Game of Thrones Season Four Book Comparison - Episodes 1 & 2

As we plunge headlong into the new season of Game of Thrones I’m interested to see how the story contorts and develops between the sprawling and intricate chess game in A Song of Ice and Fire and the much more visual and limited medium of the HBO series.

Thus far, this season has done a much more adept job at telling the right kinds of stories from the book and developing a more legible plotline. The characters have been well developed despite their limited screen time and extremely interwoven and complex plotlines have been turned into more digestible stories without sacrificing future stories.

I hope it holds up, but in the mean time, join me under the cut if you want to know more in the way of comparisons to story arcs and plots between Game of Thrones season four and the book series.

Note: this article includes spoilers up to and including Game of Thrones season four episode two. Future book spoilers are not included.

Book Review: The Word Exchange

When it comes to what's new and hot and awesome in dystopian fiction as of late, it usually centers around fascistic governments or a world recovering from a major war or disaster, or simply becoming some sort of post-apocalyptic survival story. Rarely is it one that, instead of attacking people directly, it chooses instead to attack language. Thus Alena Graedon's The Word Exchange.

There are a good deal of books that have been published over the years that deal with language and the written word as a major point, whether it be fantasy like Blake Charlton's Spellwrite trilogy, or the somewhat fantastic/paranoid like The Raw Shark Texts. In The Word Exchange, it's a computer virus that turns real, it's people getting sick (sort of like The Flame Alphabet from a few years ago) from the technology designed to help them communicate. It's technology turning on us.

The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 83: Gremlins! (with guest host Lizzy Unpronounceable!)

This week we break all the rules when we get mischievous with the great George Gipe's novelization of Gremlins! Joining me is fan-favourite guest host Lizzy Unpronounceable who, much like the titular creatures of the books, starts out fuzzy and adorable and becomes increasingly violent and aggressive! Is this another Gipe classic, or a bloated misfire? Find out by wading through our biggest episode yet!

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FPcast! The Fruitless Pursuits Podcast for April 14th 2014! Quicksilver Eats a Burger!

This week is an eclectic mix of pop culture goodness as we review Muppets Most Wanted and Divergent, bitch about Quicksilver, talk about Bronies, cosplay and the state of fandom, watch a whole lot of anime, and finish up with a discussion about the first episode of the new Game of Thrones!

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