On another note, my sister just finished reading "A Game of Thrones" which is the first book in quite possibly my favorite series. George R. R. Martin rocks my socks off. He is like the happy medium between Robert Jordan and... hmmm I don't have another extreme. Let's just say he is less descriptive and verbose than Jordan was. I like Jordan, don't get me wrong, but he spent way too much time talking about divided skirts... everyone was wearing divided skirts, so why make it a point to mention it? Anyway, I am not a big fan of political intrigue and there is a lot of it. The thing is, you never notice it! He's a very engaging author I love it! I love most of the characters... but you're not supposed to love them all. One thing he does that I really appreciate is that he takes characters and switches their alignment. You spend so much time thinking this particular character is evil and then you see their reasons for doing what they do and suddenly this person is neutral (because you just can't switch from good to evil and vice versa). Maybe it's not that he switches the alignment, but rather, he makes the characters more sympathetic. Hmmm...
For the record, every time I find myself a new favorite author, they die. It's like the dad in Freaks and Geeks, "You want to have a favorite author? I went to school with a guy who had a favorite author, and do you know where he is now? He's DEAD!" Well, that happens to my favorite authors. First it was Robert Jordan, he died. Then it was Michael Crichton, he died last year. King and Martin are still alive, so I won't say if I picked one as a favorite or not... just in case.