It has been a while since my last post - travelling is no excuse - but it is a good chance to read!
First the dragons - I am now well into my reading of A Dance with Dragons - the 5th book in the Game of Thrones series. I liked this a lot more that the Feast of Crows - the 4th book. I was a bit lost in the 4th - but the 5th brought back all those connections I loved from the first 3 books - and the TV series! We are back with the dragon queen Daeneris - now with grown up dragons and lots of problems after freeing slaves and trying to run a state. There is Tyrion "the Imp" going from one disaster to another with his now half nose - but surviving; Jon Snow - now boss of "the Wall" and many others - some who I can't recall from earlier books! The pace is incredible and the way George Martin keeps the pieces moving, in character and in vivid detail is amazing. It is generally dark - murder and mutilation is a regular feature among the mayhem - but also quite "believable" in the sense that it holds together. I am yet to finish the book - but I don't think that book 5 will be the end of this trilogy - and I would certainly read more!
The other dragon was another Harry Bosch adventure by Michael Connolly. I tried to keep reading in sequence, but they were not on kindle and the one I found in the bookshop skipped a few. His daughter is now grown up and living in Hong Kong with her mother (the dragon connection!). I think the author is stretching for plots at the moment - and this one was a little "out there" - but I will read more.
Now the Demons. I came across a book called The Painted Man by Peter Brett. I had never heard of him - but Terry Brooks endorsed it - so that was good enough for me. This was a good read. the general theme was where demons ruled the dark of night - materialising as the sun went down and disappearing as the sun came up. Humans had a religion based around this and they had to protect themselves in their houses - often not terribly successfully - during the dark hours. The overwhelming attitude was one of fear and the lack of any way to overcome the demons and retake the dark. The story, of course, was about a young boy who ended up taking on the demons and leading the human fightback to retake the dark. It was well written and tackled many themes of how religion - and fear - can stop us reaching our potential. How do we take on the fear that instilled in us and cross boundaries that society says are un-crossable?
And Skeptics? Well, I picked up a Skeptic magazine (Vol 16 No 4 2011, USA & c\Canada) the other day and read through the articles. There were a couple of good articles - and I particularly liked the one on "What is the Most Effective way to be a Skeptic? - the great debate between confrontational activism v. educational outreach". It seems as if Skeptics can be just as un-empathetic and uncivil as some fundamentalists - and there is a recognition that this is not helpful! The magazine tackled other topics such as: antioxidants; sound therapy; precognition; and whether creationists were listening to each other about arguments not to use (the answer was no). I think there is a place for such magazines questioning dubious practices, beliefs and ideas - although the risk is that they lose some generally credibility because some good articles/ideas just get labelled as coming from the skeptics. The more scholarly debate that occurs in mainstream media and publications the better for all I think.
