So...what else do you do?

Jord · Aug 24, 2010

AToE said:
I don't read much fantasy anymore, most SF, but I've heard that aSoIaF is possibly one of the greatest Fantasy series of all time, rivalling even the great LoTR. I definitely want to read it, but he's not finished writing it yet and seems to be very slow, and I hate waiting for more books! Bah, I shoul probably just read it anyways.

I've read all of them except for the newest which I'm still chugging through and they are pretty hefty to get through. I absolutely loved them the first time I read them. There are a metric crap tonne of active characters in the books (far more then LOTR) and there are a lot of twists and turns.

Unfortunately with so much going on in the story I find that the large gaps between bookss can give room for you to forget exactly what is going on....though with the complexity and length of each book it's not surprising to see that it takes him a long time to put out a new one.

I'd still recommend that you start reading them now though as they are great stories.

capoeirista13 · Aug 24, 2010

ASOIAF is, in my opinion, far superior to Lord of the Rings. That being said, Jord brings up a really good point. Reading one book and waiting to read another one is a bit troublesome because the story is so vast that you can easily forget things. Unfortunately it is taking GRRM forever to write book 5, but he's like Blizzard entertainment. He puts out only the highest quality material, even if it takes a few years. AtoE if you pick it up I can guaruntee you won't be able to put it down. Just power through the awkwardness of those first few Daenarys chapters...

Jord: I am eagerly awaiting the series. An HBO exec recently said that when he read the script all he could say was ...wow

AToE · Aug 24, 2010

Jord said:
I've read all of them except for the newest which I'm still chugging through and they are pretty hefty to get through. I absolutely loved them the first time I read them. There are a metric crap tonne of active characters in the books (far more then LOTR) and there are a lot of twists and turns.

Unfortunately with so much going on in the story I find that the large gaps between bookss can give room for you to forget exactly what is going on....though with the complexity and length of each book it's not surprising to see that it takes him a long time to put out a new one.

I'd still recommend that you start reading them now though as they are great stories.

Ok, I think I'll go for it, I'm inbetween series right now anyways. I'm a fast reader and love really ridiculously long epic stuff with a million plotlines (another good author for that is Tad Williams). I don't mind getting a little lost sometimes.

capoeirista13 said:
ASOIAF is, in my opinion, far superior to Lord of the Rings.

I've heard other people say this, but the problem with comparing any literature is that it is so multifaceted. One might have better characterization, use of theme, worldbuilding, philosophy etc, then the other might have something else. It's pretty much always apples and oranges.

The other issue with comparing anything to LoTR is age. A lot of people simply don't dig the prose because JJR was writing in not just the english of 60-90 years ago, but very very good english from that time. Also, he was establishing the groundwork for the entire genre of High-Fantasy - everyone else got to learn from him, he didn't!

That said, I hope it is very much on par with LoTR, but I always have my doubts about something surpassing it. The reason is that I'm a bit of a writer myself, and what I really love about LoTR is the worldbuilding. There is probably more backstoory in JJR's work than in the fiction of any other writer that has ever written, heck, probably more than the top 10 combined (I'm seriously not trying to exaggerate). Of course the end poduct is what realy matters, but the history behind Middle Earth is just mind boggling.

endrant

Jord · Aug 24, 2010

AToE said:
The other issue with comparing anything to LoTR is age. A lot of people simply don't dig the prose because JJR was writing in not just the english of 60-90 years ago, but very very good english from that time. Also, he was establishing the groundwork for the entire genre of High-Fantasy - everyone else got to learn from him, he didn't!

That said, I hope it is very much on par with LoTR, but I always have my doubts about something surpassing it. The reason is that I'm a bit of a writer myself, and what I really love about LoTR is the worldbuilding. There is probably more backstoory in JJR's work than in the fiction of any other writer that has ever written, heck, probably more than the top 10 combined (I'm seriously not trying to exaggerate). Of course the end poduct is what realy matters, but the history behind Middle Earth is just mind boggling.

endrant

I will say that there is a LOT of historical information/references in ASOIAF but it doesn't necessarily cover millenia like LOTR. Personally I prefer LOTR to ASOIAF. I've honestly read LOTR annually for the last 15 years and still love every page......I'm trying to reread ASOIAF and it's just not the same. Don't get me wrong I LOVED the series the first time I read it but because there are so many plot lines, and some I enjoyed more than others, there's quite a bit of material that I don't feel I necessarily need to reread....if that makes sense.

