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‘A Clash Of Kings’ and ‘A Storm Of Swords, Part 1: Steel and Snow’, by Geoge R.R. Martin.

 

First things first, I’m so so sorry for the major delay in between my last post and this one!! It’s been quite a hectic few weeks with my job and clearly I didn’t finish these two books in time before Season 6 of GOT came out (don’t worry, I won’t Poe any spoilers about that in any of my posts … but Holy Crap it’s good!!!!!!), but without further ado, let’s get started 😀

Now obviously there are bound to be a lot more details in the novels than there is in the show, but I think the first book in this review really takes the biscuit when it comes to that statement. It’s almost 1000 pages long for crying out loud! I mean, that says it all!! But I feel the reader really gets to know the characters in this book. ‘Game of Thrones’ is clearly a wonderful introduction to this world, but ‘A Clash Of Kings’ really sinks its teeth in when it comes to developing the characters and broadening the readers perceptions of the world they live in.

Even if you’ve only watched the TV series, it’s clear that Season 2 is a lot more violent and fraught with danger than Season 1. In the novel, this is gone into with such detail that the more you read, the more you care for the characters. As readers, you get to hear from more characters in this novel as there is so much more happening in different parts of this world, and each character acts as an insight to what is going on in that particular area. We obviously still hear from Arya, Catelyn, Sansa, Tyrion, Jon, Dany and Bran, but with the expansion of the story we also hear from the likes of Theon, Davos and Jaime. This gives the reader insight to these character’s emotions and fears which really allows Martin to not only build on the characters he’s already created, but allows him to create additional complex characters who the audience unxpectedly grow attached to.

As for the differences between the show and the novel, there are not that many here. The most noticeable difference lies with Jon and Arya and their parts to play in the story. In this novel, it’s made clear that Jon and Arya both experience the same types of Wolf-dreams that Bran does when he throws his consciousness into that of his Dire Wolf, Summer. This indicates that both Arya and Jon have the capability to become wargs, Jon probably more so than Arya because he does seem to have a stronger connection with his wolf, Ghost. Arya’s wolf, Nymeria, was chased away by Arya in the first novel so she would avoid being killed by Joffrey, which indicates that their connection may not be as strong … But I could be wrong. I’ve heard many rumours about Jon’s and Nymeria’s parts to play in the story, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise!!! 😀 Another small difference in the novel is that Arya never meets Tywin Lannister up close. She only sees him once from afar while she is at Harrenhal, and then following the capture of Harrenhal by Roose Bolton does she become a cup-bearer. Also, Shae never becomes Sansa’s hand maid. Instead she is made to serve the daughter of Lady Tanda, who was assault during the riot in Kings Landing.

Something else I’d like to point out, which may definitely be an indication as to what is to come later on in the series, is when Dany enters the House of the Undying Ones. Here, one of the things she is confronted with is a human heart that is “swollen and blue in corruption” floating above a stone table, at which is sat one of the Undying of Qarth. Here is what is said to Dany at this point in the book:

” the shape of shadows … morrows not yet made … drink from the cup of Ice … drink from the cup of Fire … mother of dragons … child of three … three heads has the dragon … three fires you must light … one for life and one for death and one for love … three mounts you must ride … one to bed and one to dread and one to love … three treasons will you know … once for blood and once for gold and once for love…”

I’ll leave that open for interpretation 😀 …

As for ‘A Storm of Swords Part 1’, this was extremely similar to ‘A Clash of Kings’ in the sense that there are more characters in this book to bring the story forward and to give the reader a clearer insight to this world. In this novel, we no longer hear from Theon but instead we hear from Sam and about the advancement of the White Walkers. This is due to Jon no longer being able to hold up this side of the story as he has been captured by the wildlings. Again, I’ll probably be saying this a lot, but the detail is immense here! As Martin introduces new characters to forward a different part of the story, by this point in the series, the characters that have been used as regular points of reference (such as Sansa, Arya, Jon, Tyrion, etc) have become familiar and loved intensely by the audience. The detail that he goes into is key to making the audience care whether these characters live or die.

Despite this book being divided into 2 parts, the differences between Part 1 and Season 3 of the TV series are relatively few. The Wolf-dreams experienced by Arya and Jon are carried on here, and we also get a brief glimpse of Edric Storm, another one of King Robert’s bastards. Instead of the opportunity to marry Loras Tyrell, Maergery attempts to marry Sansa to her other brother, Willas. Sansa’s sudden marriage to Tyrion obviously puts a stop to this, and Tywin Lannister plans to marry Willas to Cersei instead. Bran met Jojen and Meera Reed in ‘A Clash of Kings’ and in this novel they are helping him use and control his warg powers as they journey to The Wall. And when Dany meets Missandei in Astapor, the girl she meets is just ten years old, not the fully grown woman we see in the TV show. Again, these are only very small differences, but for the most part the story has been displayed beautifully on screen. I thought it worthwhile mentioning these as you never know in the world of GOT when something insignificant can change the course of the entire story!!

Ok, I think I’ve rambled on a bit too much in this review, so I’ll leave it here! If you notice any other points in the novels that weren’t included in the TV show and that I haven’t mentioned in my reviews, please comment and let me know, no matter h small 😀

Until next time! Xx

‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘Catching The Wolf of Wall Street’ by Jordan Belfort.

