Many thanks to all you loyal friends of House Lannister and the Maid of Tarth. Thanks to you, Jaime and Brienne defeated Sabriel and the pussycat and lived to fight another day.
But fight they must! This time they are up against two characters I do not know, from a book I have not gotten to yet... but the novel's gotten good reviews, and the characters appear formidable, so we may need your help again.
Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth stand in mortal danger and only you can save them.
Suvudu is doing another one of their Cage Match tournaments. This time the theme is Dynamic Duos. Jaime (one-handed) and Brienne have been paired together. In the first round they are facing Garth Nix's Sabriel... and a pussycat.
In the first Cage Match, lo these many years ago, Jaime defeated Cthulhu (with a little help from Tyrion). Surely he cannot lose to a fluffy little ball o' fur (and fleas). Not with the mighty maid of Tarth by his side.
But lost they will, unless you guys all get over there to vote.
Okay, got to admit, I think it is really cool that some of the features New Horizons is finding on Pluto (our ninth planet, dammit!!!) and its moon Charon are being named Mordor and Cthulhu. Who says science fiction and fantasy haven't arrived? J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft have entered realms previously reserved for Greek and Roman gods.
Those ice mountains they've found are very cool too, and clearly need to be named the Mountains of Madness. And of course when New Horizons sails on, deeper in the black realms beyond the solar system and finds a sinister tenth planet, we MUST name it Yuggoth. Especially if it is covered in fungus. (Which would be mind-blowing).
I am disappointed that no alien ruins or black monoliths have turned up yet, but I don't suppose you can have everything.
So hurrah for JRRT, hurrah for HPL, and hurrah for NASA and JPL. Nice to know they're fans.
Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms is excited about the NFL playoffs.
The wildlings and the men of the Night's Watch and even some northmen are all pulling for the Giants, of course. But in the Vale of Arryn and the Mountains of the Moon, they're Falcons fans.
The Lannisters are cheering on Detroit, even if the lion is the wrong color, but some of the smallfolk of Lannisport on its western bay are fond of those 49ers. The High Septon and all the septa and septons and devout of the realm are for the Saints.
The butchers and tanners of King's Landing and Oldtown are behind the Packers, the smiths and armorers are with the Steelers. At the Citadel of Oldtown, the archmaesters and the Conclave are all about the Ravens, but across the narrow sea the khals and Dothraki horselords are screaming and whistling for the Broncos. In Volantis, the tigers are Bengals backers; the elephants are rooting for whoever plays the Bengals.
Nobody anywhere knows what a 'Texan' is, but a few Dornishmen might support them anyway, just to be perverse.
One commonality unites all the Seven Kingdoms, and the lands beyond. Everyone everywhere hates the Patriots, and Evil Little Bill.
I've been too busy working on these last few chapters of DANCE to follow the progress of this season's Suvudu cage matches much. Jon Snow won his opening round, the one I blogged about a few weeks back, and then defeated Beowulf (!) in the next round. I believe he came out on top of a few more contests after that as well.
We're now up to the... quarter finals? semi finals? quasi-finals? Something like that. But this time around Jon seems to be losing badly to another damned magic user.
If any of you guys want to strike a blow for truth, justice, and the Night's Watch, you can cast your vote at
The Suvudu Cage Match final is over. Alas, Ser Jaime lost in the last hour when a sudden rush of votes for his opponent washed out what had been a razor-thin lead.
Congratulations to Rand al'Thor and his legions of fans and admirers, to Brandon Sanderson, to Tor Books, and of course to the late Robert Jordan, aka Lord Jordayne of the Tor.
For Brandon Sanderson's amusing postscript to the finals, check out:
Thanks to the good folk at Suvudu for running this. It was certainly a wild ride. IMNSHO, some of the comments got a little overheated and rancorous toward the end, but for the most part it was a lot of fun. I hope they take my suggestion and do the Mainstream Cage Match next. I want to see how Little Dorrit does against Don Quixote.
anxious
geeky
bouncy
mischievous
amused
guilty
drained