It’s out today! By next week it will be on the bestseller list and 30% off but I want it NOW! NOW I SAY!
It will take me the better part of five years to finish the monstrocity. Never fear, that will still give me plenty of time before Day of the Dragons hits the shelves.
So I just wanted to start a thread saying I’m going out at lunch today to pick it up today. Then I will faithfully ignore the thread I’ve just started because it will contain spoilers of parts of the book I haven’t gotten to yet.
Picked it up in my local game & book store two weeks ago.
It really surprised me that
[spoiler]nobody important die, as far as I can tell.
FTR, I don’t believe that Brienne croaks. But I really wonder what the word she shouts is.
Heh, and just to be evil, I’ll add a smiley that will show up in the spoiler box and drive everybody who haven’t read it yet crazy: :eek: [/spoiler]
Of course, despite being eight hundred pages or so (I’ve lent it out to a friend, so I can’t check) it was still too short. Now I’m back to waiting again. Aargh!!!
Next book is A Dance With Dragons, not Day, by the way.
So, some spoilers. Regarding Arya:Blind? Is this part of the training to become a Faceless Man? Is Martin screwing with us and she’s not really blind?
And Catelyn:Can you believe that Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr recovered Ned Stark’s decapitated head and resurrected it with a kiss? I mean, I can see bringing Beric and Catelyn back from death, but now that Catelyn’s carrying Ned’s head around in a sack … just what the hell is going on?
The prologue/epilogue characters:So who’s the mystery man?
Brienne:Dead + resurrected? Cut down before hanging?
Cersei:It looks like the church is rapidly growing in power and we’re going to see roaming bands of religious fanatics in the countryside. What’s going to happen to her?
Sansa:She’s carrying Tyrion’s child? Craziness. Never saw that one coming.
lno: Um, yeah. Of course. Oops. Can you pretend there’s a “horribly” or something in my first sentence, please?
Reading your comments, I feel I’ve missed a lot of stuff rushing through the book.
[spoiler]Catelyn carrying Ned’s head in a sack? WTF? Is that just hinted at, or said outright?
And Sansa pregnant? Where did you get that from?[/spoiler]
[spoiler]I’m pretty sure Arya will regain her sight, but she’ll probably get to spend a few hundred pages blind to teach her something.
I’m also willing to bet that whatever Brienne shouted will make Catelyn cut her (and Podrick?) down, but I’ve no idea what that word can be.
I’m guessing Jaime will end up killing Cersei, so that the prophecy that she’ll be murdered by her brother will be fulfilled. Nicely ironic if she’s been paranoid about the wrong brother all along.[/spoiler]
Note to self: don’t click “post reply” for a post that contains spoilers when I want to avoid said spoilers. Fortunately I hit the back button before I really saw anything.
Anyways, I bought Feast (and Jordon’s book, which I may finally get around to reading after Feast) today during my lunch break. No thoughts on it yet, of course. Well, other than that I want to go home and read it right now.
Yeah, but with all the Cersei/Taena and Dany/Irri action from the previous books, Loras’ sexuality has been danced around and winked at until it’s almost become a gay joke. “Oh, hah! Knight of Flowers, you see? Part of the Rainbow Brotherhood! Get it, huh huh?” I’m just waiting for him to jump on Jaime’s back and fly off into the sunset, while the other characters stare uncomfortably.
Agent Foxtrot, I’m not just talking about the little winks and references to things we interpret as totally gay because of our culture. There’s stuff directly from POV characters. A lot of it from Cersei in AFfC, actually… multiple references to Renly and Loras having teh h0t gay sexx0rs.
I just started a reread this evening, so I’ll probably be back with more later.
Mississippiene,Yes, Arianne was definitely betrothed to Viserys - though I don’t remember the language, I remember it being pretty specific. As for Sandor Clegane, I see no reason to doubt the monks who say he died. His helmet makes him pretty easy to impersonate.
And on the subject of Arya,I could definitely see the blindness being a permanent punishment for killing Daeron and reassuming her identity as Arya. The Faceless Men aren’t particularly nice, as far as I can tell. On the other hand, I certainly could see spending some time blind being incredibly helpful for an assassin, given what it does for one’s other senses and ability to navigate in the dark. I suppose this just means more waiting.
Whoa, I can’t believe I forgot to mention THIS before…
(no revelation of major plot points) Cerseiis so totally pregnant. Probably by Whatshisface Kettleblack. (Osmund’s the one she’s been screwing, right?) There are repeated references to her having difficulty fitting into the waists of her dresses - berating maids to cinch her up tighter, firing people for “shrinking” her clothing, etc. And I know there’s at least one reference to her being nauseous in the morning and am keeping my eye out for more.
(revelation of major plot points)And now that she’s imprisoned by the church and can’t go out and get an abortion or something, that’s definitely going to get her in huge trouble. I don’t know if it’ll end up getting Margaery off the hook for what she’s been up to, but it’s evidence that Cersei is definitely not going to be able to explain away.
re: Arianne hre betrothed was “crowned in molten gold.” Unless there’s another person who died that way, yes, it must have been Viserys.
re:SandorYeah, I think we were meant to think he’d been alive for the whole book due to the rumors, when in fact he died in the last book, as revelaed by the monk.
re: lno’s rumors That’s not true, right? No Nedhead in a bag, and Sansa’s not preggers, is she? I don’t recall anything hinting at those.
Oh, and I agree with you about Cersei. Took me a while to catch the hints, but you’re right.
Lord no. No no no. Those riffs on Catelyn and Sansa have no basis in reality at all, although I am amused that I missed what elfbabe pointed out about Cersei.
Not to mention Ser Davos, the onion knight, who was supposedly killed by Lord Manderly. I’m not sure if I believe it, though.
Does anybody else get the idea that Cersei was set up by Margaery? Taena was Margaery’s woman, and although she betrayed Cersei’s maid, by doing so she became Cersei’s confidante. I think that Margaery traded one spy for a new one, in a better position. The only other person who gave Cersei real evidence against Margaery was the Grand Maester, and Cersei herself noted that he was allying himself with the Tyrells. The singer was tortured into implicating Margaery, and after torture a man will confess to whatever the questioners want to hear. I think that the whole thing was an elaborate set-up to bring down Cersei.
As to Arya, I really don’t know what to think. Her being blinded like that made me feel cheated, but I think that I’ll feel just as bad if not worse if her sight is restored. On the other hand, what good is Arya without her sight?
What the hell is Littlefinger up to? I don’t believe for a second that he’s willing to marry her off like that. He wants her like he wanted Catelyn, plain and simple.
Finally, does anybody else get the feeling that the Lannisters are in much worse shape than they think? Four of the Starks are still around to raise the north. Sansa just might end up married to the Lord of the Eyrie. The Martells are trying to arrange a marriage with Daenerys. Stannis has no wish to be king, but he believes that it’s his right. He might well concede to Daenerys’ claim, however. The Riverlands have been broken, their lords hate the Lannisters and two of the Tullys are still alive. And now the Tyrells are making a play to control the throne.
