Angels and Demons

The Mammoth book of Angels and Demons, 544 pages

This is another one of those collection of short stories novels based around a certain theme. As you might have been able to guess by the title every story is based on either angels, demons, or in some cases both. I am not sure what initially drew me to this book, maybe it was the cover art or the fact that it was edited by Puala Guran instead of the usual George R. R. Martin. Either way it was worth reading.

Like nearly every collective work I have posted on here, some stories were enjoyable, some were dull/boring, and others were just weird or interesting. While it did have stories by some of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, etc. none of the stories really stood out as exceptionally noteworthy. Though the TSA using the full body scanners to check for demon possession instead of weapons was close.

What was noticeable though was how often St Louis featured into this book. Of the twenty seven short stories I noticed that four and maybe a fifth(it was a little vaguer) either mentioned part of St Louis, took place here, or passed though the town. One of the stories even specifically mentions the bus half hanging off the roof of the City Museum! Getting even closer to the library one of the demons who was originally passing though St Louis ends up staying and residing in the Park Pacific Building, which is right across the street. When I was reading that story I just happened to be sitting out front of Central and could not help but glance at the building and give it a suspecting glare.

Having a book both talk about, or even mention areas that are familiar really help to immerse the reader and in this case make me like the book that much more. But I tend to find this only works when I don't know that St Louis is going to be mentioned, otherwise it loses the thrill.

Warriors

Warriors by Cecelia Holland, Joe Haldeman, Robin Hobb, Lawrence Block, Tad Williams, Joe R. Lansdale, Peter S. Beagle, Diana Gabaldon, Naomi Novik, Steven Saylor, James Rollins, David Weber, Carrie Vaughn, S.M. Stirling, Howard Waldrop, Gardner Dozois, David Morrell, Robert Silverberg, David Bell, and George R.R. Martin, 736 pages

The main reason I read these books, and the others like them, are for the tastes of various authors writings. With most of the novellas only hitting 30 pages you don't have to worry about struggling through any one author for too long. The fact that it has another novella about/from the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin helps as well.

All of the novellas follow the theme of having warriors of various types in them. Among my favorites were Out of the Dark by David Weber, The Eagle and the Rabbit by Steven Saylor and Defenders of the Frontier by Robert Silverberg.

Dangerous Women

Dangerous Women by George R. R. Martin, 784 pages

Despite being listed as by George R. R. Martin, this is actually a collection of stories by a list of authors focused around the theme of dangerous women. I had initially picked up this book for the one short story by Martin, as it relates to his Songs of Ice and Fire series. As this story was the last one in the book I decided that I would read my way to it and completing the rest of the book would yield that prize.

While some of the stories start off a little slow for my liking there wasn’t a single bad one in the bunch. I do think that some stretched the meaning of dangerous though. This book covers a wide range of territory from middle ages to semi futuristic and from robbers to queens. It has murders, violence, action, and romance. Overall the book read quickly despite its size and I was able to add some more authors to my future reading list.  

Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons

Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin, 1060 pages and 1016 pages

 

These are books four and five in Martins, Song of Ice and Fire series. From talking with coworkers and checking online I became aware that Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons take place concurrently. As it happens, they were originally designed to be one book but as Martin was writing he realized that a 2000 page book was out of the question. This led to his choice on how to split the books. Unlike what most authors do, he chose to split the book in half by characters. So Feast for Crows has the chapters for all of the Southern Westros characters and Arya, and Dance with Dragons has the Wall and the Eastern lands.

Before I began reading I had decided to read them together as Martin had intended. To aid me I found a chapter listing online that put them in order in time. The guide even went out of its way to reorder a couple chapters to save plot twists that would have been revealed. Reading both books and hopping back and forth between them made for slow progress but I think a more enjoyable experience overall.

Sadly I must now join the millions of people out there that are waiting for the next installment of Song of Ice and Fire and the publisher just announced not to expect it till at least 2015…

The Storm of Swords

Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, 973 pages                          

After seeing how many main characters die in this volume of the Song of Ice and Fire series, I am starting to wonder if any characters will make it to the end. It also seems that Martin realized what his readers would want and actually killed off some of the people we wanted to see die. Sadly I am developing a disconnect between some of the characters as they get added as any that I end of liking seem to die.

The Storm of Swords also marks a turning point in the theme of the novels as well. The previous books tended to focus on the customary middle ages. By that I mean sword fights, kings, political weddings etc. This volume introduces more magic then the previous two and actually uses magic to kill of some characters. Storm of Swords also starts to bring the different religions to the forefront. Where people would only go so far as to pray in the previous books, here we get sacrifices and killings to appease and worship the new gods.

While the adding of more themes, and more characters, brings a new outlook on the kingdom and takes it more in the sci-fi designation it has, I hope we don’t end up completely leaving the middle ages themes behind.

The Clash of Kings

The Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, 1009 pages

This book continues the Song of Fire and Ice Series that started with Game of Thrones. This series is amazing and worth reading. However, I would not advise getting too attached to any of the characters because they tend to die rather frequently. The only ones that seem not to die are the ones that you can’t stand. King Joffrey would be a perfect example. While I hoped he would die numerous times, so far no one has been able to kill the brat. But there are still more books to go so my fingers are crossed.

This series has just about everything that a science fiction series needs. It has epic battles, magic, monsters, and everything in between. This book and this book series does contain adult themes and are NOT appropriate for younger readers. In movie ratings it would likely by rated R. 

A Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, 694 pages

A Game of Thrones, the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, likely would have gone unnoticed by me if it wasn't for the HBO series with the same name. With the series receiving such high praise and my coworkers talking about it, I requested the first season through the library. Despite hour long episodes the first season flew by and I really enjoyed watching it. Since I knew it was based off a book I mentally added the book and the series to my reading list.

I planned to pick up and read Game of Thrones the next time I saw it on the shelves here at Central. As the months went by and it failed to make an appearance, at least when I looked, I finally decided to put it on request. I now regret waiting.

When I started reading it was like I had read it before. Not only does the HBO series follow it very closely, they even use some of the vary dialog from the book. In some ways this took away from the novel as the parts that were suppose to be suspenseful were not. I knew what was going to happen already, despite the chapter ending on a cliffhanger.

I still would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys science fiction and anyone who liked the TV show. But I would strongly advise reading the book before watching the show.