Epic fantasy is epic

[yakalskovich]

Slowly getting hooked on 'Game of Thrones'. I like how they take time to tell the story, give you time to start caring about all those characters. My favourites so far are Tyrion Lannister, and Littlefinger, and I must admit to a certain predilection for Danaerys despite the fact there this feeling of "one trope too many" around her which so far prevents her from developing much non-tropical personality.

I find it slightly worrying that the entire series of books isn't even completely written yet. Eventually, Wikipedia assures me, people are certain that the three story lines (only starting out at where I am) of a power struggle in King's Landing, Danaerys beyond the sea, and Jon Snow up at the Wall will come together. But how can they if they aren't written yet?

What I like is how there are really alien elements in the familiarity of High Fantasy's perpetual middle ages, starting with the odd square things the priests (or whatever, Maesters?) wear on their shoulders at Jon Arryn's funeral rites at the very beginning, mediterrenean/oriental elements both in King's Landing and beyond the sea, and the steampunk/fallen former technical civilisation elements at the Wall. Suddenly, clockwork elevators and steel t-beam constructions, whoops! That tells us that many long winters ago/before the dragons came/ whatever, civilisation was much more advanced. The Wall itself -- what in blazes might have built it?

So many delightful answers that might be so many years in the coming. I don't know that I'll want to read the books (my to-be-read-pile has reached Pluto, who tells the books on top of the stack that he's a planet, never mind what those haters say), but I guess until somebody commits bad shark-jumping the way Supernatural has, I'll be along for the ride, show-wise.-



ETA: Ahahahahahahhhh, Guppy Sandhu as a barbarian warrior! I knew I know that face!!! That made me hoot with laughter, and totally killed my Suspension of Disbelief there, as bad as Caserta in Star Wards Episode 1... Now I scared the cats away with my raucous laughter.-

ETA2: Now with pictorial proof:

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Despite (or maybe because of?) old favourites, I probably will never start watching, never mind the rape (debate). I like your Pluto pladoyer. I asked someone else already and got no answer: wtf happened in the last spn? *doesn't watch*

[yakalskovich]

I don't know what happened in the last episode of SPN. I've stopped watching when it degraded to taking turns between silly episodes mocking the fans, and this rambling story arc about god and the devil where you felt the creators themselves didn't know where they were going. I loved the first seasons, but all this god-and-devil stuff was just too much shark-jumping for me. Also, the way they kept killing off all interesting female characters started bugging me.-

I guess when dealing with Game of Thrones, the very nastiest aspects of life are part and parcel of it. It's dark and gritty; people routinely don't stop at killing children.-

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Ah, yeah, I stopped after my first eg *g*

I can't tell because I neither read nor watched but supposedly the show is more honest except - it's a trope in every single fantasy book and "romance" novel, so I didn't see it as an aspect of real life as much as a desire of many consumers and/or writers. Sex and gore and religion :)

[yakalskovich]

Well, tropes are not a bad thing; they're the tesserae story-telling is made of, and humans are story-telling animals. If I want to avoid tropes, I'd have to avoid not just all fictional stories, but history and current affairs as well...

**grins**

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Hey, I do that!

[yakalskovich]

I think I like storytelling too much as it is. Even the natural storytelling by reality as it is.-

[ceitfianna]

I think you'd probably appreciate the books with all the details and politics.

I found the world tiring after a while as things never seems to let up ever, but they're compelling reads.

I read up to the third book and then the fourth book sat on my shelf for ages as I didn't want to go back into the world again.

[yakalskovich]

When my stack of unread books has shrunk back to somewhere in the vicinity of Jupiter's orbit, I'll consider the books.-

[ceitfianna]

*eyes my own to read pile*

That seems fair. They really do pile up.

[yakalskovich]

They are everywhere, and will probably take over my flat if the cats and I let them...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I love the series and just started the book. I cannot imagine how anyone can understand what is going on in the series without reading the book at the same time, but I think HBO has done a brilliant job with it nonetheless.

George Martin keeps everyone abreast of updates (books and show) on his comm grrm. Rest assured -- he has the whole series planned out, even if they aren't written. You have to think of it in terms of Harry Potter - JKR wrote the last chapter before she wrote the other six books.

[yakalskovich]

Oh good -- it would be a pity to not see how it all comes together.

