A Game of Thrones and Rome

I finished A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin recently. I started it once, a long time ago, and stopped reading it because of the darkness involved in it. Now it didn't seem so much dark as realistic. Not all stories have happy endings, and just because it's a fantasy, doesn't make it a fairy tale-type adventure where everything ends nicely. It's not black and white, it's shades of gray, and dark gray, and just so much more believable than most books out now, where you know the hero will win in the end. The story follows a few different families. One, the Starks, in their cold dull goodness, who it would seem are the good guys, and those that would be their enemies, the Lannisters, golden and beautiful. The third are the exiled and dethroned royal children who escaped when their father was killed. People die, kids die, kids are thrown off buildings when they see to much, and babies heads are dashed into walls in this dark, but realistic story about a game of thrones. Not a happy ending, but satisfying in it's own way.
Ive also been watching Rome season 1 on dvd, (because I can't stand to wait a week at a time between episodes when I watch shows). It's also a gritty show, with gratuitous sex scenes, at least in the first couple episodes, until they drag you into the story line. I liked the series, and I wasn't overy dissappointed when they didn't make it cheesy at the end with Ceasar saying his infamous line to Brutus, and there was no crone witch saying 'beware the ides of march'. they steared clear of these cliche events and made the story about two dis-similar soldiers with big problems and events during this epic time in history, and it follows them as they come into contact with seemingly every important person from that era in time. I enjoyed it enough that I am now watching season 2.
Oh! I also just made 70 on my WoW Hunter, and I am in the process of gearing her for heroics and raids! Next I will work on my level 35 Pali!

Mistborn and Ludo

I have to admit up front that I never considered reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson until I found out that he would be finishing The Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan. Any huge Wheel of Time fan will not be able to read any of this poor mans work without a bias and a feeling of 'not good enough'. I tried to completely separate the book and it's author from my favorite series, but I found myself constantly thinking, 'How can THIS guy finish what Jordan started?' I know the answer is, he can't, only Jordan could have done that, so I forced myself to take a huge step back and stop comparing the two. That done, Mistborn was still just little better than mediocre. It was incredibly easy to put down, and I found myself not really liking the characters.
It's about a street girl who comes to discover she has this amazing inborn talent of the Mistborn, which makes her able to 'burn metals' and influence people's thoughts and propel herself through the air in mighty leaps. ( I could only imagine scenes out of cheesy Kung Fu movies with the wire fights, ie: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) So, in a 'My Fair Lady' type move, this band of thieves try and turn her into a noble so she can infiltrate the noble ranks and glean information to help their huge plot to overthrow the tyrannical government. Of course, at her very first ball, she accidentally meets and falls in love with the son of the enemy. Never saw that one coming. In the end, the other main character in the story, the hero of the pits who has been rallying the slave people of the realm to rise up against this tyrant martyrs himself. The girl goes on to rule the kingdom after defeating this invincible tyrant by taking his bracelets off, alongside the son of the enemy, who wasn't bad after all. (Yes, his bracelets, I'm serious. And we all knew the boy wouldn't turn out to be bad after all, right?)
Maybe I am being to hard on this book, but I don't think I am since I like almost everything I read. Now I am reading A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin, so I will tell you all about it in a few days.
My favorite band this week is Ludo, most especially the song Love Me Dead. It's sarcasm, anger and unusual melody is right up my alley.