Back in the Spring of 2010 a website (suvudu) ran a “March Madness” style bracket of popular fantasy characters to determine which was the most powerful, as voted on by readers. Somehow Martin’s Jaime Lannister ended up facing off against Rowling’s Hermione Granger early on in the voting. For flavor’s sake, one of the site’s editors wrote what they thought would happen if such a fight occurred, and decided that in such a scenario Granger, with her magic, would easily defeat Lannister. They wrote that despite the power of his Valyrian steel sword, Granger could simply make him levitate upside down, and distract him with birds, and thus easily defeat the Kingslayer.
GRRM disagreed. The following was his response (some ASOIAF spoilers).
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No, no.
Jaime does not actually own a Valyrian steel sword. The blade he used to kill King Aerys is common castle-forged steel, gilded to match his golden armor. But he can certainly get hold of a …
Key word satisfyingly.
Could be through a long, hard and well-wrought journey from the rags to riches of power - or perhaps they were always powerful, but met with inexorable roadblocks not solvable through power alone.
Or maybe they’re just the most ‘guilty pleasure’ characters whose authority you can never get bored of, and is tested repeatedly in emotionally rewarding ways.
Just looking for new characters to bond to…
From their moral compass to simply how well written they are, the main character that you never get tired of reading or talking about.
Mine is Percy Jackson personally. He’s a very well written character and has good morals and is fiercely protective of the people he loves
I just finished watching The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time as an adult, and I am in tears. It is such a shame that this film seems to have completely been forgotten, because it is breathtaking, heartfelt, and beautiful, but also deeply tragic.
I loved the Narnia movies when I was a kid, but I see (at least this first one) in a completely different light now. I cannot believe that we see them as adults at the end of the film, good and just rulers of a land at peace, on the level of Aragorn, only for them to fall out of the wardrobe and back into WW2 as children.
It really hit me how absolutely terrible that would be. It would completely destroy me, it is so tragic. I was speechles for minutes after the movie ended.
It is such a good movie though! They’re so reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, in terms of quality, filmmaking, music. No films are made like this these days, and this one had me gasping and laughing and crying all throughout.
I honestly just had …
Consider this a safe space lol.
So books called “The X’s Daughter,” and “The (Adjective) (Noun) of (First Name) (Last Name)” have been adequately noted here, as have books called “A/The X of Y and Z.” Below however is a list of just a subset of the last pattern: “A/The X of Y and Z,” books, but where one of the variables is “Bone/s”(Source: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/90430.The_Blank_of_Blank_and_Blank)
For those who don’t know, A Mother’s Reckoning is a memoir by Sue Klebold, the mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. It is generally well-liked as a story of Dylan’s upbringing leading up to Columbine as well as a recollection of the grief, guilt and confusion Sue went through afterwards and her journey into becoming a mental health/suicide awareness advocate. I also thought it was great initially, but after spending the time to learn about Columbine, I’ve realized that not only are a lot of the facts in the book misleading or outright lies, the overarching message of the book also falls flat because of the author’s blatant bias in favor of her son.
The first thing that irked me was the author’s hypocrisy in how she views Dylan versus Eric Harris, the other Columbine shooter. One of the most poignant messages in the memoir is supposed to be the author’s plea for the reader to view Dylan not as an irredeemable villain, but as a kid whose …
“Europe. 1942…”
I love history. Nonfiction, historical fiction, all of it. But there is SO MUCH MORE history than just WWII. It was a relatively brief period of history. Yes, WWII changed everything, and there was a lot of drama, but don’t people get tired of it?
Sorry for the rant! I’m just amazed at how many authors set their books and research in WWII. There are so many other stories to be told!
EDIT: I can’t read all the comments but I want to say that I think it’s awesome if you like WWII history. This was meant to be funny and I don’t like to be negative. I hope you all stay safe, warm, and curled up with a thousand great books!
One of the things I’ve always found the most interesting about the Harry Potter series (and I think one of the reasons it’s had so much success) is that each successive book feels like it’s aimed at a slightly higher age group. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is definitely a children’s book, and I wouldn’t say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is. For the original generation of readers, this worked out well because we grew up with the characters.
