My local Mid-Continent Library branch was closed for a couple weeks to do some updating and rearranging. I didn't realize how dependent I'd grown until it was taken away - serious withdrawal from new books and old TV series on DVD.
Its a good thing I have a library in my home, huh?
I love a good fantasy series, and a few years ago I ran across George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series while browsing at Half-Price Books. I read through the first book in a couple days, thanks to warm summer weather and a backyard hammock. I picked them up again this weekend and remembered why I'd run through the series (4 novels thus far) so quickly.
The chapter titles are the name of the character on which it focuses, so as I became interested in the characters it was hard to put down the book. Jon Snow, bastard son of Eddard Stark, intrigued me. Rather than feeling sorry for himself and lack of status, he chose the path of his life and set to it with the integrity of a true-born. Arya Stark preferred learning sword-play to lady-like behavior, and the circumstances that came across the Stark household made that seem a good choice.
Daenarys is perhaps my favorite character. The last princess of the old king, she found herself married to a foreign price at the age of 13. Having a mad older brother taught her the intrigue and self-reliance - she found her footing in her new society quickly, though her pet dragons definitely help sway people.
The deeper I got into the series the more characters intrigued, Tyrion and Jaime Lannister, Bran Stark; seemingly minor characters that soon drew chapter titles of their own. Seemingly minor decisions proved to have incredible impact, and I'm finding in my re-read that many of them were introduced in the opening chapters of the first book.
Book 5 is a LOOOOOOONG time coming in the US - wish I'd remembered to pick it up when I was in Europe last fall, but I was much more obsessed with picking up the new Wheel of Time novel at that point. Ah well. I love re-reading novels since I pick up new things each time. Guess that will have to do me in this series for a bit.
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