Saturday, July 17, 2010

A- for "The Eye of the World" but a WARNING

A- for "The Eye of the World" is a well-earned grade. The pacing of this book is brisk and you hardly notice as the pages fly by, only partly because they are on the run from (practically) the beginning to the end of this novel.

I do have to warn readers that I was unable to even finish the second novel of this series, and note that other reviewers have pointed out that the pacing of later novels in this series becomes glacial, at best. If you want to absolutely read something in the same vein as the lord of the rings, this is a good choice. I MUCH prefer GRRM and his grittier, more realistic (assuming you accept the premise of the world the characters live in) setting.

If you don't want grittiness, I'd still recommend Rothfuss's series over the Wheel of Time. I enjoyed this book, but you've been warned about what you're getting into. Still, there are an enormous amount of people who absolutely love these books, so by no means take my word to heart if you are interested in reading this series. Read the first book, try the second, and maybe even the third, to see for yourself. Best of luck!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Toy Story 2/ Other Stuff

Well, I sat down and watched Toy Story 2. I wondered during the third movie why some of the characters seemed so unfamiliar to me (little did I know that the closest I got to watching the actual movie was watching movie trailers a long time back).
Result?
Amazing, once again. It's astounding and wonderful what the writers did with a movie "about toys." I might have enjoyed Toy Story 3 even more if I had seen this one already, but as it stands it was still fun (although watching the dvd on a 19" computer monitor isn't especially exciting).

To prove that I am well-rounded in the kinds of stories I like, I'll also say that I've begun reading "Best Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie. Just finished the first chapter, and it certainly starts off with a bang. I'm interested to see where he goes with it. Having read much of his other work, I have to say that I'm impressed with his action scenes in particular. In the first novel I wrote, every action scene was melodramatic and ugly (and not in the gritty-realistic kind of ugly that I'd like). With that said, I'm going to be paying extra special attention to all scenes with excessive violence (is there any other kind in your novels, Joe?) with the faint hope of somehow absorbing some of his descriptive powers.

In other news, (and at the risk of repeating the same word too many times) news about the HBO "Game of Thrones" adaptation is coming along nicely. Even with GRRM on vacation the winter-is-coming blog is keeping things running smoothly and rumours flowing like a delicious rumour-y wine. Conan Stevens is perfect as Gregor Clegane. The rest of the cast is fantastic. Enough said for now. It's going to be an amazing show. And please check out www.winter-is-coming.net for further news.