This may not be the best spot for this question, but…
So I want to read The World of Ice and Fire, but I do most of my reading in the random chunks of ‘waiting’ time that pop up while on the go. IOW, I really don’t want to lug around the 10 pound hardback version in hopes of getting to read some that day.
OTOH, on a fast flip through at a book store it’s clear the book is just chock full of illos, and I wasn’t sure how well that would work with my b&w kindle.
So today I DLed the ‘sample’ from Amazon. Which is nicely readable, though the illos lose much detail.
But what struck me was that the ‘sample’ – supposedly 10% of the book – is just about 2 MB. Can that really be right? 20 MB for a book file is HUGE. Most of the ones I dl are around a half meg, for the entire book.
Images take up a lot more space than text, and that book has tons of images. I would get the hardback and put it by your bathroom or nightstand (or both, like I did). Very fun stuff if you want to get deep into the world of the story.
Oh, of course, should have realized it’s the images. :smack:
I’m waffling still, though: the print version has the lovely illos, but they also print each page with ‘discoloration’, like the paper has yellowed at the edges over the years. Very artsy, but I have somewhat impaired vision due to a retina problem, and it reduces the contrast enough to really slow down my reading. Especially at night when my eyes are tired.
The kindle doesn’t have that background coloration PLUS I can boost the size of the text when I need to.
I think I’m going to have to buy both versions, one to read, one to enjoy the illos.
There is a discussion in the TV series thread about dragon riding.
Do the books or any of the stories from the same universe explain dragon riding? Is it only a matter of training and being a Targaryen, or is there any indication that warg-like abilities help? The Wiki of Ice and Fire implies only the former, but given Bran Stark’s inability to walk plus his warging it seems sort of natural that he could end up at least involved with the dragons somehow.
I know on the show it depicts wargs as helpless when they’re “in” the animals they’re controlling. Remind me if it’s the same in the books, because I don’t remember for sure but I think it was the same way.
I read the first book on paperback, then switched to Kindle. I have an early generation Kindle so the image resolution for me is even worse. But I love being able to have all those books electronically.
Since I also have an iPad, I got one of these apps that has maps of Westeros and Essos, along with character and family backgrounds. I use that for reference when I need it.
Some might recommend just using a tablet for reading the ebook itself which would solve both problems, but I personally don’t like reading text on an LCD screen. That’s why I stick with my Kindle.
It was cute at first, but it soon lost its charm. It was really hard to read except in really bright light.
I found the spacing on the pages to be weird, how they broke the pages up, etc. Not quite amateurish, but not very reader-friendly. Definitely form over function in how the whole book was laid out. Except for the cover. It had a nice soft hardcover. Not too heavy.
After this episode I’m really no longer interested in where they’re taking the characters because they’ve short-circuited so many of my favorite story lines without replacing them with something interesting.
Given that, I was quite pleased that I’m still getting brothel scenes. Love bush!
Eh, I was actually very pleased that we still ended up with Snow getting to cut Slynt’s weaselly head off, though there’s a bit less impact than the book since Slynt. And pairing Tyrion up with Varys is vastly more entertaining than I remember his journey being in the books (I’m assuming they cut all the stuff with Penny out). Yeah, we’re probably losing JonCon/Aegon, but eh.
And I’m interested in seeing where the Sansa/Littlefinger/Boltons/Brienne plot is going, since that’s quite different from the books and one of the few changes that seems like a definite improvement (at least as far as Brienne is concerned, have to see where Sansa ends up).
Unfortunately the Arya plot is just as slow and boring as the books. At least we got to skip over the “Cat of the Canals” stuff.
Sounded like he said “Lord Cailin” as if that’s the name of the house which holds Moat Cailin. Thing is, in the books I don’t think it’s any sort of regular castle/keep, just an old stronghold used as a chokepoint when need be, but it seems like the show is just treating it as another random castle.
It just occurred to me that Ramsay comes from a house/family whose banner is a flayed guy, so they are KNOWN for this! It isn’t like Ramsay is a random psycho, he fits right in!
So how exactly did Robb and Cat every trust this guy?! Holy shit that crazy villain psycho guy from a family of them betrayed us, who could have seen it coming.
Ramsey wasn’t involved with Rob and Cat. Roose was the one they trusted and had bent the knee to them… Ramsey was sitting back in Dreadfort ‘making a reek’.
Actually, come to think of it, Ramsey had already betrayed the Starks by killing their allies and burning Winterfell. At this point Ramsey was supposed to have been dead, but had switched with the old reek…
No sir, I don’t like it (I say in reference to the Sansa change). I don’t buy that Sansa would protest for like 2 seconds and be like ok. Secondly, I don’t buy that Littlefinger would just give up his trump card for… what? In the books, Littlefinger’s plan is genius - marry Alayne to Harrold the Heir (presumably kill Robert Arryn afterwards) and then, when Sansa is Lady of the Vale, reveal her to the world, and have the North declare for her (as she is entitled to the North by right since everyone else is supposedly dead). This… this just really makes no sense. Show-Littlefinger is definitely not as cunning as Book-Littlefinger.
You shouldn’t necessarily assume that - after all Penny comes into play only after Jorah kidnaps Tyrion and tries to take her to Daenarys.
I’m sure he has some sort of plan, likely along the same lines (marry Sansa and Ramsay, then kill Roose and Ramsay; heck, they could even kill them before, after all, it’s not as if Sansa really needs the Bolton connection). I think it’s certainly debatable whether Littlefinger is better off controlling the Vale through Robin or Sansa. And I would think, in the book, that his plan of trying to take the Vale through killing Robin is really pushing it - he just narrowly avoided being found out for killing Lysa, I think having Robin bite it would just be too much, even for the Vale lords.
Well, it’d be easier to kill Robert. He’s such a sickly boy anyways. Some non-obvious poison.
Besides, as you said, Sansa doesn’t need the Bolton connection at all. If they were going to stray from the books somewhat, I’d prefer them kind of tangentially nodding to the books by having Littlefinger and Sansa go to White Harbor and try to raise an army under Wyman Manderly to take Winterfell back - gathering Northern houses on their way. And at the same time, Stannis is trying to take Winterfell back from the North - or the Northeast if he follows the books and bolsters his army with the Northern clans.
Hmmm, I did forget that in the show, Lysa died under much shadier circumstances than in the books (where they just pinned it on Marillion and everyone was satisfied). So perhaps killing Robert Arryn would be more eye raising - of course you still have Sansa Stark for the Lords of the Vale to follow.
Since I can’t imagine they’re going to let Ramsey physically and sexually torture Sansa like he did Jeyne Poole- it would make fans furious- I’m guessing Real Sansa is going to leave and they’re going to substitute a Fake Sansa.