Thursday, October 13, 2005

Two Updates

First, I am about 180 pages into "A Feast for Crows", and I am enjoying it immensely. It doesn't have the radical ups and downs of "A Storm of Swords" (or at least not yet), but that doesn't surprise me.* Those of you who follow the series know that ASoS is a veritable frenzy of war, betrayal, and political intrigue, but that kind of frenzy can't last forever. AFfC feels more like the eye of the storm, in which political players both old and new are regaining their strength and taking stock of new opportunities for gain. I know that there have been bad reviews, but I enjoy this story and these characters so much that even if AFfC doesn't have much action I will still love it. George has created this incredibly rich and fascinating world, and I'm glad to tour it via reading.**

I was reading today about the progress of the Dover, PA trial regarding the introduction of "intelligent design" into public schools. The following exchange is between Brian Alters, a professor of science education at McGill University in Montreal, and defense attorney Robert Muise, who has the unenviable task of defending the Dover school board. Muise is questioning Alters' assertions that teaching "intelligent design" is detrimental to students.

Muise: "Do you have studies to show that intelligent design is detrimental?"
Alters: "I have no studies that show that any pseudo science is detrimental."

Go Dr. Alters!

*No doubt in the rest of the book a giant kraken will eat Westeros or some other suitably cataclysmic event will occur, just to make me a liar.
** If you're getting ready to chide me for providing spoilers, save it. First of all, I've said nothing that speaks to specific or even general actions on the part of characters. Second, my blog, my rules. I won't spoil the story here, but I reserve the right to make general comments.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Every one of the books starts out slow, though. ACoK is fairly gradual until Renly dies. AGoT has Bran's fall relatively early, but most of the first half is character stuff too. And even ASoS, which is climactic as all hell eventually, doesn't feature a lot of action until Beric whips out his flaming sword (or Jaime loses his hand; I don't recall which happens first).

-S. Tarzan

TrackerNeil said...

I see your point, but ASoS always felt more tense to me even before the action started. Maybe because so much looked bad for the Starks when the book started, what with Stannis defeated at the Blackwater and the desertion of the Freys.

Anonymous said...

A Feast of Crows is out?!?

Hell Yeah