Warriors (anthology) - Edited by George R R Martin

I had picked up this anthology when it came out to get my hands on the latest Dunk and Egg story, but hadn't read any of the others.

I decided to grab it on Audible and listen to the rest and, on the whole, I wasn't disappointed. There were a couple of stories in there that didn't grab me, but most of them were great and some of them amazing. In particular "Clean Slate," by Lawrence Block totally grabbed me and I am tempted to hunt down more by this author. Creepy, but awesome.

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Stardust - Neil Gaiman

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A Storm of Swords - George R R Martin

I've lost a hand, a father, a son, a sister, and a lover, and soon enough I will lose a brother. And yet they keep telling me House Lannister won this war

Jaime

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A Clash of Kings - George R R Martin

All you know of life, you learnt from singers and there is a dearth of good sacking songs

Cersei to Sansa

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A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin

It seems I have established a new personal ritual of re-reading the entire series after each book comes out.

I took a strong dislike to the samples I had heard of Roy Doltrice's audio version of these books, but having listened to and enjoyed John Lee's A Feast of Crows, I found I couldn't stop there. Unfortunately my initial reaction to the Doltrice version has not softened.

Mr Doltrice has a fine speaking voice and my only issue with his reading generally is his failure to correct the mistakes he makes ('seven seas' instead of 'seven kingdoms' or 'king landing' instead of 'kings landing' etc..). The real problem appears when he does the character's voices. Granted he does an excellent Pycelle, Maester Aemon or Old Nan, but those successes are few and far between.

I am not sure the origin of Tyrion's accent, but with Peter Dinklage's Tyrion as a frame of reference, for me this voice fails in every way. It is also disconcerting that Tyrion, the three eyed crow and Bran's would be assassin all have the same squeaky voice.

The pompous British nobleman would probably work well for some characters, Wylis or Wendel Manderly for example, but fails completely when applied to every single secondary character of noble birth in the book. When Theon Greyjoy and Jorah Mormont have the same voice, something is wrong, but when Theon Greyjoy and Haggo sound the same it indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the text. Why does Jhogo get a rough, halting, foreign voice and his bloodriders do not?

All these complaints have not prevented me from consuming these audio books in every spare moment, but I would love to see them re-done

Also, as Nick Maher so eloquently put, re-reading the books is like watching a car crash in slow motion:

Lord Walder is my father's bannerman ... He would never offer me any harm. Unless he saw some profit in it, she added silently

Catelyn Stark of Lord Walder Frey

And what shall I do with a hundred swords my lord?

Eddard Stark to Renly

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