New Game of Thrones Book - Not what you think...

[Dakkster]

GRRM certainly seems to have burned out... after releasing the first three (GoT, CoK, SoS within 5 years... it was then 4 years until FfC and then 7 years to ADWD!).
I actually just ripped through the three Dunk & Egg novellas in the last month.

This project looks more like a "collection of everything".
http://www.socialbookshelves.com/blo...thrones-cover/
And it's probably mostly put together by the two other names (Garcia & Antonsson) based on them getting name recognition.

I read recently that he introduces an average (average!) of 500 characters per book!
Holy cow!

I just finished my 2nd watch-through of the first 3 seasons of HBO.
And I'm mid book on Feast for Crows, which is the worst read of the five released ASOIAF books, from all I've heard (and it's definitely way below the first three, which is the original "First Two" of his intended "Three-Book" plan... which is now going towards six or seven or eight.)

Regardless, I'll probably jump on this too.
Besides fantasy hockey, theorizing on the "end game" of ASOIAF is one of my favourite things to discuss.


A chrono-list of his Westeros work... pretty evident where he burnt out... around 2000.

1996 - A Game of Thrones (asoiaf, Book 1)
...
1998 - A Clash of Kings (asoiaf, Book 2)
1998 - The Hedge Knight (Dunk & Egg #1)
...
2000 - A Storm of Swords (asoiaf, Book 3)
...
...
2003 - The Sword Sword (Dunk & Egg #2)
...
2005 - A Feast for Crows (asoiaf, Book 4)
...
...
...
...
2010 - The Mystery Knight (Dunk & Egg #3)
2011 - A Dance with Dragons (asoiaf, Book 5)
...
...
2014 - Westeros (Oct release)


ps. Still no even "hinted" release year (year!!!) for Winds of Winter!!!

You should google "merenese knot" to find out why books four and five took so long.

[Dakkster]

That's probably good enough for me. I don't care if they slaughter 99% of the people I am invested in as long as the end I can yell at the book and feel like somehow the 'good guys' (even if that is defined as this ugly shade of black/grey that is only marginally more faded than the 'evil side) win.

GRRM has said that this story is what happens after the happy ending. The mad king has been defeated by the champion (Robert Baratheon) and his friends, he gets the princess and everything looks good. Then this story starts. The whole point of the story is that there are very few happy endings on a large enough scale.

[CascadeFilly]

I can't seem to match everyone else's zeal for the series any more. I started when book one came out (loved it, and got numerous friends into it), and it's just taking far too long for these books to come out now. It took what felt like half of A Dance with Dragons for me to feel like I remembered everyone and everything going on, and even now, I don't feel like I know/remember all that's happening. With so much out there to consume in the world of entertainment (books, movies, tv, comics, video games, sports, etc.), I have zero interest in reading through these books again, or slogging through lenghty recaps to try to refresh my memory, no matter how good the series is.

I'll read through the books as they come out, and I'm sure I'll enjoy them a lot, but I'm disappointed that the magic is fading for me. I wish he'd just finish the series and then mess around with stuff around it.

I envy anyone down the road who is able to read this series in its entirety when it's all finished; assuming it ever does get properly finished.

[doulos]

GRRM has said that this story is what happens after the happy ending. The mad king has been defeated by the champion (Robert Baratheon) and his friends, he gets the princess and everything looks good. Then this story starts. The whole point of the story is that there are very few happy endings on a large enough scale.

Fair enough, and that's his artistic right to create such a tale. People obviously love it. Life is depressing enough (with the lack of happy endings) and I personally enjoy seeing at least SOME happy ending stuff in every story, since for me reading is an escape from reality. Best bet might be to wait another 10-15 years for the tale to be written and then make a decision once people know if it will end without being utterly depressing.

[NoWayOut]

If it does come down to a situation where GRRM can't finish the series, here's hoping that behind the scenes he's lined up, or will, somebody to finish ala Robert Jordan and the Wheel Of Time. His response to those that questioned whether or not he'll be able to finish doesn't fill me with hope that a successor to bring the story home will bear fruit should it come to that.

[vitun-tyhmä]

If it does come down to a situation where GRRM can't finish the series, here's hoping that behind the scenes he's lined up, or will, somebody to finish ala Robert Jordan and the Wheel Of Time. His response to those that questioned whether or not he'll be able to finish doesn't fill me with hope that a successor to bring the story home will bear fruit should it come to that.

Wasn't it published somewhere that he had verbally shared how everything ends in the last 2 books with the producer of the TV show? So that in the event of his demise they could complete it?

[Pengwin7]

You should google "merenese knot" to find out why books four and five took so long.

Meereenese.
Yes.
Very difficult to attach a "beginning story arc" to an "ending story arc" with a "middle story arc"... for multiple characters.
Very, very, very difficult... true.
And I've heard this bit wrt Dany's "arc".

I don't completely buy it as the sole excuse for the delay in Books 4/5.

For one, w/FFC, I think he bit off more than he could chew with extension into the Martell & Greyjoy lineage.
I also think the whole fAegon bit of ADWD wasn't in his master plan until he was dismayed by how many readers had figured out his greatest secrets (R+L=J and the "Three Headed Dragon" riders).
I believe fAegon isn't even in his original story thinking. There's nada of hints there in the first 3 books towards this storyline.
There are storylines he chose to explore, that were clearly not part of his original intent.

