Just finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.
A Game of Thrones is the first book of a continuing saga known as A Song of Ice and Fire–an epic fantasy set in a world one might say is reminiscent of medieval Scotland. It needs no introduction, I’m sure.
A Game of Thrones delivers on my high expectations. It has many things I like in fantasy fiction: real characters, gritty details, unrelenting consequences and sparing use of magic. Characters are flawed, never black and white, which makes them so interesting, and their actions unpredictable. I’ve learned to care so much for the characters, I almost felt betrayed by the author with some of its ruthless turn of events, but at least I was lucky to be forewarned.
GRRM’s world-building is nothing short of fantastic, brimming with meticulously crafted lore and culture. Daenerys’ chapters were probably my least favorite (partially due to the isolated setting), but the fascinating Dothraki culture made up for it. I love the fact that seasons come in decades, as it adds to the suspense of the looming winter to great effect. In the next books, I look forward to seeing how the realm adapts to this dramatic change. Winter is coming, as the Starks say.
A Game of Thrones
As an aside: HBO has acquired rights to the A Song of Ice and Fire series and have actually started filming the pilot for A Game of Thrones. For once, I am glad to have read the book before seeing its film adaptation. I have high hopes for the film, as I think the book already reads like one.
Time to Move
It has been a year since I joined Geek Storage under their shared hosting plan. Today I decided that it is time to move on. I have no complaints with the features or quality of support. It comes down to the fact that the server is excruciatingly slow, even for a shared hosting plan.
I’ve already decided on my next (and hopefully last) destination, and I’ve begun setting up my site using Symphony CMS. I am also totally done with WordPress. It is a decent blogging system but not flexible enough for other needs. Its themes are a total mess and pain in the neck to customize. I was looking for something that simplifies content management, is future-proof and most importantly separates content from presentation (MVC). Symphony seemed to fit the bill nicely. ExpressionEngine and Textpattern were on my list of candidates but they both use proprietary formatters, and the front end (admin UI) isn’t as nice.
This will take some time, as it will involve some manual content transfer. But I am looking forward to a new world of geekery that is my new Symphony powered site.