And with the turn of a page some of the characters I’d grown most fond of were murdered. I’m still speechless and I honestly didn’t think he could (or would) do it again, but what was I thinking? And then, 200 pages later HE DOES IT AGAIN! What?!? I mean resetting your cast of characters is old hat, but wow. I’m not sure how many more times this can occur before I lose patience. I almost want to make a list of all the characters that were alive at the beginning of a book and then cross them off as they die to try and see an overall picture.
This is a 4,161 page series (Kindle version as of now with two, maybe three, to come) set in an at war pre-technology era of royalty, knights, magic and dragons, of course characters will die, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I will say the final chapter of the novel was somewhat more rewarding than what happened 400 or so pages before, but the epilogue was somewhat disturbing! Where is Martin taking the series!?!?
In book two of The Heroes of Olympus cycle, Riordan comes through on the perceived promise of keeping things as exciting as in The Percy Jackson and the Olympians cycle. I’ve already discussed my lack of enthusiasm over the Kane Chronicles so I’ll move right in to this review/summary/pontification.
Wow. What more can I say? Book two of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire cycle and although this novel wasn’t as captivating as 
A Game of Thrones is the first book in George R. R. Martin’s Epic fantasy cycle A Song of Ice and Fire. Projected at seven novels, the fifth novel was published in 2012. I guess you could say I jumped on the bandwagon with this one, but I don’t feel at all guilty about it as I grew up reading Star Wars and Dragon based fiction, so I like to think I’m returning home after a long break. I’m also very excited to check out the HBO adaptation of the novel having finally read it.
What a fitting 50th book for 2011. Not only have I completed my ‘set’ goal for 2011, but I completed a series that has spent eight years on my various bookshelves across the East Coast and Britain. As with