A Storm of Swords- Book 2: Blood and Gold by George R.R. Martin

SPOILERS!

(Major spoilers for those who only watch the TV show)

This is the installment that features the infamous Red Wedding sequence, which Martin handles really well with tense, taut prose:

"No one sang the words, but Catelyn knew 'The Rains of Castamere' when she heard it. Edwyn was hurrying towards a door. She hurried faster, driven by the music. Six quick strides and she caught him. And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so law? She grabbed Edwyn by the arm to turn him and went cold all over when she felt the iron rings beneath his silken sleeve. Catelyn slapped him so hard she broke his lip. Olyvar, she thought, and Perwyn, Alesander, all absent. And Roslin wept... Edwyn Frey shoved her aside. The music drowned all other sound, echoing off the walls as if the stones themselves were playing. Robb gave Edwyn and angry look and moved to block his way... and staggered suddenly as a quarrel sprouted from his side, just beneath the shoulder."

This is really an abrupt style of prose from Martin, made more abrupt in the context of the sprawling chapters either side of it. You see, A Song of Ice and Fire achieves the majority of its tension not through violence, but through psycho-political maneuvering and the subsequent threat of violence. The events that led to the Red Wedding started in the first novel of this saga, and so this particular chapter is an unexpected and brutal climax. It makes for compelling reading, and Martin is utterly successful in achieving reader engagement.

What I also like about the series so far, is how historical realism is blended with magic. There are seven books in the series (as of writing), and each book is really an epic in its own right. For the majority of the novels, there is not much going on in the magic department (this ain't Hogwarts, folks), but then Martin will throw in some magic that is actually quite bat-shit insane. After the infamous Red Wedding sequence, in which two Starks are brutally slain, the concluding chapter of A Storm of Swords presents us with a newly resurrected Catelyn Stark who can't speak because her throat has been slit:

"Her cloak and collar hid the gash his brother's blade had made, but her face was even worse than he remembered. The flesh had gone pudding soft in the water and turned the color of curdled milk. Half her hair was gone and the rest had turned as white and brittle as a crone's. Beneath her ravaged scalp, her face was shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails. But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated. 'She don't speak,' said the big man in the yellow cloak. 'You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers.' He turned to the dead woman and said, "What do you say, m'lady? Was he part of it?" Lady Cateyln's eyes never left him. She nodded."

 I mean talk about crazy! Where the hell did that idea even come from? You know what? I don't really care where it came from, because it's a work of genius. In the hands of a lesser writer, such insanity wouldn't fly, but because Martin writes with confidence and finesse, he manages to pull it off perfectly.

Movie Showdown #5: Shooter (2007) vs. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

SPOILERS!

It is time for another movie showdown. This time we have Marky Mark with a high-powered sniper rifle in one corner, and George Clooney and a handful of pissed off Mexican vampires in the other. Which movie should you see? Well don't stress too much about making the decision, because I'm here to make the decision for you, like one of those helpful ladies in a jewellery store who just sort of roll their eyes, nod, and tell you which ring you should get your girl.

Shooter (2007)

At the beginning of Shooter, I couldn't help but feeling like I was watching a K-Mart Jason Bourne movie. The mid-to-late 00s was the era of the intellectual spy movie. The last instalment of the aforementioned Bourne saga was released, James Bond had done away with invisible cars, and villains with diamonds embedded in their face in exchange for gritty realism, and (some would say) poorly written dialogue (there, I said it!). So I was expecting Shooter to be filled with a few weighty moral conundrums, as well as some deep protag anxiety and existential angst.

In this respect, I was pleasantly surprised. Marky Mark has no business questioning the pointlessness of life, and he doesn't in Shooter. Instead he gets angry at corrupt political figures and shoots stuff (some strong anti-Republican stuff here). Shooter is a fun action movie to watch. It's not as outlandish as White House Down, but I suppose you could say it's going for the same sort of vibe-- the 'this is an action movie, and action movies are supposed to be fun!' vibe.

I would have liked a few more sniper sequences. There are only really two major ones in the movie, and the former is far too short. The final sequence (set in the snowy fields of Alaska(?)) is pretty cool, but I'm afraid it's a case of too little too late.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

I've seen From Dusk Till Dawn multiple times. I watched it again last night and all I can say is Wow! What a fucking movie! If you haven't seen it and don't want things spoiled (trust me, this is the kind of movie that spoiler warnings were invented for), then turn back now.

The first half of this opens like a typical Quentin Tarantino gangster film (typical is not synonymous with boring-- I'd rather watch a 'typical' Tarantino movie than most other movies), and then it mutates into a genre vampire movie. This mutation is so insanely left-field that it puts many viewers off. The mate I watched it with commented that he was really into the film for the first half, but the second half lost him. This is a problem that I'm guessing a lot of people have. However, if you're the type of person that digs genre cinema, and likes the idea of writers/directors experimenting with genre, then you really have to watch From Dusk Till Dawn.

Tarantino confirms his status as the absolute king of dialogue. The opening sequence presents us with one of the funniest, richest bit characters of cinema, Sheriff Earl McGraw, who is utterly offensive and utterly engaging. He drops pearlers like: "When you gonna learn that that microwave food will kill you faster than a bullet? I mean, them damn burritos ain't good for nothin' but a hippy-- when he's high on weed." His subsequent rant about allowing mentally disabled people work in fast-food restaurants is pure, highly offensive gold.

From Dusk Till Dawn culminates in a frenzy of vampire slaying that is packed with crazy characters. There's a Vietnam veteran who regales the main characters with stories of fighting Charlie in the jungle. There's also a leather-clad biker named Sex Machine who know his way around a whip. It's good fun, and it just oozes fucking cool.

You should see:

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)