Five Favorite Books According To TBIR Intern Davean
Explore the interests of our intern Davean with five wonderful true crime and fantasy books featuring A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin, Killers of the Flower moon by David Grann, and more!
A Feast For Crows by George R.R Martin
A Feast For Crows is the fourth and most complex book in the critically acclaimed saga A song of Ice and Fire. With a burning tail, the plot rushes from the snail-paced gloom of the previous book, A storm of swords, into what I believe is the best character writing in the fantasy genre. Where storm of swords is melancholic and macabre, feast for crows is colorful, tense, and alive. To me, it very much feels like a return to form; like the first of the series, expanding the world and establishing new connections between the giant masses of land in the minds of the characters. The introduction of the larger, deeper Greyjoy drama, the expansion of the Dornish people and their qualms with Westeros and the current political state of their country, the consequences of the Red Wedding- Have I mentioned the Greyjoys? And, while I did say this book was more alive than the last, that does not mean it’s lacking in its share of aching, slow burning melancholy and grief. It is a deeply sad and deeply personal, disturbing journey. Much like in song, there is a great level of enjoyment to be had, even through the gloom.
A Clash Of Kings by George R.R. Martin
There is much to be said about A Clash Of Kings; it’s a shame that I can’t spoil the magic. In this series, of all the books, none other have received the amount of love and adoration that comes to this specific one. I believe this is fair, but why? A Clash of Kings is the first of the five (currently released) books that actually dwells on wartime politics and the woes of fantastical-medieval diplomacy. Finally, as a reader, you receive all that the first book was getting you ready for. The magic, the castle sieges, the armies and their banners waving in the ash-dusted wind, the plots and schemes, and most importantly the emphasis on romance. More than Eddard Stark could ever show, you see wedges and cracks form in people’s hearts as they are torn between duty and love. Between family and the memories you share between them, and honor. These more mature and thoughtful themes do well to show the reader how capable they truly are (if already invested).
A quote I like to go back and read that encapsulates all that I think of this book is one from the prologue, saying, “The comet’s tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a wound in the pink and purple sky.”
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Paradise Lost, in many ways, is very different from the other books I listed here. In ways, funnily, it is also very similar. It follows the stories of the angels which “fell”. The exiles and outcasts of heaven, who dare question the will of their lord who had given them all, even the minds and mouths they used to rebel against them. It’s an off putting premise to many, because the basis of it lies on shaking ground; the thought of questioning their faith. What people fail to realize is that it isn’t a knock or dig at ecclesiasticism or those who gave their lives to their faiths, and nor does it condemn the evils which we follow throughout the entirety of the story. It’s a neutral study of right and wrong, and a statement on how we perpetuate evil on and on until, eventually, the root is forgotten. Or at the very least doesn’t matter. At least, that’s how I processed it. What’s more is the epic scale of it all. That is the thing that makes me love it as much as I do. There is nothing which is small, and nothing which is bland. Everything is colorful and massive, as a story full of angels should be. And I think it’s an excellent way to spend your time, however many centuries old it may be.
The Saga Of The Volsungs (Translated by Jesse L. Byock)
Of all the books I love, this may be the most unique. It’s not a traditional storybook. It’s not even a biography or some sort of comic. There’s nothing to be learned in any of it that has any semblance of relevance to the current world. It’s a saga, following the bloodlines of Nordic-Germanic mythological legends who quarrel for power and glory. They conquer and die, and the next takes their place, so then you follow them. There are kings and Demi-gods and werewolves and serpents and fables you could learn from, and still it all feels very human. Perhaps because it’s one step removed from typical godhood. I’ve always been a massive fan of Greek and Nordic mythology, so anything in that realm is incredible to me. I find it very easy to pick it up, read through a generation, and put it down.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
As a fan of history books, and a writer of my own semi-political story, there’s no topic which disturbs me more than dispossession. The harrowing, bone-chilling process of ripping from the rightful hands, something which glimmers to your eyes. Selfishness epitomized. Killers of the Flower moon: The Osage murders and the birth of the FBI, is a book about the indigenous tribe of the Osage peoples, and the horrors they endured at the hand of dangerously ambitious men from 1910-1930, in the chase for the mass of wealth which was theirs by law. White men sought to marry into the blood, and by law, seize the oil they had been sitting on due to the mineral rights they owned. Only, this wasn’t possible without their deaths. Inheritance. There are many such cases throughout history, but what makes this story special to me is the proximity. It happened right in our backyard, in Oklahoma, and as ever, the punishment wasn’t enough. We see these cases happen to this day, and to me, it’s important to know where they come from. Otherwise, how will we know when they are to come again?
