View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:44 am



Reply to topic  [ 15 posts ] 
A Hymn for Spring ebook/book 
Author Message
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Some important news available now, including Mimi being confirmed to join me again for this ebook (and I believe there will be a print version available at the same time as well). Free sample essay available from A Hymn for Spring (and also another free sample from A Flight of Sorrows)

http://podcastoficeandfire.com/blue-bud ... od-things/

[Edit, Mimi will not be taking part in this volume, hopefully the next one if we do another]

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:22 am
Profile WWW
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Last chance to get the sample essay and other stuff for free- Don't need kindle, it is readable on the website once you "purchase"

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Buddha-Marc- ... uddha+2014

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Tue Nov 05, 2013 2:48 pm
Profile WWW
team stannis
User avatar

Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:38 pm
Posts: 7960
Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
Reply with quote
Downloaded it this morning

Iron Bends... I approve.

_________________
Ask me about my inexplicable feminist agenda.


Fri May 08, 2015 9:04 am
Profile
♜ vassals of kingsgrave curator ♖
User avatar

Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 5:50 pm
Posts: 4778
Location: Long Island
Reply with quote
I see the ebook available but still don't see a physical book. Some people like to read physical books you damn futurists!

_________________
"Abraham Lincoln once said that if you are a racist I will attack you with the North." - Michael Scott

House Words: "I'm in as long as I don't have to edit."


Fri May 08, 2015 11:53 am
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
claudiusthefool wrote:
I see the ebook available but still don't see a physical book. Some people like to read physical books you damn futurists!


I suspect the physical book might not be available for quite some time. Our editor is busy with a lot of other projects right now.

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Fri May 08, 2015 3:39 pm
Profile WWW
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Commentary/summary of each essay:

http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2015/05/ ... index.html

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Sat May 09, 2015 11:12 am
Profile WWW
house yronwoody lord
User avatar

Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 1:09 am
Posts: 586
Location: Indonesia
Reply with quote
Only halfway through but there are indeed great essays and insights. The topics are more creative in this edition, from songs to military, battle and place analysis (the Harrenhal one by Aziz and Ashaya is my personal favorite so far).

Will there be an APOIAF podcast specific on this? Most if not all writers are podcasters so perhaps there will be some joint podcast or whatever?
I might do a CTA in VoK later.

_________________
“Have a smile for breakfast, you'll be shitting joy by lunch.”
Joe Abercrombie, Best Served Cold


Wed Jun 17, 2015 8:51 am
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Yes there will be at least one podcast episode for this, if not more.
Looking forward to the VOK.

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:46 pm
Profile WWW
house smallwoody
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:11 am
Posts: 132
Location: Mannheim, Germany
Reply with quote
I've read most of them twice already - It's/it was a nice distraction from the show(-universe/-changes/-atrocities)... :-)

The Harrenhal essay was great - long live the bats - the Stannis one was one of my favorites - the Songs and Singers [of course, come on ;-],
but I really enjoyed the whole thing - lots of interesting thoughts, lots of questions raised. I love the work behind it, the analysis of the text -
I also went back and read at least some of the essays in Flight for Sorrows and, don't get me wrong I love all of them, and there are differences in the depths
of those, but for the most part, the new ones feel different, on another level...

The one about Robert's Rebellion has to be loved by every war/military strategist f.e. even outside the Ice & Fire World, at least be interesting to read...
...like always you might not agree with everything that's said, but you respect and appreciate the work, enjoy the read and get motivated to read/re-read the books,
the short stories, other articles/essays/analysis etc. - I love it!

and I would LOVE to listen to (a) podcast(s) about this book!

_________________
M.B.: “Are you the Sword of the Morning now?”
-No. Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night!-
------------------------------------------------------
but 7 God(s)dam't / Maegor's Teats my heart still beats for the LANNISTERs!
------------------------------------------------------
and yes: Gerold & Tywin both love Blood Oranges, I'm sure!


Thu Jun 18, 2015 9:14 pm
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Yes, I definitely think we reached another level of writing in this ebook 8-) It is too bad that the number of sales has been far lower than for A Flight of Sorrows in the same time period after release :cry:

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:39 am
Profile WWW
house micro-woody lord
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:01 am
Posts: 30
Location: Arkansas, USA
Reply with quote
Maybe with the HBO series finishing up for a while, people will be on the hunt for outlets and find the book now. I know I just got around to actually buying it (haven't finished it yet, but I so far agree with the consensus that it is an improvement on Flight of Sorrows, which was already quite good)!

