Under the read more link are spoilers! So if you haven’t read the book yet, GO THE FUCK AWAY.

SPOILERS!!!

First a bit on the structure of the book: I wish we could have seen this merged together with AFFC. I think editorial wise certain parts/plotlines were not completely necessary or could have been condensed.

I was surprised to see how many people rallied to save Fake Arya from Ramsay Bolton. Then again, the north still loves their Starks, and Winterfell is still a seat of power. And everyone knows what a scary shit Ramsay is. Holy crap – that’s just nasty. He just catapulted himself to the creepiest mofo in all of Westeros with this book. It was all fine and OK to hear about his exploits second- third, or fourth-hand, but to see him from the eyes of (poor) Theon just really drove it home.
Ha, and who would have thought I’d start rooting for Theon Greyjoy? Not me! I always didn’t like him, hated him when he sacked Winterfell – and in ADWD I pitied him and actually started to cheer him on in the end. I was glad to see him reunited with Asha, and that he got poor Jeyne/fake Arya out of Winterfell

The Quentyn Martell plotline was all rather hilarious, if you look at where it ended. Oh, Martells… you’re like the Starks of the South. Nice people, BAD JUDGMENT.

Tyrion’s plotline was weird – he came so close to seeing Dany, and now he’s… what, a sellsword? How’s THAT going to help the plot? I thought it was fun that he met up with Mormont though.

Aegon- ha! The crackpot theories were right! Aegon lives! And he seems like a nice guy as well, if not a bit young. Looks like we’ve found our second Dragon rider…. if Dany ever finds her other two dragons again, that is. And if she survives meeting up with the horsepeople. To go forward you need to go back, right?

As for Arya: she is kicking ass at training. Good for her

Jaime… well, let’s say I’m fearing for his life. FUCK YOU BRIENNE! She damn well better try to deceive Stoneheart and become an oathbreaker twice over or there will be hell to pay.
Cersei… gets whats coming to her. I did feel a bit sorry for her during her walk of shame. But the end of it… Ser Robert Strong, eh? Why don’t they just call him FrankenGregor? I wonder if he’s headless under that armour.

Stannis and Melisandre were fun to read about. They’re REALLY just doing their best. I think, though that Jon turns out Azor Ahai or whatever he’s called – Melisandre comments on trying to find AA in her flames, and all she kept seeing was Jon. Who isn’t dead btw. I refuse to believe that. I think he does die, but due to cool warg/fire magic gets to come back in his body. Which is awesome, because those oaths he swore… I don’t think they count anymore.
Poor Jon though – he really was trying to do what was right and got stabbed in the back as a result…

I was also pissed off to see Kevan Lannister bite it. But at least it cements that Varys is setting up for a Targaryen return. It’s all for the children, eh?

So yeah. Now the waiting begins… again. At least now I can re-read at a leisury pace

So I’ll get the book I’ve coveted for the past six years (if it isn’t ten – I read “A Storm Of Swords” in frigging September 2000 – it’s been eleven years since I read about some characters in the story, because “Feast For Crows” in 2005 was only half of the book, “Dance” is the other half) on Tuesday evening…. and guess what…?
I have Wednesday off. It’s my usual bi-weekly day off.

AHAHAHAHAHA! This is awesome!

In other words, you probably won’t hear much from me on 12 and 13 July. I’ll be glued to my e-reader.

They aren’t that expensive either, I think we paid about 111 euro for it. If you keep in mind that Kindle books are about 5 euro’s cheaper, then with 20 books I’ve saved enough money on it that I’m actually cheaper this way. Olli ordered one for me as a present, sweet husband of mine <3 We decided to just go for wifi and without 3G. I figured that it’s probably better for me not to have internet to buy books everywhere anyway, and I’ll just stock up on books whenever I’m around wifi (like at home). Olli ordered when we were freshly back from Graspop… and my Kindle arrived on Friday. Yay!

And it’s brilliant! It’s terribly easy to use, it reads like a dream, and it’s terrifyingly easy to buy books on Amazon with it. It’s like ‘click, click… oops I just bought two books’. So all in all maybe it’s for the better that I don’t have 3G, hehe. Anyway, I now have fun stuffs to read and I don’t have to go to the pesky bookstore for it. I’ll get the newest Song of Ice and Fire book, “A Dance With Dragons”, directly wirelessly delivered to my Kindle on 12 July. Whee! Now all I have to do is see if I can perhaps get people to order books for my Kindle for me for my birthday… that’d be sweet

Having just had a triumph where it comes to getting published (*squeal!* still can’t believe that actually HAPPENED!), I needed inspiration. I needed someone to show me the way.

I think that Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy has done exactly that. I am in complete and utter awe of the series. I love the cleverness of the plot, the way things fit together. In the blurb on the back of the book they promised the reader revelations, things fitting together in the last chapter that you never even noticed were loose ends in the first book, an amazing finale, and “a feeling as if you just woke up from an amazing dream”. And they were right. They were totally right.

BTW, the thing I tweeted about, saying that ‘if Sanderson is going to do what I think he will, then he’s a bloody genius’ – I was right about that. I called that plotpoint a lot earlier and even though I knew it was going to happen, it was so satisfying to see that I was right. It was so elegantly done! I loved it.

It’s so inspiring! So tonight I booted up my dutch fantasy story that I started for Nanowrimo, and I sat down for some new plotting. I think I have a good beginning, but the plot and the pacing need some definite work. This, what Sanderson did, is what I want. Time and time again when I watch TV series or movies or books I get disappointed with the payoff (I’m looking at you, Lost and Battlestar Galactica!) at the very end. They promise you layered stories and a mind blowing finale and then it just… isn’t. You kind of start to settle for the feeling that the middle of the series is the best, and that it’s pretty much impossible to bring something so epic to a good ending.

Sanderson showed me that it IS possible to have a clever buildup, intrigues and interwoven plotlines and have it play out in a very believable and satisfying manner. And this shows me that it can be done by me as well. I don’t fancy myself even 10% as talented as he is in that regard (not in writing talent, but definitely not in regards to planning, i’m too chaotic to do a thing like that), but tonight I’m inspired enough to give it a shot. Let’s cleverly build up a plot.

Let’s write to see what happens. Let’s revise scenes to make them work.

It can be done.

Maybe even by me as well.