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Sansa might get pretty good at that—I'm weirdly looking forward to it.

Yep—and I'm guessing it might be a kind death—you just know Cersei's going to be a total nutcase at that point. I actually think he'll do it out of some sort of love. Push comes to shove, I don't think Tyrion would bother.

Whoa, that's right—that's kind of a big one. Well, Martin always said his work was too big for television—and D&D can only follow the twists and turns of his imagination so far. Other than the Sand Snakes, I think they've pretty much veered away from introducing the new characters in Books 4 and 5—though they've

Interesting, I'll put it on my ever-growing list. Thanks.

Yep, anything with the Wildlings seems like it's going to be different—I just don't get who the substitutes will be—particularly as Val doesn't seem to exist. Oh well, just limited torture please.

Like I say, it's not simply that MZB wasn't a good person, it's that her rationalizations inform her work—you realize that, oh, that's not some random choice to make her world more interesting, it's a rationalization of something she did in real life. That's when the "ugh" kicks in. I say this as someone who has no

I really liked Possession, but I picked out Byatt's short stories and Angels & Insects for a reason. Possession impressed me with its mimicry, but in terms of style and pacing, I prefer her shorter works. For example, the transformation of the main character in "A Stone Woman":

I liked the trilogy a lot, but I think it helps that I'm older. I think I would have felt clobbered by those books if I'd read them in my twenties.

The thing is once I read about Bradley's enabling of one sexual predator and her abuse of her own child, I couldn't see her work the same way—there are just all sorts of self-serving things in it . This isn't true of all writers who were rotten people, but it's true of Bradley. She was vile in a particularly cruel and

Little, Big is one of those books I learned about on io9. I read it and then I promptly gave it as a birthday gift to a friend for the purely selfish reason that I needed to talk about it with someone. She found it so weird and interesting that she sent me nightly e-mails about it as she read it. It's just so

Yes, I don't have a top pick—a little too much like asking to pick a favorite child. I thought about Michael Chabon and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay as well, but couldn't decide if it quite qualified as fantasy. That has some amazing sequences too. I tried to think of some SF writers, but while there some

Ooh, what a lovely question. Yes to Ursula LeGuin, John Crowley and Gene Wolfe.

I think the season end will be what you think it is. And, no, Dany's a key storyline—she'll survive, at the least, through most of the series. Few characters have more plot armor than Dany.

Yeah, I've read the books, so I get what you're saying. I keep forgetting about the Iron Isles storyline, but it actually takes up a lot of Book Four and a chunk of Book Five. I think, among other things, it's how we'll learn about the Doom of Valyria (which seems connected to the Faceless Men). In the books, it's

I do think there’s something to that and it’s not just now—you look through history and various conditions have moments, more or less. I mean, no one’s neurasthenic now, but a lot of Victorians were. In the ‘80s there was an explosion of multiple personalities. The 90s saw fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We

He did say it, but, yes, I hope it's a misdirection. On the other hand, LS has yet to show and that actor said at the time she wasn't coming back.

They're really, really, really badly written, so I don't think they'll last. Bad writing is something that becomes more noticeable as years pass for some reason. Jane Austen—still readable. Grace Metalious—not so much, though she sold way more books.

Actually, physical books are having a bit of a resurgence. They're actually a nice bit of technology—cheap, don't need any power source to use them, they don't crash and they're easier to navigate. Various studies indicate that we find them easier to absorb information than online. This is even true of current college

Caprica's not bad, but it's innately depressing because it takes place in a civilization that you already know is going to be destroyed in 40 years. It's just bleak for that reason.

The actor playing Mance said that he really was dead. I think, in general, B&B believe in killing off their characters more permanently than Martin does. Goes with there being less magic overall—magic's rarer on GOT than in the books where it really permeates the world.