A few weeks ago, I embarked on a journey to read George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. For the most part, I've enjoyed the series (my review of A Game of Thrones is here), but it is loooooooong. In addition, I've found a few phrases and words I never want to see again...although considering I have three books left in the series (A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons), I'm convinced we shall meet again.
Here are my five worst offenders so far:
Ser. Martin tries to set his fantasy world apart from our own medieval history, which is fine by me. After all, this is a fantasy book. So we see a number of names that could "almost" be from the English language (or another real-world language), but have a different spelling. In the series, "sir" doesn't indicate a knight; the word "ser" does. I'm more than half a million words into this series, and I still can't get used to this. I blame my background in Spanish (I studied it in both high school and college); "ser" means "to be," not "a knight."
Something with a "ling" to it. Lordling, wildling, sweetling. Ick. Especially sweetling. They're the equivalent of diminutives or terms of endearment. I don't care for them.
Craven. Meaning "cowardly," this word and its derivatives appear too many times in the series. A quick search through the Kindle shows "craven" appears 27 times in A Clash of Kings and 43 times in A Storm of Swords. When you're reading a book that's so long and detailed, a word like this shouldn't stick out, but it certainly does.
Boiled leather. Not being a master of arms, I don't have a lot of context for this method of armor plating. However, it seems nearly everyone is dressed in "boiled leather" at one time or another.
Corn...corn...corn. Stupid birds. Seriously. SHUT. UP.
Showing posts with label clash of kings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clash of kings. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Updates for the Week of November 7
I have received confirmation that the short story anthology Attack of the 50FT Book has received an official reprieve. After being cancelled by Library of the Living Dead Press due to budgetary problems, the good folks at Pill Hill Press (the same place that published my short story "And the World Stopped") have decided to take on the anthology. A few of the authors dropped out, but the majority will stay the course and see their short stories published. Bravo!
Another anthology, Beta City, remains in flux, My story is short-listed on that one and stands a good chance of making it in. The antho, however, was a casualty of the purge at Library of the Living Dead. I know the editor is shopping the anthology around and hoping someone will publish it. Let's hope we find someone...and that my short story makes the final cut.
Crimsonstreak 2: Crimsonstreakier* is coming right along. The first draft is at 73,000 words. I expect this one to be a little longer than the first book. Heck, the first draft already dwarfs the original Crimsonstreak, which clocked in at a meaty 50,000 words. Crimsonstreakier may end up in the 100,000 word range when all the extra stuff is complete.
I just finished A Clash of Kings, Book 2 in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I now have to tackle A Storm of Swords, which is a couple hundred pages longer. I have until November 24th before the library Kindle lending period ends. So, um, good luck with that.
Oh, and my Colts are officially the worst team in the NFL, thanks to our hapless 0-9 record. Since I am a dull-minded fellow, I will keep watching, though I will be using this a lot:
*Not the actual title, I promise
Another anthology, Beta City, remains in flux, My story is short-listed on that one and stands a good chance of making it in. The antho, however, was a casualty of the purge at Library of the Living Dead. I know the editor is shopping the anthology around and hoping someone will publish it. Let's hope we find someone...and that my short story makes the final cut.
Crimsonstreak 2: Crimsonstreakier* is coming right along. The first draft is at 73,000 words. I expect this one to be a little longer than the first book. Heck, the first draft already dwarfs the original Crimsonstreak, which clocked in at a meaty 50,000 words. Crimsonstreakier may end up in the 100,000 word range when all the extra stuff is complete.
I just finished A Clash of Kings, Book 2 in the Song of Ice and Fire series. I now have to tackle A Storm of Swords, which is a couple hundred pages longer. I have until November 24th before the library Kindle lending period ends. So, um, good luck with that.
Oh, and my Colts are officially the worst team in the NFL, thanks to our hapless 0-9 record. Since I am a dull-minded fellow, I will keep watching, though I will be using this a lot:
*Not the actual title, I promise
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Status Report
This is shaping up to be a very big week.
Today, of course, marks the start of National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated, and this year continues that trend. I plan to try next year because it sounds like a lot of fun.
It's simply not feasible this year. I'm elbow-deep in writing a sequel to I, Crimsonstreak. I hit another big milestone last night, reaching 70,000 words for that book. I'm thinking the first draft will be about 80,000 words...and that's just the main narrative. Like the first book, I plan to write a bunch of supplemental material to expand the universe. That will probably add another 15,000-20,000 words. I've also left some space in the main story for a few flashback vignettes, which I used to good effect in the first book. So the sequel will end up being a bit longer than the original. Of course, it's just a first draft, so I will have to do a lot of cutting, trimming, and expounding.
A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to power through the George R.R. Martin fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire." I'm not much of a fantasy reader (I'm mostly a general sci-fi type), but A Game of Thrones (my review here) was very good. I'm about 400 pages into A Clash of Kings right now. I'll have to finish it quickly; the library has also made A Storm of Swords available after I put in a hold request. With a 21-day lending limit on the library ebooks, it takes a little dedication to get through those massive tomes.
Between books in "A Song of Ice and Fire," I finished Ready Player One by Ernie Cline. The book came out this summer to quite a bit of fanfare, and it's definitely merited. I emailed the author, who has agreed to do a quick email interview with me on the blog. So when I write up my review for Ready Player One, I'll have a "Take Five with Ernie Cline" to go along with it (side note: I put an interview request in with George R.R. Martin, but I'm not crossing my fingers on that one).
I'm also the proud owner of my favorite movie of the summer:
I haven't done a formal review of Captain America: The First Avenger, but I did recap the summer's other superhero movies here.
Today, of course, marks the start of National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated, and this year continues that trend. I plan to try next year because it sounds like a lot of fun.
It's simply not feasible this year. I'm elbow-deep in writing a sequel to I, Crimsonstreak. I hit another big milestone last night, reaching 70,000 words for that book. I'm thinking the first draft will be about 80,000 words...and that's just the main narrative. Like the first book, I plan to write a bunch of supplemental material to expand the universe. That will probably add another 15,000-20,000 words. I've also left some space in the main story for a few flashback vignettes, which I used to good effect in the first book. So the sequel will end up being a bit longer than the original. Of course, it's just a first draft, so I will have to do a lot of cutting, trimming, and expounding.
A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to power through the George R.R. Martin fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire." I'm not much of a fantasy reader (I'm mostly a general sci-fi type), but A Game of Thrones (my review here) was very good. I'm about 400 pages into A Clash of Kings right now. I'll have to finish it quickly; the library has also made A Storm of Swords available after I put in a hold request. With a 21-day lending limit on the library ebooks, it takes a little dedication to get through those massive tomes.
Between books in "A Song of Ice and Fire," I finished Ready Player One by Ernie Cline. The book came out this summer to quite a bit of fanfare, and it's definitely merited. I emailed the author, who has agreed to do a quick email interview with me on the blog. So when I write up my review for Ready Player One, I'll have a "Take Five with Ernie Cline" to go along with it (side note: I put an interview request in with George R.R. Martin, but I'm not crossing my fingers on that one).
I'm also the proud owner of my favorite movie of the summer:
I haven't done a formal review of Captain America: The First Avenger, but I did recap the summer's other superhero movies here.
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