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Of maidens, warriors and queens

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I must confess that I really enjoyed this book but for reasons very different from the previous book which is unarguably the pinnacle of everything that made A Song of Ice and Fire such a rich, beautiful fantasy series and deconstruction of the genre. That said, A Feast for Crows is more intimate and experimental in its narrative, choices of character POVs and theme focus. What do I mean when I say this? Well, a lot of critics who read this book agreed that it was a lesser novel than the others because first and foremost, the fan-favorite major characters are not present here (and by fan-faves I of course meant Tyrion, Jon and Daenerys who later appeared in A Dance with Dragons as the main POVs). Having that in mind, it’s so easy to dismiss AFfC as uninteresting and bland. Since I knew about that flaw, I went with that perspective as I perused through the pages and yes, I saw for myself that it was indeed true. Nevertheless, it was not as bad and unpleasant as those critical revi

Drifting among the waves of terror

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  It was on October two years ago when I decided to familiarize myself with Clive Barker’s works, especially since I thoroughly enjoyed his graphic novel Tapping the Vein . I thought he had a very eloquent prose that fits his gothic and horror themes, so I was more than happy to pick up Everville in one of the secondhand bookstores I go to. As soon as I was done with re-reading some favorite chapters in Les Miserables and The Hobbit in preparation for the film viewing of these two, I went straight for Everviile , eager to devour the contents since the writer was a promising one. On one hand, it was one of the most magnetic and exquisitely realized stories I’ve ever seen in print. On the other, my enjoyment of this novel also depended on my mental preparedness and attention and in that regard, I somehow lost track and found the reading experience tedious since my focus is not entirely on this book. This may make my review slightly evasive but I will try my best to illuminate the go