I was eight when I read the first Harry Potter book. Within a year I’d read all four of the books that were out at that time, really enjoying the first three but struggling a lot more with the fourth. Goblet of Fire was just a bit more dark and complex than I was quite ready for at that point (although when I got older that became my favourite one). For the rest of the books I just had to wait until they came out - and this was a good thing, because in the time in between the release …
I think I decided to ask this question after scrolling through booktok for too long and just getting sorta bugged over some of the stuff I saw lmao (unsurprising, it’s booktok…)😭. A personal ‘ick’ I have with fellow readers would be people who freak out over others breaking the spines of their books and folding pages. I’ve just always found this so annoying, especially given that most of the time these books are mass produced paperbacks. I adore the look of used books, I like books feeling loved and I like my books looking read. Just as you are allowed to keep your books in pristine condition, I’m allowed to read mine in the bath and allow the pages to go all crinkly (a bad idea in hindsight, rest in peace my copy of The Shining…). (A lot of people have very valid reasons to want to keep their own books in good condition btw - my issue is with those that outright attack others, unless someones damaged a library book / a book they were lent, yikes).
What are your personal ‘icks’ or …
I’ve just delved into the sci-fi realm of books - well, books in general but sci-fi has been my go to. Just finished Children of Time and have moved onto Blindsight by Peter Watts, I don’t really have the words to describe how I feel about this novel other than I am very confused as to what he is trying to describe when he writes, maybe how much fluff there is added when there isn’t dialogue? Or an over exaggeration of description of a certain feeling or emotion? I don’t know, I really want to finish this book but it is very hard to follow when I don’t understand. Did anyone else have this issue when reading this book?
And it feels like one of the more boring stories I’ve read in a while… Murderbot is part of a planetary exploration crew > they find another base where everyone’s been murdered > have a small scuffle with the killers > go back home and Murderbot gets set free.
This is a Hugo and Nebula award winner - am I missing something here? I know it’s short but feels like very little world building or plot. Curious to know what anyone else thinks.
Also - happy to accept any recs for plot driven SF as I continue on my reading journey 🙏🏻
I was lied to. Misled, bamboozled, led around by the nose.
Y’see, reviews of this book emphasize how it is an ethnography of the Kesh, a fictional culture inhabiting Northern California far into the post-apocalypse, so I expected a dryly academic text that reads like nonfiction. At worst, something like my university Myth and Ritual Theory textbook; at best, “Shakespeare in the Bush” with a side of “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”. And there’s some of that, but that’s not what this book is.
Instead, it is better to think of it as an anthology. Whether you will enjoy this book depends less on whether you find the idea of reading nonfactual nonfiction appealing and more on the breadth of your taste, genre-wise. Here I mean genre in the formal sense, because while the book includes a novella (chopped up in three sections) and an isolated chapter from yet another novella, much of it consists of poetry, drama, short stories, microfiction (in the …
Guess other peoples books using spoiler tags. I’ll start in the comments.
Wilson from Cast Away has to be a dead cert as Best Supporting Actor. I’ve never felt that level of sorrow, as he floated away into the pacific. I often wonder where he ended up, perhaps washing ashore in Micronesia. I would greedily enjoy a Cast Away 2, as Tom Hanks scours the globe looking for his trusty companion.
Bullet Train is one of those movies that kinda flew under the radar, while still very much not flying under the radar if that makes sense.
Every major YouTube reviewer talked about it, most people had atleast heard about it, it made descent money, but man, it’s too good compared how little a dent it made in Pop culture.
Most people I know haven’t seen it. And finding one who has is like finding your best friend at an event you didn’t know both of you were going to.
It’s a colorful, fun, emotional, and fast ride through japan. Excellently shot. With an insanemy good cast, and some pretty good pondering on the nature of unknowable forces such as luck and fate.
A mystery that just keeps going, and plot that never stops and characters that live rent free in my mind and heart.
If you like style AND substance. Bullet Train is for you.