Book Log 9/2014 - George R. R. Martin: A Feast for Crows - A Song of Ice and Fire # 4

This is half a book, the companion volume to A Dance with Dragons and therefore only has half of our beloved characters in it, those still remaining in Westeros. We don't get to see anything of what's happening north of the wall, neither do we see what's happening to Dany and her dragons. Regular viewpoint characters include: Jaime Lannister, Samwell Tarly, Arya Stark and Sansa Stark. New viewpoints go to Queen Cersei, Aeron, Asha, and Victarion Greyjoy, Brienne of Tarth, Areo Hotah, Aerys Oakheart, and Arianne Martell.

Of course this book is seriously lacking any Tyrion Lannister viewpoint and the cliffhanger we left him on at the end of A Clash of Kings is not resolved. It's almost surprising to realise that while Cersei has such a lot of on-screen time in the TV show and is instrumental in quite a lot of plot, that she's not been a viewpoint character before. Now we see her descent into instability fuelled by the loss of Joffrey, the desire to protect Tommen and the resentment that her daughter Myrcella, has been sent off to Dorne where Cersei can't protect her. Cersei makes some really bad choices, but bad choices make for good fiction.

We also get Jaime's viewpoint and having started out as the king-killer who is prepared to toss young Bran Stark out of a high window in order to protect his incestuous relationship with Cersei, we see a transformation. Martin might make a hero out of Jaime yet, a respectable one if not a flawless one.

We get to follow the two Stark girls as they each make their own (very different) way in the world, Sansa with Littlefinger finally learning a few street smarts, and Arya out on her own to learn about death and how to inflict it. At one point Arya frustratingly crosses paths with Samwell Tarly on his journey to take elderly and ailing Maester Aemon Targaryen to safety, but neither recognises the other. That's two of Jon Snow's siblings Sam has met without being able to let Jon know they are still alive.

Through Brienne of Tarth's wanderings across war-torn Westeros in search of Sansa we get to see the effect of the War of the Five Kings on the people and the countryside. Sadly we lose all element of tension in Brienne's quest because we know she's looking in all the wrong places.

There's a subplot about the throne of the Iron Islands which honestly didn't excite me, but I'm prepared to concede this may well weave into other plot strands later.

Altogether, while not my favourite book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, it's certainly still a must-read. I've only got A Dance with Dragons to read now and then, like many longstanding fans, I'll be eagerly waiting for George to finish the next one.

Book Log 10/2014 - Donald Maass: Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook

I confess I should have read 'Writing the Breakout Novel' before going on to the workbook. That had been my intention all along, however it was thwarted by putting down WTBN and not being able to find it again, so I picked up the workbook first. What an excellent and concise book with short, apposite chapters using a number of examples from 'breakout' books, both genre and non genre to illustrate techniques for deepening character, layering plots, finding the right first and last lines. Each chapter contains an explanation followed by an exercise.

This is not a book offering shortcuts, in fact it encourages authors to go back through their finished manuscripts and revise a lot of the things they already thought were pretty darn good -- because they can always be better. It's not offering a formula. There is no formula, there's just hard work and many, many tweaks to bump up the quality of your book. In fact there are 34 worksheets, each one asking you to consider one aspect of your novel, pull it out, tweak it and slot it back into place.

Yes it's going to take time to do all that and no, I didn't do the worksheets, but I did find points where I thought, 'I can do that right now!' I certainly applied some of the principles to the book I was just on the point of delivering to my publisher and will have it all in mind while writing the first draft of the work in progress. I hope to have time, then, to apply some of the principles in more depth as I go through the editing process.