in which huge amounts of time pass between each book, because while it does get annoying just to discover that so-and-so broke up with their wife between books or whatever, it does at least mean we get to see each of the characters throughout their entire lifetime.

And the writing itself is pretty good, and I’m still enjoying the sense of humour as well. In fact, if I were to judge this as a standalone instead of as part of a series, I’d probably be a little more optimistic about it, because it is a good book. It’s just that this one and the last one had nothing on the first series, and we’re now getting to the point at which it feels as though they’re just tying up loose ends and following the science to its inevitable conclusion, instead of just telling a story.

But it still has all of the good stuff that made me love this series, including a whole heap of references to popular culture, popular science and popular psychology. This is one of those rare fiction novels where it actually feels as though you’re learning something when you’re reading it, and you come out the other end feeling much more intelligent than you did when you started.

So would I recommend this one? Of course I would, although I can also see how it might not be for everyone and there’s really no point skipping straight into it. Instead, you should start from the beginning and just keep going, especially if you find yourself enjoying it. What more could you want? Give the series a go – you won’t be disappointed.

Click here to buy The Long Utopia.

George R. R. Martin – A Feast for Crows | Review

Title: A Feast for Crows

Author: George R. R. Martin

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 852

Rating: 8/10

George R. R. Martin – A Feast for Crows

A Feast for Crows is the fourth book in George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire series, the series which was adapted for television as Game of Thrones. I’ve powered through the first four books in a couple of months, and I’m really enjoying them so far, although A Feast for Crows is arguably my least favourite one so far. That said, there’s still a lot of cool stuff to talk about.

I think the main reason that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as any of the other ones is that it doesn’t feature much about Daenerys Stormborn or Jon Snow. I find it pretty difficult to choose a favourite character from the books, but those two are two of my favourites, and they’re barely even mentioned here. Still, I’m of the understanding that they’ll be back in force in the next book, which is winging its way to me as we speak.

In this book, Tommen Baratheon is on the iron throne, but Joffrey’s little brother isn’t really old enough to know much about kinging. That said, he does learn a lot from his new wife, Margaery Tyrell – I don’t like her, but I don’t like Cersei Lannister either, and in this book the two of them start to engage in a polite form of warfare. There’s a twist towards the end of the book, but I’m not going to tell you what that is.

George R.R. Martin

You also learn a little more of Samwell Tarly, who’s an underrated character in my opinion. He’s one of my favourites of the men of the Night’s Watch, mainly because he’s a cowardly hero, an antihero of sorts – he wants to be like Jon Snow, and he can’t be. But that doesn’t stop him from being awesome, especially when it comes to him protecting Gilly (Craster’s daughter) and the infant that she’s suckling.

I could go on and on about the people of the books, and the relationships that link them all together, but I’m not going to – I don’t want to spoil it for you when you read it, like I’m sure you’re going to. The thing about the Game of Thrones books is that they really need to be read in chronological order for their maximum effect to be felt, and so I’d encourage you not to make a start on this one until you’ve read the others. That said, once you read the first one, it’s pretty hard for you to put the books down, and you’ll find yourself ploughing through them in no time.

As always, George R. R. Martin’s characterisation is top notch, and so is his world-building – Westeros feels like a real place, but whereas Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books tend to feel like a history textbook, Martin’s books feel much more like a piece of entertainment. That can only be a good thing – it makes it easy to read, even though it’s over eight hundred pages long, and I’m a particular fan of how Martin tees himself up in one book to knock it out of the park in a later one.

George R. R. Martin and Peter Dinklage

Here, we see a whole bunch of loose ends being tied up, but we’re also given a glimpse of all sorts of possibilities and potential story lines. I’m even half-interested in Sansa Stark, for the first time since I started reading the books – she’s posing as Littlefinger’s bastard daughter, and the two of them make for an interesting combination of characters.

Now, we’re getting to the point where new characters are a necessity, because half of the original characters are dead, dying or missing. Martin introduces us to a few new major characters in this book, but none of them were particularly memorable for me – I’m mainly interested in what’s happening in the north, and so as soon as we go anywhere else, I feel my interest starting to wane. I’m also impatient for Daenerys to meet up with the rest of the characters, and to see what they make of her.

Still, you do get some interesting cross-pollination here, and one of the things that’s always interested me about these books is that the characters cross over and meet each other from time to time, like Littlefinger and Sansa, or like Arya and Samwell Tarly, who meet, briefly, here. One of Martin’s strengths is how strong his characters are, and so when two interesting characters come into contact, you never know what to expect.

Overall, then, I gave A Feast for Crows the lowest score I’ve given to any of George R. R. Martin’s books, but I’ve still given it an 8/10. I can’t get enough of the epic fantasy series, and I’ve already ordered the next book, which is his most recent at the time of publication. I’m not sure what I’m going to do after I finish reading it – I guess I’ll watch the TV series, which I’ve already made start on.