And actually, I am using TV Tropes and other wikis to quickly look up who is supposed to be who, read backstory, and find out which bits are important. It may be an odd way of going about things, but so far, I haven't felt lost in that world even once, and am enjoying it tremendously.-

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I wish they would cover more of the history of the White Walkers and the wildings. I am not far in the book, but I am told the detail is sensational.

[yakalskovich]

Well, as I said, I'm willing to give the books a chance when my current pile of unread books has dwindled down far enough so I can at least see the top...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

LOL I hear you! The stack beside my bed is so large, I can no longer tell what is on the very bottom.

[yakalskovich]

I have several stacks, actually, distributed around the flat. Each by itself looks rather harmless, but they do sum up. And all those books are absolutely fascinating, of course, from the steampunk anthology to the wildest oddball historical conspiracy theory ever not involving any Knights Templar...

At least it doesn't look like this yet:

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The actor who plays Rakharo (can't remember his name at the moment, but the cute guy in the photo) and the actress who plays Irri, turned out to be by far the most "fluent" Dothraki speakers in the cast. I think they may have gotten their parts expanded due to this salient fact.

I took a detour to reread the two Points novels by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett (YAY!), but am back on track for my grand re/read of the entire Song of Ice and Fire series to date. I'm picking up right about the events of episode seven, I believe, so it's very timely.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Oh that is brilliant and the princess head board the perfect touch!

My latest technique is to line the walls (saves on the cost of individual bookshelves)

[yakalskovich]

His name is Elyes Gabel, and he used to play a doctor named Guppy Sandhu in the never-ending BBC series 'Casualty', which I have personally only seen the very first episodes of when I lived there in 1986/87; however, this character has been in Milliways for many years and interacted with most of my characters there, being the main charrie played by the lovely bigfluffball, so Guppy Sandhu feels like somebody that I know (when it's really just 'Suti and Teja and Urq who knew or know him).

Seeing Guppy play a barbarian warrior is just scream-out-loud funny for me, or perhaps for those of my 'headvoices' (as we RPers call them) that know him...

[yakalskovich]

I don't know if the book-stack bed is a terrible sacrilege or a brilliant design idea. I have a metal grating bookshelf, myself, that was made by IKEA about ten years ago and got discontinued due to copyright issues. It is very lighweight and (dis)assembles easily with a little help from a rubber mallet. It has served me well and will take three rows of paperback books per shelf. Each shelf is a tad high (will accommodate an A4 ringbinder) which means that about 1/3 to 1/4 of the wall height is wasted, but it's still the most elegant system for storing books that I have so far encountered.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

The great thing about the wall method (which I am sold on, btw) is that it is not only cheap, but infinitely expandable (until you get to the end of the wall).

One simply purchases boards (I used pine, but you can use maple or oak if you want to be fancy) and attach the runners on the inside. Using brackets you attach the big board to the wall and then simply fit the shelves in.

All of the lumber is pre-cut at Home Depot, but if you need it cut a certain length, the guys there will do it for you (they didn't even charge me!).

It's idiot-proof; you don't even have to know how to hammer a nail straight! I used screws.

[yakalskovich]

It does require solid walls, which I do not have; the walls here are drywalls made of plasterboard/sheetrock/whatchamacallit, and you need special dowels to hang anything on it. Using the wrong ones can result in catastrophe, as I learned to my great and personal damage when I moved in.


Warning on that link for bloody feet and great destruction of lovely Lomonossov china!!

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

OMG that is so awful!

And to loose the dish!

There are companies in the West that carry it (and definitely look in Helsinki, even in the flea markets where lots of Russians sell their valuables).

http://www.ekaterinas.com/

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I collect the Kalevala plates from Arabia. If one ever fell, I would be devastated!

[yakalskovich]

My mother went on a cruise of the Baltic with her best friend last summer and finally got me replacement Lomonossov saucers from that shop in Helsinki, and then went on to St. Petersburg and bought more Lomonossov for me, as we both like fine china, and she could feel my pain when the saucers broke, leaving me with only the cups which I couldn't possibly and sensibly use on their own.

Then, she pretended she hadn't had time to look, and then, she dumped it all on me with a big grin last Christmas night, and I was OMG so happy to have saucers again, and a little plate for sweets I hadn't had before, and teapots and everything...