Very happy to read your thoughts on aDwD. I thought AFFC was well done, if exceedingly bleak, but I very much disliked Dance, for a lot of the same reasons as you. I started to do a reread to see why I didn't like it and then stopped after two parts. (here is the beginning in the unlikely event anyone cares: http://mojave-wolf.livejournal.com/170510.html )
Among the bits which overlapped with your thinking:
Example of how this book can be well-written and off-putting at the same time- A paragraph about Tyrion pissing followed up by "He pisses well, at least," a voice observed. Then Tyrion shakes off a few drops and replies "Pissing is the least of my talents. You ought to see me shit." Okay, it's witty. But there's a LOT of piss and shit in this book, it seems like. Yeah, I get it, same as with the disease and the bad smells—there's a thematic point. This book is a dungheap--errr, no, wait, that's not quite the thematic point--the world of this book is a dungheap. But excretion is necessary to fertilize growth! And it's a dungheap full of maggots!!! And we all know what comes from maggots!!! Yes, aDwD is full of maggots just *waiting* to hatch into butterflies!!!! (that last bit in reference to a previously overheard conversation IRL where someone was insisting that maggots turn into butterflies; I don't actually think the book was being that optimistic)
&
Dany is one of my favorite characters, and I sympathize and empathize with her a lot in the first 3 books. I'm also fond of Barristan Selmy. And Grey Worm. But I am not loving this chapter. Partly I'm kinda overdosing on grim and depressing at this point. Partly there seems to be a "good-hearted people are naive, stupid and helpless" theme going down in Mereen, which irritates me. Yes, I know, Dany is just a young girl, etc, but her lack of imaginative problem solving in this book baffles me, and seems to run counter to her past boldness. And Selmy apparently just completely failed to progress beyond the Eddard Stark School of Politics despite living 60 years in two different nests of vipers. So, um, yeah. Sorta over authorial stacking the deck in a way that doesn't work for me,whatever the purpose might be. Also, I'm thinking the dragon is being set up, cause, ummm, why/how did Drogon eat the kid but not the bones? But am not sure. Maybe the father followed the dragon and dug through the excrement. That would be pretty typical of this book, actually. I'm almost surprised we didn't get a detailed scene. Which makes me again think "set up." Anyway, I want the dragons to start eating all the adults, or at least the vast majority of adults that I really don't like. That would make this book a lot better.
And yeah,no way Dany treats her dragons like that. I don't buy it.
And while I did like *some* parts of the book, iirc, which puts me more in its camp than you in some respects, I'm totally with you on this: "There's just piss and shit and cannibalism and people being flayed and stupidity and bad decisions and the payoff never coming."
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yati
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Date: 2013-04-26 06:48 pm (UTC)Among the bits which overlapped with your thinking:
Example of how this book can be well-written and off-putting at the same time- A paragraph about Tyrion pissing followed up by "He pisses well, at least," a voice observed. Then Tyrion shakes off a few drops and replies "Pissing is the least of my talents. You ought to see me shit." Okay, it's witty. But there's a LOT of piss and shit in this book, it seems like. Yeah, I get it, same as with the disease and the bad smells—there's a thematic point. This book is a dungheap--errr, no, wait, that's not quite the thematic point--the world of this book is a dungheap. But excretion is necessary to fertilize growth! And it's a dungheap full of maggots!!! And we all know what comes from maggots!!! Yes, aDwD is full of maggots just *waiting* to hatch into butterflies!!!!
(that last bit in reference to a previously overheard conversation IRL where someone was insisting that maggots turn into butterflies; I don't actually think the book was being that optimistic)
&
Dany is one of my favorite characters, and I sympathize and empathize with her a lot in the first 3 books. I'm also fond of Barristan Selmy. And Grey Worm. But I am not loving this chapter. Partly I'm kinda overdosing on grim and depressing at this point. Partly there seems to be a "good-hearted people are naive, stupid and helpless" theme going down in Mereen, which irritates me. Yes, I know, Dany is just a young girl, etc, but her lack of imaginative problem solving in this book baffles me, and seems to run counter to her past boldness. And Selmy apparently just completely failed to progress beyond the Eddard Stark School of Politics despite living 60 years in two different nests of vipers. So, um, yeah. Sorta over authorial stacking the deck in a way that doesn't work for me,whatever the purpose might be. Also, I'm thinking the dragon is being set up, cause, ummm, why/how did Drogon eat the kid but not the bones? But am not sure. Maybe the father followed the dragon and dug through the excrement. That would be pretty typical of this book, actually. I'm almost surprised we didn't get a detailed scene. Which makes me again think "set up." Anyway, I want the dragons to start eating all the adults, or at least the vast majority of adults that I really don't like. That would make this book a lot better.
And yeah,no way Dany treats her dragons like that. I don't buy it.
And while I did like *some* parts of the book, iirc, which puts me more in its camp than you in some respects, I'm totally with you on this: "There's just piss and shit and cannibalism and people being flayed and stupidity and bad decisions and the payoff never coming."