Post edited 1:50 pm – February 18, 2011 by Angel

I just finished reading the first 4 Books of a "Game of Thrones" (aka…Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin.  700 pages each so it took me about 1+1/2 weeks on my Kindle.  If you're looking for an adult medieval-style fantasy book that's NOT D&D (and this is hard to find) This is the story for you.  GRR is a prime storyteller and a screenwriter for movies and TV.  His descriptive prose is smooth and beautifully written, though sometimes he does use it to pad out a book length.  I mean…I don't CARE what King Aerys was wearing when he killed a former friend by roasting him alive inside his Armor (yeah…a lot of the action is harsh with a phenomenal body count). He creates incredible characters and stories.  The long battle scenes kind of wear me out, but even if you just skim them they aren't boring.  It's brutal stuff.  Just when you're lulled into thinking it's a medieval-type swords and horses saga, he tosses in MAGIC…subtly most of the time…blatantly and unexplained at others.  When you get comfortable with the characters, he explodes the plot. Reminds me of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"…esp in the spelling of names etc.  Lots of "y's" in place of I (like Jeyne for Jane or Yrornwood for Ironwood).  I found a bit of tedious descriptive narrative and repetition in the last 2 books, but it's easy to sort of speed read over that once it sets the scene.  The characters are incredible.  They grow and change throughout, which makes them all the more fascinating.  The VERY surprising plot has turns and twists.  Kind of like that old funny plot spoiler…"EVERYBODY dies!".      Can't get too fond of any character because the body count is incredible.

As you read these first 4 books you pass through phases of "War of the Roses"…"Canterbury tales"…"Fall of the Roman Empire" with more than a touch of "Snow White" (evil Queen…who's the fairest of them all stuff).  Throw in a dragon sub-plot and some vague, unexplained magic…which leaves you with a LOT of Martin's personal philosophy and his obvious distaste for primitive, superstitious  religions.  A real romp.  So?  Why couldn't I put the damn things down?  Good writing for one, despite echoes of many existing and historical works.  4th book is the worst.  It's VERY padded and a few of the most interesting characters just disappear (to be returned in later books…he says) and you're left hanging on the edge of unfinished action.  It's a 7 year cliffhanger.  Glad I didn't discover this series until at least 4 books were out.  As for Characters, you can't count on ANY of them making it through.  Right in the middle of a chapter or page he's liable to surprisingly dispatch a main character…SURPRISE!  damn. 

There are a projected 7 Books in the series.  I've looked frantically for book 5 (A Dance with Dragons) which GRR has been promising for YEARS…but it's still not out. There's your 7 year cliffhanger.  At this rate he won't live long enough to finish all 7 books.  He's not so young and he's getting lazy as the years pass.

As usual, I'm feeling kind of hollow after living inside a book world for weeks.  I want to go back to Westeros, brutal a place as it is.  I miss the characters (the ones who have survived, that is ) and I miss GRR's voice in my head.  There's an HBO movie of the first book coming out on April 17.  I'll definitely watch it, though I hesitate to replace the characters in my imagination with concrete ones on the screen.  OF COURSE they can't encompass the scope of even one book in a TV series….it goes without saying.  If you read the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", Millenium Trilogy and then saw the 3 movies you know how inadequate the movies are.

So, here I sit, looking for anything to read that will rival "Song of Ice and Fire"…waiting impatiently for GRR to get off his arse and release the 5th book.  Can't tell you WHAT's been on TV for the past few weeks and now I hate it all…so callow, stupid and unimaginative.

Paul this "freezing" seems to be a common Kindle problem.  It's happened to me twice and I have no idea what caused it either time.   Kinda scary, even though Amazon says they have all your stuff backed up.  Fine for whatever you bought from them, but if you've added any books from other sources, you would lose those.  SO…what to do?  Back up your Kindle Document folder on your Computer.  I ran mine onto a 180gig external HD that wasn't being used for anything else (WAY more space than you'll ever need…just make any HD file for it).  Tested it by deleting a couple of books from the Kindle (one in .AZW and one in .TXT) then copied them back to the device from the Hard drive backup.  Works great.

Backup is easy.  Plug in the Kindle via USB….access the device in the list of "removable drives" (should appear automatically as soon as it's plugged in) open the folders….click on "documents" in that list and everything on the Kindle will appear (in alphabetical form).  Highlight one title…Ctrl-A to choose them all….Ctrl-C to copy…go to the folder or drive you choose for backup…Ctrl-V to Paste it all.  (or use the right-click function list).

There will be 2 or 3 parts to every title (.AZW + .MBP + .PHL)…if you ever need to run one back in, highlight them all. Copy….Paste into the Kindle "document" section.  2 of these are only 1 or 2k in size and it's possible that Kindle will automatically replace them if you don't copy them back in.  I've tried it both ways and either works.  I get tired of scrolling through all the older books I've finished but hate to just delete or archive them.  This way, I can delete anything and get it back later if it's needed.  The backup file will also probably be on your main Backups…double protection (I need to add my little external drive to the list for Image copy to the Main Backup HD).  Sigh…all this backup-crap would get tedious if it weren't so easy and automatic.

EJECT the Kindle before unplugging the USB cable.  Right click on the "Kindle drive" and choose EJECT in the list of functions.  NEVER unplug before doing this…the list of FUBAR stuff that will happen is legion.  You must Eject and UNPLUG before the title will appear on the "Home" title list of the device.

ALL KINDLE USERS….Remember…If you freeze, just hold the power slider switch in the ON position for 15 sec.  Let it go and the device will reboot (you can watch the progress bar on the main screen as it does).  There are only 2 files in the TROUBLESHOOTING section of the User's Guide.  This instruction is the first.