Or maybe I'm just at Tolkien fan-boy.

Displaced Hick · Aug 24, 2010

sima74 said:
I did the same a few years back. I am a huge fan of electronic music (trace mostly but others can do) but every now and again I yearn for old Chris and a few others. I guess it's a displace WY hick thing.

So what part of Wyoming are you from? I grew up in the tiny town of Lovell (about 100 miles east of Yellowstone and 15 miles south of the Montana border and that is one place that you can still tell someone how far away they are in distance rather than time)

sima74 · Aug 24, 2010

Displaced Hick said:
So what part of Wyoming are you from? I grew up in the tiny town of Lovell (about 100 miles east of Yellowstone and 15 miles south of the Montana border and that is one place that you can still tell someone how far away they are in distance rather than time)

LOL! I'm from Farson which is 40 miles north of Rock Springs and 100 miles south of Jackson Hole. But I know where Lovell is because we had family in Greybull and traveled up there a few times when I was very young.

AToE · Aug 27, 2010

Alright, I finally picked up A Game of Thrones, about 200 or 300 pages in so far, it's very high quality writing. I have the feeling I'm really going to enjoy this one as it progressed.

capoeirista13 said:
Just power through the awkwardness of those first few Daenarys chapters...

Yeah, Martin was pushing it a bit with those, but that's pretty common in this kind of literature, I think it's an attempt to portray how early people used to be thrust into marriage and such.

Blanchy · Aug 29, 2010

I figured this might as well be as good a place as any for my first post.

I used to spend quite a bit of time brewing beer about 20 years ago. I sort of got tired of the bottling part of that, decided to put my chemical engineering degree to work, and spent a bit of time upping the proof on those beers. Got away from drinking liquor, moved to California, and decided to make wine from the plentiful grapes out here. Met a guy out here that makes about 300 gallons of high quality pinot noir a year out here and starting helping him out with the various aspects of that endeavor. That pretty much was all the wine making I could stand, so I needed a new beverage to start making. (Picking bugs out of 3 tons of grapes is less glamorous than you might think).

I started thinking about making mead because I have a beer brewing friend that was singing its praises while my wine making friend was telling me that mead was garbage. I immediately set out to prove him wrong. Two batches of mead are almost ready for bulk aging. My third batch (once I finalize a recipe) will be a thirty gallon batch that my wine making friend will let me barrel age in his cave.

Outside of making alcoholic beverages, I have a wife and a two year old that take a ton of my time. I play classical guitar, but not quite enough to call my self good. I teach a Filipino stick fighting class to stay in shape and spend a fair bit of time reading.

Personally I thought the Daenarys chapters were the best in the series but then I always liked the Conan stories that were set in Stygia. Currently I am slogging my way through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. After almost 700 pages I'm still trying to figure out if it is good, lol.

Blanchy

mmclean · Aug 29, 2010

Hello Blanchy.

Welcome to Gotmead.

On a flight to Manila, I sat in the seat next to Grandmaster Rodillo "Rodel" Dagooc. He was returning home from promoting Arnis in Italy. He invited me to come and watch his “kids” put on a demonstration, which I gladly accepted. After the demonstration “Master Rodel”, as his students called him, spared with four or five of his students. It was plain to see why they smile as they called him Master Rodel.

Blanchy · Aug 29, 2010

Hello MMclean,

So what brought you to Manila. I'm guessing you weren't heading there just to bash people with sticks.

