I spent many hours reading his old reviews.

Given the continual splintering effect of modern media, I doubt there'll ever be a critic of his stature again.

After finishing David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, I've just started on Guy Gavriel Kay's newest work, River of Stars.  After that, I'll finish True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey.

As a kid growing up in the early-to-mid-90s, whenever movies were be advertised you always looked to see what Siskel and Ebert said about it, even before you were really of an age to read reviews.  Once I started doing that, I found Ebert one of the best.

Apparently some girl once came up to Turner and Williams while they were in a cafe, said to the latter "You're my favourite", and then to the former "You're my least favourite".

I really can't agree there.  The show is much dumber than the books, and Martin's vast world is full of more nuance and depth than the show can ever have.

A lot of that is very drawn-out travelling scenes that can be condensed pretty easily, and worldbuilding stuff the show will probably skip entirely.

I think a lot of people's negative feelings toward the fifth book relate to the way it was released more than anything else.  For people waiting five years, and then to wait another five after, it might easily have seemed quite inadequate.  But I think it's quite strong.  I'm not a huge fan of the Ironmen, but the…

With Season 4 finishing out book 3, they'll presumably combine books 4 and 5 into the next two seasons, probably including the two climactic battles that were left out of book five at the last minute for space issues.

While I reserve the right to feel sorry for Theon later, right now I can't wait to see Ramsay get to work on him.

@avclub-41212a9d660d861b9d5bd9c37de55961:disqus , she wandered off into the countryside, where he'd have no means of following her.  It's not like he can tag her with a GPS.

@avclub-0108709d613bc1d1db7e5c2b5f02c657:disqus , "Arstan" is the name of Barristan's cousin, Lord Arstan Selmy of Harvest Hall, who inherited that title after Barristan gave it up to join the Kingsguard.

@avclub-a1967e6de4ca99fb2635d94b99453928:disqus , it's quite clear in the books that she wasn't in on it.  Neither she nor her siblings had any inkling.  That's what Grey Wind wasn't suspicious of them.

so it's a lot easier to buy that Book Robb would be so desperate just to get laid that he'd be willing to fuck up everything for it. But Show Robb in the body of 26-year-old Richard Madden? That would be laughable if it wasn't so unthinkable.

It's still a good character scene for Sansa, even if Dontos has no further use, and shows her helping out a guy with her wits even when there's nothing in it for her.

@HobbesMkii:disqus , I'm sure it was, but still, he saw him from a distance (I believe, I don't have the books with me) a decade earlier.  Since then, he'd have seen no photos of him or anything to refresh his memory of what Barristan looks like, and the guy now has a beard.  Unless Jorah has a photographic memory I…

But there's a huge difference in the circumstances.  His deciding to marry in the book was the result of a single moment of weakness (which was understandable, given the news of his dead brothers), which left him with two dishonourable options (don't marry her, or break his word to Lord Frey).  In the show, he just…

No, he's gay.  Them having sex is one of the slanders Cersei considers against her, but discards because nobody would believe it.

Sansa would at that point be an escaped regicide, so I don't think they'd have Fake Sansa instead of Fake Arya.

While Ros is generally a waste of space (and I'm not really sure why she's suddenly more important to Littlefinger's organization when last season Varys' whole pitch to her was that he'd never have any use for her other than as a whore; did Littlefinger feel the need to promote her so that she'd be in a better…