The Longest Day - 12th of January

The inception.

I knew, when we scheduled this trip, that this would be a long day for me; and I came to the realization that it will be the longest day of the year for me: not only it would start at 3am CET but it will also ends at the end of the day in the PET time zone.

I was enthusiast (duh!) about the trip; on one side, this is a family vacation going to visit family (not that this matters much to you but it has very good feelings; and yes, I did not use the word “family” twice in that sentence accidentally); on the other hand, I was planning my reading for this day. And I knew I could pack as much reading as I wanted as I was going to be off of work and I would have the privilege of traveling comfortably.

The Planning.

I went back and forth on many different books with one continuity: I wanted to finish A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. I had a few other ideas, spanning from completing The Deed of Paksenarrion series, to the Echoes Saga to reading a few stand alone books, such as The Night Circus.

I eventually got frustrated with myself. I just could not made a final determination and I had quite a lot of work to go through so I struggled to find a few quality minutes to consider my choices. Until Tuesday evening, when I picked up pen and paper (hell yes, I am one of those people who need the pen to paper motion to get things done) and I drafted the final list:

1. Finishing Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon if it needed finishing;

2. Read book two, Blood and Gold, in A storm of swords by George R.R. Martin;

3. Progress on Firewall by Andy McNab;

4. Read A memory called Empire by https://www.arkadymartine.net/Arkady Martine;

5. Read Knights of Erador by Philip C. Quaintrell.

The heist (yes, I like to think about it as a time heist, to also share my excitement for Ant-Man Quantumania!)

Step one, finishing of Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon. Completed.

So I started my day with the final pages of Sheepfarmer’s Daughter and it felt good to immediately make progress in my journey through the list. Spending a few words on this book, it is an interesting story all together. And no, this is not meant as an uninspired statement about the book, I wish I could read only interesting stories. There are a few drawbacks for the type of reader I am (who leans heavily on world building) notably that the world building is more limited than what I would normally like. Yet, I appreciate the writing tool the author chose to share the world with us, the slow peeling of the onion through the eyes of main character, Paks, and, with her knowledge, getting us to the exposure of the world building. I cannot spend enough words to praise a woman in fantasy telling a realistic military story with a female main character perspective and this really is what sold the book - and keeps selling the series - to me. Not to mention that the book also covers quite sensitive topics, such as sexual assault in the context of the army - and the way it was described worked really well for me.

Step two, read book two, Blood and Gold, in A storm of swords by George R.R. Martin. Completed.

While George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire does not need any praising by anybody (it is clearly one of the best series ever written, and let’s not limit the statement to fantasy), it is also clear that this story is the golden standard of modern fantasy. The plot is incredible; I am still surprised that someone (George R.R. Martin) who does not have a lot of structure in the development of ideas phase, can woven such a complicated plot and pull it so successfully. This series also has outstanding world building and a great cast of characters. A lot of great characters that may or may not survive the next pages one is reading.

This takes me to a tangent: the meme circulating a few years ago, in which readers ask when the new book would be published and George R.R. Martin replies something along the lines of: for every question, a Stark dies. Closing the tangent.

Book two, Blood and Gold, is a very dense read, in the sense that so many notable and relevant events in the whole series happen right in these pages! And with a soft spoiler warning for those who did not read the book and / or did not watch the third season of A Game of Thrones, these events include the Red Wedding (which, in my opinion, is way more significant and dramatic in the show compared to the book where it is almost a moment of you blink it and you miss it); the regicide of Joffrey (the satisfaction of that scene never decreases, irrespective of the medium I experience it in); the trial of Tyrion, including the trial by combat between the Mountain and the Red Viper (I think this is one of the best written duels ever, I could see every single movement of the Red Viper the first time I read it and I loved the execution on the show); Arya’s decision to go to Braavos (and I just hope that Arya’s trajectory to become an effective assassin does not vanish in the series moving forward); and Sansa’s escape from King’s Landing (and how creepy Petyr has always been). Yet, what I loved the most about this book is the implosion of the Lannisters and, most importantly, the growth of Jaime (I actually felt quite warm feelings for him by the end of this book; Cersei accuses him to have changed and that’s true; yet for most people the change feels like improvement).

While it was intense to go through these pages, it has also been a fantastic journey. The ability of George R.R. Martin to tell a story is truly uncanny and it is one of the reasons that I would be okay even if the series remains incomplete.

Step three: progressing on Firewall by Andy McNab. Completed.

It is no secret that I have a personal soft spot for the character Nick Stone; I have always wondered what would have been like to know my deceased uncle and, for some reason, I have always overlapped Nick Stone to him (ever since I read the first book, Remote Control, many years ago).

The plan here was to make sure that, while walking around the airports, I would stick the ear set in and listen to the story. And this was absolutely a success. What I did not want to do is to focus on the completion of the story as I will keep listening to it while working out and that was the plan all along!

So I keep having a ton of fun following his (mis)adventures; and in Firewall Nick Stone is really taking one poor decision after the other, although it is always for the right reasons.

Step four: read A memory called empire by Arcady Martine. Partially completed.

I did not think I would get past point three in the list and, in an incredible turn of events (better said, my brain was not fried just yet), I could get to A memory called empire by Arcady Martine.

Now, this is categorized in the sci-fi genre but I noticed that on Goodreads it also has a reference to fantasy; in any event (not that the classification really matters to me), I have been intrigued by this title for a long time and people at work praise this series. I felt it was the right time to get going on this series and I am already enjoying the wittiness of the main character. So I am looking forward to understanding how this book and Texicalaan will rate for me! I did not read too much about a 15% of the book, and I loved many elements of the story including the existence of another person in one’s brain and the local world building have been fascinating, intriguing and just engaging.

Have you ever had a full day of reading? How many books have you been able to get through? Did you have fond memories associated with one, some or all for that matters?