_________________
Night gathers and the watch begins,
The wind carries an unnatural chill;
There are things beyond the northern borders
Mere steel can't kill


Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:14 pm
Profile
♜ vassals of kingsgrave curator ♖
User avatar

Joined: Fri May 18, 2012 5:50 pm
Posts: 4778
Location: Long Island
Reply with quote
I just bought my e-book copy. I was holding out for the physical book, but it looks like there's no exact date for it right? I'll get to reading. Will check back in soon.

_________________
"Abraham Lincoln once said that if you are a racist I will attack you with the North." - Michael Scott

House Words: "I'm in as long as I don't have to edit."


Mon Jun 22, 2015 8:31 pm
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
May want to get that CTA started for the VOK, don't have to wait on us. Busy with trips including Comic Con, might not have our own episodes out until late July.

Not to dictate the final form, but I would be interesting in hearing a general episode review of the book like the one done for Flight of Sorrows, though you don't have to limit it to to that 1 episode. Most of the authors would be interested in participating in interviews if there was a particular person you wanted to do an interview based episode on VOK, let me know and I can put you in contact.

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:31 am
Profile WWW
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:16 am
Posts: 4503
Location: Starfall, Quebec
Reply with quote
Looks like we'll get an episode recorded tomorrow that will include discussion of my essay. If you have any specific questions for that you can post here.

_________________
Lord of Kingsgrave, Justice of the Supreme Court of Westeros, and Hand of the Queen
Founder of Bastards of Kingsgrave and Vassals of Kingsgrave


Wed Jun 24, 2015 8:51 pm
Profile WWW
house smallwoody
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:11 am
Posts: 132
Location: Mannheim, Germany
Reply with quote
Do you think that Martin uses the different songs also to foreshadow the nature of his overall narrative? What I mean by that is that, as we know Martin uses several events, memories, prophecies etc. to either foreshadow upcoming plotlines, specific events etc or build the world's ethics, morals, ideology - as you both showed pretty well for the songs in the essay. People then usually use all those to speculate, build theories and all the other fun stuff of the fandom - but "songs leave out much and more" and this is 'a song' of ice and fire. (hence sometimes dead ends ar just dead ends)

I also f.e. ask myself if the last of the Giants not only, as you wrote might be synonymous for the dwindling of the free folk, but also of "the magical realm" in general - everything that one's was seem(ed) to perish in Westeros: children of the forrests, green seer, skinchanger, giants, dragons, glass candles, merlings etc. Now in the song that we read/we're about to hear all of that seems to come back, yet major events seem to be connected to the 'year of the false spring' and Lyanna "the last o' the winter rose" which only blooms for a short time. I know it's mainly, and often made before, speculation, but the songs in particular seem to be all connected and connecting the story.

So what you could do is draw parallels between the idea of a dwindling magic world, represented here by two songs connected to ice (free folk, Stark, the north) and "The Dance of the Dragons" interpreted merely as a dying of (the) dragons. If the song that Tyrion recalls is for two singers with intertwined lyrics, this could refer to Aegon and Rhaenyra as you mentioned, a historic couple in old Valyria (which both would be 100% representatives of Fire), but also to the "dance" between Ice and Fire itself. Dany and Jon have both this parallel development, especially in ADWD, learning to make decisions as leaders etc. And even though it seems less and less likely that they actually become lovers, not only was there a lot of speculation around that in the past, but there is still this prophecy of Dany's love, love, love climax. "Now" it almost seems to me that it's not Jon, but the "magical realm" itself and it's represantitives that she must light on fire (the wall, the Dragons itself? etc) before the bitter sweet ending.

Finally the two singers you highlighted are of course also represantitives of both Ice (Mance) and Fire (Rhaegar), which also underlines the importance of songs and singers and their connection to the overall narrative. It could all be a mummer's trick of course and the songs are just used to solely build the world and draw parallels to "the human heart in conflict with itself", but several themes like the tragedy of love and lovers (whether you interpret the bair and the maiden fair as an example of rape culture or the Beauty and the Beast thing, it definitely also falls under this category with Beauty and Beast or even rapist and victim can be seen as Ice and Fire (the latter of course more in the sense of light and darkness)), references to both ice and fire, the crush of narratives and characters etc. seem to be almost omnipresent in so many different songs, as well as the overall narrative, the overall dance, the overall song.

The essay analyses several songs and singers and their presentation in the text, brings them to light and therefore stimulates this and a lot more speculations and theories surrounding them - That's why I love it!

_________________
M.B.: “Are you the Sword of the Morning now?”
-No. Men call me Darkstar, and I am of the night!-
------------------------------------------------------
but 7 God(s)dam't / Maegor's Teats my heart still beats for the LANNISTERs!
------------------------------------------------------
and yes: Gerold & Tywin both love Blood Oranges, I'm sure!


Thu Jun 25, 2015 7:26 am
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 15 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 56 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
Designed by ST Software.