Nuns on the Run ?

In what way does sheep='on the run' ?????

Am I missing an Americanism?

I loved the book review and I look forward to the next time you do it again.  I have recently been talking to my brother who has read "A Game of Thrones" and I have been on the fence about reading it.  Your discussion has really pushed me into picking it up, especially after hearing the quote from your college professor.  I know I would be better served to turn off the computer and read a book, creating balance in life is the hardest thing to achieve!

Hmm. Wonder how much this counts toward the final grade? Shouldn’t have stayed up all night getting buzzed and playing RKR the night before an exam. Jeepers, if Prof Conway finds out I’ve been slacking off class to hang out in the parking lot with those bad kids from Andy Looney High School, he’ll blow a gasket for sure. Where are my shades? Now if I just slouch way down in my desk here and turn my collar up. Yeah, that’s inconspicuous. Smooooth.

Whose story? I thought it was an ensemble piece although Jon Snow, Daenerys and Tyrion seem to be closest to the events that ultimately drive the plot. Too many eraser marks there. Wonder if I can combine it with this next question- lessee, technique of shifting between characters, hmm. Aside from being a necessity with this many characters, it’s an old technique to generate suspense- leaving one storyline at a pivotal moment to check in on the others. It works brilliantly for the first novel but kills the successor stone dead as it reveals how painfully the story is being stretched. We return to characters to find their stories still stuck at almost the same point as the book treads water. Which is a shame really; I still think that the trilogy originally announced- or even the series of five later claimed- might have been more compelling. Hang on- pencil broke. Spare pencil, spare pencil- what? No just looking for my spare pencil. I was not looking at Steerpike’s paper! No! Sheesh… Well, I’m insulted that you would even think… Wish I’d thought of it though. Too late now, hmm…Why does Martin attack the time tested tropes? Because let’s face it “time tested tropes” can be just a nicer way of saying “hackneyed clichés” and Martin, always an absolutely ferocious writer, really seems to want to walk confidently up to the safe and cozy fantasy genre and rip its fanboy throat out. More power to him. See when you get right down to it, the time-tested tropes of fantasy are, in and of themselves, wearing so thin as to be downright two-dimensional by now. That's what kept Asprin and Pratchett in work. The works regarded as classics got there because, behind the wands and wolves, they are about something real. What? Gum. No. No- I- didn’t- bring enough- for- the- whole- class. Yes- sir. Sorry- sir. Grr. Where wuzzeh? The Lord of the Rings is about the temptations of power and the inevitable loss of innocence that comes in war even if you win. (Peter Jackson aside, Faramir’s original speech and the scouring of the Shire were in there for a reason. In fact, they’re kind of the whole point.) Gormenghast is about the inevitable decay of empire and class system. His Dark Materials is an angry protest of religious indoctrination of the young; the Narnia books are religious indoctrination of the young. Dune, which despite being across the border in science fiction offers a closer cousin to Martin’s feverish and brutal courtly intrigue, is a meditation on the political origins of religion and the nature of imperialism especially as regards the middle east. A Game of Thrones is less concerned with this sort of subtext although it has something to say about the disconnect between the fairy tales we imagine of ourselves and the more frightening creatures we can actually be. This gives the book a powerful vortex-like structure, inexorably spiraling down to the fate of Eddard Stark. When that axe falls though, that point has been made as strongly as it can be and the subsequent books either need to get down to the business of pure storytelling or develop another dimension to sustain the amount of time the reader is being asked to invest. If the nihilistic deconstruction of good and evil (there’s five points of extra credit right there, ha!) continues to be the main point, the hard edges eventually feel a bit gratuitous as things settle down into a well written but increasingly conventional fantasy soap opera only with more explicit sex, language and violence. Come to think of it, of course, it’s perfect as an HBO show although I do wonder how they’re planning to deal with the ages of some of the characters involved. It’s True Blood with swords; it’s Deadwood & Dragons. Nothing at all wrong with that, mind you, but without that subtext, it ain’t Tolkien or Herbert; not yet anyway. On reflection, though, I don’t think it wants to be. It’s just a extremely well-told story with a nihilistic outlook and a hard R-rating in a genre that tends to be more timid than that and this discussion almost encourages me to try again, to climb that big paper mountain, to find that compelling idea. (Mind you the opposite transition in which an amiable piece of popcorn fluff suddenly decides that it must have importance, weight and subtext can be equally annoying. See Lucas, George.) What, sir? No sir, can't sir! Conjunctivitis, sir! I'm being very brave to be here. The fantasy trope Martin seemed unable to escape was less the medieval setting (and that is a tough one- how about Neil Gaiman’s American Gods or the novels of Tim Powers like The Anubis Gates? Harry Potter isn’t exactly medieval but then younger readers can go to Oz or through The Phantom Tollbooth or to any of hundreds of wonderful places) than the unending series measuring its importance by how many inches it takes up on the shelf because, by Gandalf, JRR wrote three so that’s the standard minimum now. What? Nothing. No I’m not passing notes – I’m just- it’s a doodle, it’s nothing it- it- it’s the lomphfrmyrkbnd- I said it’s the logo for my rock band! Okay maybe not but I will one day and- and they’ll be really great and I’ll be able to buy this school and we’ll turn it into a really cool place where the kids can you know just hang out! Oh sh- no sir. Sorry sir. Thank you sir. How much time left? Thanks. But really, in fewer pages than Martin has given us so far James Joyce not only got to “riverrun” first but showed us the unspoken mind of humanity. Tolstoy gave us the Revolution and subsequent peace. Conan Doyle gave us the entire career of Holmes and Watson from post-collegiate meeting to doddering beekeeperhood and Herbert told the culture and history of a alien planet on a geologic scale culminating in the rise of the Emperor Worm. And Martin’s only a little over halfway finished. The only rivals he’s got at this point for sheer volume devoted to a single story are Alexander Dumas (pere), Marcel Proust and, well, other fantasy novelists. Think about it George! Robert Jordan died, Mervyn Peake lost his faculties and Philip Pullman went a bit squidgy halfway through the third book. Writing a neverending story (ooh! Was that medieval? Can’t remember. Damn, I need more coffee…) is asking for trouble. I mean I shouldn’t have been assigned this in a single semester, especially when I’m in Professor Coleson’s probability class at the same time. And I know those dice he used in the final were loaded. What dragged me into the book? The same thing that will no doubt one day drag me back to try to finish them- Martin; the man's an evil genius. But really how can a writer like that so completely lose control of his content and waffle on and on until- oh. Excuse me sir? Could I have some more paper? 

Listeners should know one thing: the current card game is different from the original trading card game. I don't know how much, but it is different -- for example, I don't remember anything about the 6 roles that you guys mentioned on the show.

 Just a short comment:

Best show ever! Surpassing the Spiel des Spiel Episodes.

I am looking forward to you discussing the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire books. You will do that? Right? Please!

I was hoping to have read the book in time for the show - I have in fact had to book on reserve at the library for 6-8 months.  Turns out, it's so popular, that I'm still a ways down on the waiting list.  You guys definitely increased my want to read it (perhaps I'll hit the book store at lunchtime today  I hit the bookstore today and bought their only copy)

As for the game, I've watched it being played, but never had an oportunity to play it myself.

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You'll have to do "Pillars of the Earth" next

I owned the "Pillars of the Earth" game and played it many times beforre reading the book and it was great - after reading the book, the game just came alive.  I then got "Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel" and found it even more thematic.  Having read the book, put persoanlities to the character names and you understood the love, hatred and other interactions of the characters. (I'm now in the middle of wathcing the Pillars mini series)