What I Am Reading - The Ice Dragon

The Ice Dragon

George R.R. Martin

Read it in paperback, at 112 pages w/ illustrations and large font.

Everyone is familiar with Martin at this point as his series 'A Song of Ice and Fire' seems to be all the buzz.  The first book in that series was published in 1996 while this little inception was written in the 1980's with a re-release in the 2006 time frame, undoubtedly due in part because of the success of his primary works.  I didn't really know what to expect, I had heard from others that this is was a disappointment while other readers gave it the praise that any fan-boy would give.  So with those two things, I decided instead to go in with a clean slate and being a bit of a fan-boy myself, hoping for Westeros bones.  There are a few.

Now that I am done, I think I like it best to think of this story as a fairy tale from Westeros and it fits that niche well since at the time of its completion, Westeros was but a dream.  The story itself is apparently a kids book, but it is Martin and let's not be fooled.  It does after all have some severe imagery here and there in correlation with some wounded people within the tale.

The premise is simple, Adara, a child of winter is cold and distant but she has one friend which comes every year, the ice dragon. 

It's a simple tale so I will leave it at that and if you are a fan of Martin, and more importantly Westeros, than it is a fair assessment that you will enjoy this.  If this is your first foray into Martin, go ahead and jump to the deep end and pick up 'A Song of Ice and Fire', it's rewarding and fantastic.  Afterwards, pick up this fairytale.

3.5 realistically and while this would normally be a round down novel, I am a fan-boy and rounding up.

Enjoy.

OLT Book Matrix (09,20.12)

This is where we are at as of 09.20.12

What I Am Reading - Tropic of Cancer

Henry Miller

Tropic of Cancer

318 pages, read in paper-back

August brought 'Tropic of Cancer' as OLT's book selection and we had to scramble to attempt to get back on cadence, which presented its own challenges for the month, namely a shorter duration to read the book despite our efforts to kick it out an additional week.

Which leads us to the book of course. 

Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer takes place in Paris in the late twenties and early thirties and chronicles the adventures or life of Henry Miller during this time.  Henry being an ex-patriot writer choosing to live in squalor for ,whatever reason, and this destitution being one of the all too apparent facts of the story.  Other themes of the story include the liberal use of prostitution, hardships of writing, and of course gross disenchantment with the human race.  For the time in which it was written I can understand why this book was censored for so long, but now-a-days I would expect this much shock and awe in a Tucker Max volume or Fifty Shades of Grey, and so it has become a mainstay so to speak.

Overall this isn't a novel but instead a rambling narrative that is hard to follow and offers little congruity.  Besides the themes mentioned above there is not really anything that ties everything together.  No lasting point the author wants you to walk away with, no real reason except to say "this is what I went through and these are my ramblings."  Which is all fine and good but left me wondering why I wandered down this path with him if at the end it was simply an alcohol fueled rant about the failings of humanity amidst his chosen experience of destitution.

I'll skip the rest of his publications I think.

As far as OLT book-club is concerned, potential spoilers below:

We had six people finish, which was impressive, as most of the members finished day of the meeting to make the meeting and score the book.  Prior to the day of it looked like the only people to make it to the Champions Circle were to be myself and the selector of the book.

Peoples favorite characters generally included Fillmore (perhaps Mr. Miller's nicest and most honest friend), Van Norton an insufferable vagina seeker, and one shout out for poor Kepi an Indian visitor who is shown Paris through Miller.  The character selections also coincided with peoples favorite moments and it should be noted that most everyone's favorite moments were those of whimsy and didn't include the times in which Miller is doing reprehensible acts but instead enjoying a luxury of fortune from another's hospitality or whims of fortune.  While most agree that their least favorite moment was…well I shall say 'peering into the whispering eye of doom' and spare everyone the nitty-gritty, we did have some honorable mentions for Mr. Miller stealing from friends and Millers own description of the material before you.

Scoring went much like this (from 1 to 10, one being the worst):

Th3ee: 3

Dust: 8

Harry-Beary: 6

Hylen: 3

SS: 4

Dave: 1

An average of 4.16/10