Still... it will go down as my favourite story of all-time.
And I think in 20 years it will be considered among top 25 all-time fiction.

[NoWayOut]

Yeah it was something along the lines of "the red comet destroys everything". I'm taking it that the comment was tongue in cheek, but only he knows for sure. Still even if they have a plan in place to keep the show moving forward it would be nice to give those invested in the book series a proper ending even if the book and show diverge at some point in the near future.

[doulos]

Meereenese.
Yes.
Very difficult to attach a "beginning story arc" to an "ending story arc" with a "middle story arc"... for multiple characters.
Very, very, very difficult... true.
And I've heard this bit wrt Dany's "arc".

I don't completely buy it as the sole excuse for the delay in Books 4/5.

For one, w/FFC, I think he bit off more than he could chew with extension into the Martell & Greyjoy lineage.
I also think the whole fAegon bit of ADWD wasn't in his master plan until he was dismayed by how many readers had figured out his greatest secrets (R+L=J and the "Three Headed Dragon" riders).
I believe fAegon isn't even in his original story thinking. There's nada of hints there in the first 3 books towards this storyline.
There are storylines he chose to explore, that were clearly not part of his original intent.

Still... it will go down as my favourite story of all-time.
And I think in 20 years it will be considered among top 25 all-time fiction.

Woah, top 25 of ALL fiction? Or did you just mean Fantasy (and maybe throw in Science Fiction, though I consider that different genre entirely)?

[blayze]

If it does come down to a situation where GRRM can't finish the series, here's hoping that behind the scenes he's lined up, or will, somebody to finish ala Robert Jordan and the Wheel Of Time. His response to those that questioned whether or not he'll be able to finish doesn't fill me with hope that a successor to bring the story home will bear fruit should it come to that.

GRRM seems like an anal control freak (probably a good quality if you're a writer). I highly doubt he would ever relinquish the fate of his life work to another author. All the more reason for him to focus more on writing and less on Cheetos!

[Slug]

At least according to GRRMs blog he will finally be done with his ridiculous travel schedule around the end of August and then be committed to writing/working for the remainder of 2014. Must be hard to focus on writing when he's constantly travelling. He has also said no more Dunk and Egg until he is done the 6th book.

[doulos]

Okay, so I just found out that GRRM was an Expert level chess player. I am a tournament chess player with an ok rating (nowhere near Expert - yet!) so he instantly goes up a few notches on my likability rating chart!

http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/08/how-geo...bobby-fischer/

[Pengwin7]

Okay, so I just found out that GRRM was an Expert level chess player. I am a tournament chess player with an ok rating (nowhere near Expert - yet!) so he instantly goes up a few notches on my likability rating chart!
http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/08/how-geo...bobby-fischer/

Wow, cool.
Not surprising based on how in touch he is with logic and "getting it right".
(I played chess as a kid too... pretty decent, though I never got above the #3 chair in my high school team)

A good quote from article:
If I am about to write about a character, Bill, I do a search and see every previous time I mentioned Bill and what I said about him. Even then, I still make mistakes because it is large. That is maybe one reason why I’ve slowed down a little, as I get deeper into it and it gets more and more complex, it is harder to remember. Maybe I take a little more time in reviewing what I did last week or last year or three years ago.”

With ASOIAF, it's just an incredible the amount of planning & strategy he has put forth in these books.
I'm completely amazed at the first three books and how well he has interwoven all the characters, primary, secondary, tertiary... past & present... different sub-plots with main plots. Incredible.
If you really, really study it... there's almost this very deeply woven series of events that can be knocked through, like dominos, dating back probably to Dunk & Egg... or Rhaegar's birth at Summerhall... depending on how far back you want to go.

But it's incredible that the story itself goes back so much further than Day 1 at Winterfell (where GoT begins, by timeline).

GRRM doesn't necessarily have the purity in english composition of elder classic writers.
But the story itself is, in my mind, the best ever created. Better than even LOTR - which was more of a linear story line, truly much easier to compose.

(Oh, and FWIW, when I said top 25 fiction yesterday, yes... I meant all-time, all-fiction, not just fantasy... but that's my opinion. It's the best story I've ever read... and I've read the Odyssey, the LOTR trilogy, War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, Catch-22, Grapes of Wrath, 1984, Moby Dick, most of Dickens' work, and probably 25%-30% of the all-time revered classic works. Though literary critics won't put it up in the top of lists too soon - they'd all be afraid to be chastized for jumping him there with a finish of the story still pending. And even then, it's like somebody has to die before they can be esteemed into literary hall-of-fame. Also - being a series of books may not qualify it for many "lists"... I don't know how they do that.)

[vitun-tyhmä]

Okay, so I just found out that GRRM was an Expert level chess player. I am a tournament chess player with an ok rating (nowhere near Expert - yet!) so he instantly goes up a few notches on my likability rating chart!

http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/08/how-geo...bobby-fischer/

That makes sense though, the guy can somehow keep track of 1200-1300 characters across multiple kingdoms and storylines

[Savvy1982]

I do feel for GRRM, as his fans aren't being terribly fair.

To give some perspective, one of the most prolific authors of the late 20th century/ early 21st century is Steven King - who has published 50 novels and over 200 short stories since 1967.

Even King took time to write his Dark Tower series - which was as anticipated in some circles as GRRM's GoT series, and that series took him 27 years to finish.

If someone as prolific as King takes nearly 30 years to churn out a series like that, I think we can cut Martin a bit of slack.