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17. Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois - Of course, I bought this collection for the SOIAF prequel. It was the big selling point and there's nothing wrong with that since eventually I was going to read the rest of the collection. Hell, I was fortunate enough to get ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
catvalente to let me reprint her Gilgamesh story for She Nailed a Stake Through His Head and that's my most profitable book.
So by the time I read the whole book, it would be the third time I read "The Princess and the Queen, or The Blacks and the Greens." The first time was when I bought the book and immediately read it. The second time, I read the story of Prince Daemon in the Rogues anthology and that story served as a prequel to this story because it set the groundwork for why all the characters were so eager not to let the other characters get on the throne.
I love this story. It's possibly the best thing related to Song of Ice & Fire and it's almost sad that Dance of the Dragons was already taken for the title of the fifth book. The tale takes place about two centuries before Game of Thrones (I think) and it's definitely before the major kings that keep getting referenced including Baelor the Blessed. There are so many reversals and betrayals in the story that it pretty much needs the historical textbook tone to keep it going. It begins with a king dying and his wife conspiring to go against his inheritance wishes by putting her son on the throne instead of his daughter. Martin gives a broad perspective of the double dealing and strategies but also the intimate moments where a small detail means the difference between life and death. I'm almost sad to report that I found the story in Rogues subpar by comparison since Prince Daemon is really a bastard in this one.
Most of the other stories are great. I didn't skip many of them - and usually I skipped the stories by the authors that I didn't like in the first place (Diana Gabaldon for example) and this was the first time I actually read Brandon Sanderson, so now I see why everyone seems to like him.
Particularly like the editors' choice of including all genres so you have a crime story next to a fantasy story next to a horror tale. Particularly liked Pat Cadigan's story of the two sisters who are dealing with their mom in the nursing home and the Lev Grossman story that may be an extension of his Magicians series.
catvalente to let me reprint her Gilgamesh story for She Nailed a Stake Through His Head and that's my most profitable book. So by the time I read the whole book, it would be the third time I read "The Princess and the Queen, or The Blacks and the Greens." The first time was when I bought the book and immediately read it. The second time, I read the story of Prince Daemon in the Rogues anthology and that story served as a prequel to this story because it set the groundwork for why all the characters were so eager not to let the other characters get on the throne.
I love this story. It's possibly the best thing related to Song of Ice & Fire and it's almost sad that Dance of the Dragons was already taken for the title of the fifth book. The tale takes place about two centuries before Game of Thrones (I think) and it's definitely before the major kings that keep getting referenced including Baelor the Blessed. There are so many reversals and betrayals in the story that it pretty much needs the historical textbook tone to keep it going. It begins with a king dying and his wife conspiring to go against his inheritance wishes by putting her son on the throne instead of his daughter. Martin gives a broad perspective of the double dealing and strategies but also the intimate moments where a small detail means the difference between life and death. I'm almost sad to report that I found the story in Rogues subpar by comparison since Prince Daemon is really a bastard in this one.
Most of the other stories are great. I didn't skip many of them - and usually I skipped the stories by the authors that I didn't like in the first place (Diana Gabaldon for example) and this was the first time I actually read Brandon Sanderson, so now I see why everyone seems to like him.
Particularly like the editors' choice of including all genres so you have a crime story next to a fantasy story next to a horror tale. Particularly liked Pat Cadigan's story of the two sisters who are dealing with their mom in the nursing home and the Lev Grossman story that may be an extension of his Magicians series.
