Books

I’ve been using Chrome almost from the start as my browser. It’s been great, But when they started making it like a tablet OS for Chrome Books, they began adding apps like Apple has on its devices. They’ve added a ton of great free apps to Chrome that you can check out from the Chrome store.

This includes lots of games like Angry Birds and Bejeweled 3. Tons of great free tools as well. And Google Books and Kindle cloud reader. Both are places you can get a lot of free books to read on any device.

I’ve really been enjoying Kindle. I’m trying to decide if I want a Kindle Fire or a iPad. I am waiting for the iPad 3 to come out before I decide. I’ve been playing with the Fire in the store, like Staples, and enjoying it but I think I want a larger screen like a iPad has.

What I really like about ebooks is you can carry a whole set of books around on one light device, and pick up where you left off from any other device. I can read a book from home, and go to some other computer elsewhere and carry on reading where I stopped. I’ve been a big proponent of ereaders for many years but I’m finally getting around to really using them.

If you sign up for Amazon Prime which is free the first month, there are tons of free books for you to read including best sellers. Its great. And I downloaded a bunch of collections for $2 like the Robert E Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs collections which has a whole slew of their work.

George RR Martin announced today that A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book in his Ice and Fire series is finally coming out TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011. I am so glad I won’t have to wait 5 years like the people who read the last one did when it came out. Whew! And hopefully with the TV series coming out, the next two books will come out much quicker. They should since the big hold up with this one was the continuity issues he had to deal with.

Speaking of the TV series, there is a new trailer out for Game of Thrones. It shows the most scenes of any yet.

With the new IPad 2 out this week and more and more tablets hitting the stores, writers will no longer have to depend on book publishers anymore. And I really think that’ll save comics as well.

I finished reading the fourth book in A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin, and all four of the preview chapters from the fifth book floating around the web. I’m glad I only discovered the series now so I don’t have to wait as long as others did for A Dance with Dragons.

What I can tell you about these books is its the best fantasy series I have read since Lord of the Rings. I can see why many people think it’s better than Tolkien’s books, as it’s more realistic and better structured with many layered mysteries and great characters. And the story isn’t so black and white. But, other than the fact both are fantasies, I wouldn’t compare the two. They are very different. Martin has created his own world which is as dense and detailed as Tolkien’s, but his interests and focus are much different.

And until it’s finished, comparing them would be absurd, anyway.

I was pleased to discover I loved the fourth book, A Feast of Crows, because I had read so many disparaging reviews on Amazon. But I can see that most of these were from people really upset that they are left hanging for what is now five years, waiting on the next book. A lot of major characters fates were left hanging in the third book and not touched on in the fourth. The fourth book is the middle of his story, so a lot of unpleasant stuff happens to many characters you like, but that’s what happens in the middle of stories. I can see that he was setting up a lot of things for the eventual climax. The next book will carry much of that impetus forward.

With the TV show A Game of Thrones coming out in April from HBO, and reports from the publisher and Martin himself that book five is pretty much completed, we can expect them to announce the release date very soon. And I can’t wait, because these books are extremely addicting.

The characters are very strong, the plots engaging. He really makes you care about everything that’s going on, which is a real feat because he keeps so many balls in the air.

All in all, I can’t recommend these books highly enough. Even if you hate fantasy fiction. The fantastical elements are not the star here.

Here’s a bunch of scenes from the books put to art.

Here’s a review of the George RR Martin series I have been raving about. I agree with what she says, including Tower of the Hand being an awesome reference site. But if you haven’t read the books you don’t want to go digging around there yet. I would checkout some of the art they have of the characters. When a book series inspires lots of good artists to do their versions of things, you know it must be worth a damn.

I am about halfway through the second book now. They are addicting.

Great book. I expect to get the next one, A Clash of Kings tomorrow and start reading it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a fantasy novel because I was burned out on them. The last one I read (not including the Harry Potter books) was the 5th book in the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series, Fires of Heaven. I got tired of the padding and the derivative stuff in those books (they rip off Dune and Lord of the Rings with some Daoism thrown in). What I love about these Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin is they are “realistic”. They take place in a 12th century style world and there is no mollycoddling or PC nonsense. It shows people the way they are. Some are good, some are evil and the majority are somewhere in-between. The plot and characters are great. Magic is kept to a minimum. Unlike so many other fantasies I can name (Harry Potter, for example). The people act like actual humans and not plot robots acting in accordance of the writer’s whims. Everything is believable even though the story is set in a somewhat fantastic world.

I never felt like, oh, I’ve seen that before. It flowed very naturally. Normally I can see the writer’s hand but Martin is a master of his craft.

I hear the next two are even better. The reviews on the fourth book are mixed mainly because people are mad that he hasn’t delivered the 5th book in over five years now. Hopefully his new HBO series will motivate him to get to it. Each season of the TV series, if its a success, will cover one of the books. So season two will deal with A Clash of Kings.

Game of Thrones starts on HBO in April. Just in time for my birthday.

I am looking forward to this series on NBO. I just started reading the book and am about 1/4 of the way in. It’s really entertaining stuff. The kind of fantasy I like, which does not rely on magic tricks to keep the story flowing but good characters and plotting. The characters in this series are believable. There are no elves and dwaves (though there is a human dwarf who is one of the best characters). I understand the fifth book in the series has been a long time in coming but since each book is 750 pages long, I have a way to go before I worry about it. Hopefully, having a TV series will motivate him to get the final book done.

It’s been a long time since I read a fantasy novel. I used to love them but I got burned out on the genre. This series is a breath of fresh air since it eschews most of the cliches of the genre. It is more like Dune in some respects, because about powerful families vying for power in a vast kingdom. It’s all about politics and intrigue with a little magic thrown in here and there.

Here is a behind the scenes on the HBO series coming in March.

James Ellroy has a new book out. Can’t wait to read it.

James Lileks just Tweeted: “There’s more over-the-top un-PC lingo & sentiment in one Ellroy paragraph than the entirety of American literature from 1980 to present.”