Musings on a A Song of Ice and Fire [SPOILERS]...

[Tiefling]

Roose Bolton: Lord of the Dreadfort, one of Winterfell's vassals. I'm not sure if this guy is actually the son of the Lord (who betrays Starks by capturing Arya), or the Lord who burns Winterfell. Don't think I'm remembering either correctly, but it's something similar.

Roose Bolton is indeed the Lord of the Dreadfort, and is the man who took Harrenhal from the Brave Companions while Arya was there. Since he did not know who she was, there was no betrayal. However, he did betray Robb Stark by allowing Jaime Lannister to continue to King's Landing, and later, of course, at the Red Wedding. Ramsay Snow (or Ramsay Bolton) is Roose Bolton's natural son, and the man who burned Winterfell.

Syrio is a Faceless Man (Are these different than the Sorrowful Men? 'Cause wasn't it a sorroful man that Robert sent against Danys?).

The sorrowful men are a different organization. Robert does not send a specific assassin after Dany, but rather offers a lordship to whomsever kills her. The sorrowful man who attempted to kill Dany was sent by Pyat Pree and the Warlocks after she destroyed the Palace of Dust.

Minor hijack -- has anyone seen SoI&F in an audio format? My wife would probably enjoy them, but she's such a slow and inconsistent reader she's too intimidated by the length of the books. She plows through books on tape/CD, though.

GRRM reports on his website that a book-on-tape version of the first three novels is in the works. The GoT one is about 40 tapes long, as I recall.

My theroy....Arya will at some point be forced to choose between Syrio (who survived) and the Waterdancers (good) or Jaqen and the Faceless Assassains (evil).

There's no real indication that the water dancers are good or that the faceless men are evil. From the preview chapters there is strong indication that the faceless men are a religious order of sorts, but otherwise we know little.

The Red Witch is from Bravoos (iirc) and could very well be mixed in with the assassains (or choosing their targets).

Melisandre is from Asshai-by-the-Shadow, so the possibility of an affiliation with the sorrowful or faceless men is remote.

 

[Nightfall]

Tief,

Are you sure the Faceless Men are a religious order? I thought they were just killers is all. Now maybe the Sorrowful man might be. But I could be wrong. Just help a guy out here.

 

[Tiefling]

Tief,

Are you sure the Faceless Men are a religious order? I thought they were just killers is all. Now maybe the Sorrowful man might be. But I could be wrong. Just help a guy out here.

Pretty sure. Read this page:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/chapter.html

[Note: Page contains sample chapter from A Feast for Crows. Spoiler warning. -Hyp.]

 

[ConnorSB]

Whoa.... trippy. It was almost exactly what I was expecting of Arya, but... awsome.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Tiefling - I've just added a warning to your post for anyone who might not want to read excerpts until the book comes out. Hope you don't mind.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[Celtavian]

re

Pretty sure. Read this page:

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/chapter.html

[Note: Page contains sample chapter from A Feast for Crows. Spoiler warning. -Hyp.]

Sounds like Arya is going on a cool road. She definitely has the heart to be an Assassin.

 

[WizarDru]

Well, I can see how the surviving Starks are essentially gearing up for their 5-year gap. Each is situated in a position that gives them 'ramp-up' time.

Arya trains to be an assasain. Bran trains to be a powerful seer. Rickon becomes an actual character. Jon becomes fully-vested as leader of the men on the Wall. Sansa....hmmm.

I suspect that Sansa's growth from porcelain doll to political animal is about to begin. She's learned some hard lessons at court, and now is under Baelish's control. But I think that Littlefinger may just see Sansa like a daughter, and may train her to be a the savvy schemer that he is. Or not.

And all the while Dany moves further, consolidating her power, while the war continues. I suspect "Feast for Crows" will have little by way of actual resolution on anyone's character arc directly, but I can easily see how just saying "And then, 5 years later..." could be unsatisfying. It's much more interesting to see Tyrion find his way to Daenrys (as I expect he will) than it is to hear it happened four years ago, or the like.

 

[Nightfall]

Wow. Thanks Tief. Guess this will teach me to look more closely at such things. Even so this wasn't in any of the books I read so I don't count it as anything..yet. At least not until Crows comes along in print. Whenever that is...

 

[Pants]

I've been purposefully ignoring those sample chapters. I want to read aFfC with as little previews as possible. That said, I have read some spoilers...