Blanchy

mmclean · Aug 29, 2010

I was visiting my fiancée, who is now, I am proud to say, my wife.

ken_schramm · Aug 29, 2010

Hey Blanchy,

As far as your wine making buddy goes, there is great beer, and there is crappy beer. There is great pinot noir, and there is crappy pinot noir. I'm guessing you can see where I'm going here. If your friend thinks all mead is garbage, he is sadly inexperienced. There is great mead. There is monumentally great mead, even when tasted along-side world class wine. Get thee to the Mazer Cup.

Getting to great mead is not like falling off a log, but it is doable. It is a lot more straightforward than making a all-grain great smoked porter.

Welcome. There are lots of friendly people here who can help you get where you want to go.

Ken

Blanchy · Aug 29, 2010

Hello Ken,

I just wrapped up reading your book which I found to be quite helpful.

I'm with you on beverage quality. My guess is that my friend Tom has sampled some, shall we say, lower quality mead in the past. That being said, he also couldn't deal with some sake that I made which I found to be quite an excellent product. Perhaps these alternate alcholic beverages aren't going to work for him. Time will tell.

The Mazer Cup might be a possibility at some point. In the short term, I'll probably pick up a bottle of one of Rabbit's Foot's products.

Blanchy

wildoates · Aug 29, 2010

mmclean said:
I was visiting my fiancée, who is now, I am proud to say, my wife.

I'm smiling at this.

wildoates · Aug 29, 2010

(Picking bugs out of 3 tons of grapes is less glamorous than you might think).

I can just imagine.

Welcome to another Northern Californian!

wildoates · Aug 29, 2010

Blanchy said:
Hello Ken,

I just wrapped up reading your book which I found to be quite helpful.

I'm with you on beverage quality. My guess is that my friend Tom has sampled some, shall we say, lower quality mead in the past. That being said, he also couldn't deal with some sake that I made which I found to be quite an excellent product. Perhaps these alternate alcholic beverages aren't going to work for him. Time will tell.

The Mazer Cup might be a possibility at some point. In the short term, I'll probably pick up a bottle of one of Rabbit's Foot's products.

Blanchy

Put the first Saturday in November on your calendar, as I think I'll be having another mead tasting party at my place near Sacramento on that day. You'll be able to taste a whole lot o' mead, I promise!

akueck · Aug 30, 2010

Whoo! More NorCal mead parties! This time I'll come early so I don't miss the small bottles.

JayH · Aug 30, 2010

I'll join in too

Professionally I’m an independent programmer. You need a business app, I’ll write it. Games and such are out. If you don’t cross my palms with silver I have no interest in working on a computer, too much beer and mead to be made.

Hobbies, besides the obvious beer and mead. I bike a lot, both with and without motors. I love to tour the US. I’ve peddled my bicycle from Seattle to San Diego and my current motorcycle was in every state from Nebraska West (well almost, I got Alaska, but I don’t have a big enough snorkel to do Hawaii) British Columbia, Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja Del Norte and Baja del Sur all within the first year.

I love to fly especially if I can turn the plane upside down. Hiking and backpacking don’t take up nearly as much time as I’d like, but I still manage a couple of trips a year. Travel, I chase total eclipses, it’s like throwing a dart blindfolded at the map of the world and saying, yes, let’s go there.

However my major hobby for many hears has been Morris Dancing. I danced with Sunset Morris in Santa Monica for years and was their musician for the last 8. I currently dance with a couple of sides in the San Francisco area and for several years danced with Pipe and Bowl at the California Ren Faires.

Cheers
Jay

Blanchy · Aug 30, 2010

WildOates,

That sounds like a lot of fun. I'll definitely put it on the calendar although I'm not sure if I'll have anything to contribute at that time (at least mead wise). I'm a pretty good cook, so I can probably swing something.

JayH,

That dancing sounds interesting. What instrument do you play? Before I got semi-serious about the classical guitar, I used to spend a lot of time playing a recorder. Irish and Scottish music were a big part of my repertoire.

Blanchy

JayH · Aug 30, 2010

For the dancing I play an English Melodeon (or button accordion). I also play the flute, record and penny whistle.

The beauty of the Melodion is it is load and it carries so the dancers can hear me over all the other sound.

Cheer
Jay

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