SPOILER ALERT! (FOR HBO GAME OF THRONES FANS AND FANS OF THE BOOKS ALIKE)
The literary play on this ‘kill the boy’ thought was excellent – a subliminal message from Melisandre perhaps? Nope, just words of wisdom from one of the last dragons. Very well done.
This chapter gave me goose bumps. The early promotional preview for the HBO series had a Sean Bean voice over about delivering the sentence and all of that, which was one of the early scenes of the series. When Jon said “This isn’t right” before hanging Janos I had the same impulse as Slynt himself – don’t do it Jon – hang him!
Given the timelines that intersect between A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons I was intrigued, but not terribly enthused by the prospect of reading the back-story of something I already knew – that Jon would send Sam to Oldtown with Maester Ameon, Gilly and Mance Rayder’s son.
When I first skimmed the chapters I saw a lot of Jon and while Jon remains one of my favorite characters the prospect of reading about him over Tyrion or Bran just didn’t excite me as much. How foolish I was – naturally all these early chapters are setting the basis for the pivotal moments in the story and to me this was the first big moment.
Reading these books is like a drug, eventually George will bring you down from your high. As excited I am about Jon ‘killing the boy’ and becoming the man his father would have wanted him to be – I remind myself that somewhere along the line there will be a moment just as impactful, but with the opposite effect.
Kudos George.