 

Oh … My … God!!! Can I really be reading the true actions of one of the most idealic train wrecks of modern times?! I literally read both of these books with my mouth agape in astonishment, my disbelief at what I was reading written all over my face, despite knowing otherwise.

I will admit that the film based on these books, starring the delicious Leonardo DiCaprio, highly sparked my interest first of all, but the film doesn’t even begin to touch the amount of insanity that actually occurred. And when I say insanity, that’s a serious understatement! However, what was also included in the books that was left out of the film was that this story goes a lot deeper than just whores, drugs and insane amounts of money. Of course that amount of insanity is never to be ignored, but the books speak with such an honest and down to earth voice that really captured my attention and refused to surrender it.

It was this voice that kept me reading through all the unimaginable madness; it was a voice that held no sugar coated figurative language to make the situations being described seem more beautiful than they were, or to make the reader sympathise with the narrator. No dramatisation, no ‘I am holier than thou’ tone … No bullshit. It was blunt, inspiring, and strangely rational. It’s the kind of voice you can totally see yourself using for your own interior monologue. It’s human.

There is a level of clarity and consciousness within each chapter of these books that we only really experience when retelling the drunken acts of the occasional alcohol fuelled stupor, so to imagine that this mindset is how the author lived a majority of his adult life is astounding … and yet he describes every miniscule detail as if he were as sober as a judge. There’s also a level of hilarity spoken with each crazy tale of drunken and drug induced debauchery which literally made me both laugh out loud and groan with anticipated exasperation (if that’s even the right way to explain it) … Throughout, I was constantly thinking “omg, that’s definitely not going to end well”, but somehow, no matter how disastrous the situation, the narrator always managed to come out on top, with hilarious insight and consequences.

However, it reaches a point where the authors luck starts to run out… and boy, does it run out big time. In the end, the chickens certainly do come home to roost. It’s at this point, which is described more in ‘Catching The Wolf of Wall Street’, that we see the author hit rock bottom … and I almost didn’t want him to. I almost wanted him to get away with everything he’d done because by this point I’d actually grown to like him and sympathise with him. The protagonist is also his own antagonist, and through all the shit is a man who’s running from the reality. And I find that’s something that I can definitely relate to.

Jordan Belfort has certainly lived more than enough for two lifetimes, and it seems that he’s still coming back for more. With the success of Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster and these books as well, it’s clear that he’s just getting warmed up! I’m so glad I bought these books together as I most definitely wouldn’t have been able to leave it at just the one. Brilliant reads that I will be happy to read over and over again!!

‘Game Of Thrones’

Book 1 in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series by George R.R. Martin.

 

I’m sure that everyone has heard of the immense imaginings of George R.R. Martin by now, whether you’ve seen the amazing TV series, read the fabulously detailed books, or simply just seen the many memes, vines and piss take videos that are circulating the Internet. So I thought I’d go back to basics and read the wonderful Chronicles of Westeros from the beginning, detailing the novels as I go.

I honestly love comparing film/TV adaptations of books, as I’m sure you’ll take a note of as this blog continues, and I’ve got to say, Season 1 of the awe inspiring TV show hit nail right on the head! …. Oh by the way, if you haven’t even seen one episode of this fantastic saga … Shame on you,and Major spoiler alert!!!

Like everyone else in the beginning, I thought Sean Bean’s character Nedd Stark was going to somehow end up on the Iron Throne (mostly because Sean Bean is one of my lovely weird older man crushes) … Omg how wrong I was!! So very wrong! Despite knowing the ending of the first book, I was still maintaining some small hope that the ending I was so familiar with wouldn’t happen … And it totally broke my heart all over again to read!! It drew me in as if reading it for the first time and brought to life my hopes of a Happily Ever After; that somehow Nedd Stark would be released and manage to reveal the truth about Cersei and Jaime Lannister, that Joffrey’s origins and that of his siblings would be exposed and the truth of his behaviour in general would come out (as it really shouldn’t be allowed to be that much of an arsehole!) … But a great sense of sadness totally sucked me in as I read the last few chapters and realised that my Happily Ever After wasn’t really going to happen.

The gargantuan amount of detail within the first book had gone completely over my head the first time I’d read it as I found it was far too much for me to take it, but reading it a second time allowed me to realise just how much detail the author had actually gone into with this wonderful world of his. Unfortunately, the TV series had to leave most of these details out as they weren’t vital to the storyline at that point, but I managed to pick up some Easter Eggs in the writing that seem to coincide with a lot of the theories that have been going around (omg it’s so hard for me not to blurt it all out … But if it is all true and I’m not reading too much into it …. My mind is officially blown!!!!)

This book is definitely the slowest of the novels that have been released so far, but it’s definitely  the best novel in relation of tension! This introduction to, personally, one of the most brilliant modern fantastical series to date could not have been done better! I’m obviously going to be reading each of the novels in turn (hopefully before Season 6 of the TV show comes out) and giving a review after I’ve finished them … Which, to be honest, could take me a while, as have you seen the size of these things?! But what do I say to that?? … Challenge accepted!