[tecweston]

Just Finished:

- A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin - Phew! I bought the "Game of Thrones" 4-ebook bundle last summer, but at 3500 pages it took me the better part of a year to get through it all. This was my least favorite book of the series so far, but reading it simultaneously with the next book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, made it drag a little bit less.

It didn't really build to any kind of huge finale the way the last few books did, it just kind of ended. And almost all the POV characters in the book were either characters I don't care about or characters I've never heard of before. And the Starks are barely in this at all, with three measly Arya chapters and three Sansa chapters, none of which really furthered their characters along at all. I have no idea how they'll adapt this book into the TV series, other than combining it with ADwD and stretching out the Stark girls' arcs and embellishing them a lot.

I think about half (or more) of this book could have been chopped out without sacrificing too much of the main story. GRRM gets too caught up in the minute details of the war, and minor characters that are seen once or twice and never again. I think readers care about the characters we've grown to love and just want to see the war through their eyes, not read about the war for the throne as if it's a history book.

Currently Reading:

- Whitechapel: The Last Stand of Sherlock Holmes by Bernard J. Schaffer (64%)

- A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin (51%)

- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (~20%) [on hold]