snitwitch
Footballguy
He updates his blog quite often, but seems like most recent updates are about the casting of the HBO series they're making out of the first book: http://grrm.livejournal.com/(HULK) said:Any idea when this book will come out
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George R.R. Martin - "A Dance With Dragons" (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter kupcho1
- Start date
ScottyFargo
Footballguy
I'd
if it weren't such a shame. Atleast I am excited to pick up HBO when the series goes live, I am positive they'll do it right, as much as I am certain they'll cancel it before the 3rd season. I need to reread Thrones and Crows, however. I am sure I can put it off for a while and still finish rereading them both before dragons is done.
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book, but I understand they've hired a writer to finish the series with a final 3 books, same publisher (the guy's wife).
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that? :(
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that? :(
TexanFan02
Footballguy
The first 4 books are great. I read the next two or three, and then gave up when there was one that was about a thousand pages long and encompassed about one days worth of activity. Was going to go back and slog through them, but then he died. I have the same fears about Martin. I think he's stringing it out as long as he can, and you never know when you're going to go.I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book, but I understand they've hired a writer to finish the series with a final 3 books, same publisher (the guy's wife).
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that?
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
Thanks for the information!The first 4 books are great. I read the next two or three, and then gave up when there was one that was about a thousand pages long and encompassed about one days worth of activity. Was going to go back and slog through them, but then he died. I have the same fears about Martin. I think he's stringing it out as long as he can, and you never know when you're going to go.I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book, but I understand they've hired a writer to finish the series with a final 3 books, same publisher (the guy's wife).
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that?
Now that they've released a plan to finish the story with an authorized plot developed from the late author's own outline, edited by his editor (and wife), are you at all inclined to try to get back into the series and finish it?
commisholio
Come out with your pants down!
I'm a long-time WoT fan. The first 4 books are epic, the 5th and 6th were pretty good, 7-10 were slow, 11 picked up again, and now the new one by Brandon Sanderson, the guy hired to finish the story, was very good. If you enjoy epic fantasy, I think you'll like it. I have a lot of confidence that they will release the next two (final) books over the next two years as planned, that they will wrap up most to all of the loose ends, and that they will be very satisfying.Many people will say that books 7-10 are not just slow, but actively bad. I wouldn't go that far, but they definitely can't compare to the first 4. They are still pretty good books IMO, just not great like the first four.Thanks for the information!The first 4 books are great. I read the next two or three, and then gave up when there was one that was about a thousand pages long and encompassed about one days worth of activity. Was going to go back and slog through them, but then he died. I have the same fears about Martin. I think he's stringing it out as long as he can, and you never know when you're going to go.I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book, but I understand they've hired a writer to finish the series with a final 3 books, same publisher (the guy's wife).
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that?
Now that they've released a plan to finish the story with an authorized plot developed from the late author's own outline, edited by his editor (and wife), are you at all inclined to try to get back into the series and finish it?
I've been a fan of the series, and I'll agree with the general decline in the series. Overall, the world he creates and the multiple plot lines that he intertwines is excellent and will reel you in to the series. Lots of action, cool powers and bad guys, and plot development. First 4 or so books were very good and moved along very well. After that, it slowed down a lot. And throughout the series, the dialog and character development is pretty weak. Switching to a different author may not completely be a bad thing.I'm a long-time WoT fan. The first 4 books are epic, the 5th and 6th were pretty good, 7-10 were slow, 11 picked up again, and now the new one by Brandon Sanderson, the guy hired to finish the story, was very good. If you enjoy epic fantasy, I think you'll like it. I have a lot of confidence that they will release the next two (final) books over the next two years as planned, that they will wrap up most to all of the loose ends, and that they will be very satisfying.Many people will say that books 7-10 are not just slow, but actively bad. I wouldn't go that far, but they definitely can't compare to the first 4. They are still pretty good books IMO, just not great like the first four.Thanks for the information!The first 4 books are great. I read the next two or three, and then gave up when there was one that was about a thousand pages long and encompassed about one days worth of activity. Was going to go back and slog through them, but then he died. I have the same fears about Martin. I think he's stringing it out as long as he can, and you never know when you're going to go.I've never picked up a Wheel of Time book, but I understand they've hired a writer to finish the series with a final 3 books, same publisher (the guy's wife).
OK, so now that I've gotten that ignorant sentence out of the way...any thoughts on cutting and running from ASoIaF and moving over to the Wheel of Time series? Is it as good? Better? Different?
Or, we could keep circle jerking about how ADwD is just as far away as it has been for the past 3 years...
Wait, am I allowed to say that?
Now that they've released a plan to finish the story with an authorized plot developed from the late author's own outline, edited by his editor (and wife), are you at all inclined to try to get back into the series and finish it?
I'll probably finish out the series when the books are available, but I'm not exactly counting down the days.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Matthias said:
We must be reading different books. The same place as where we were in book 1 or 2? Let's see.....SPOILER ALERT
The North: House Stark has been wiped out as a political/royal entity. Winterfell has been burned down. There is no "North" anymore, just Bolton & his nutball kid running around skinning people with the Greyjoys hold a duchy or two that were loyal to the Starks. Most of the lesser houses have been decimated and are leaderless.
The Vale: "Ruled" by a sick kid who's being poisoned by his guardian.
Riverrun: Lost, taken over by the Lannisters.
Lannisters: Also swirling down the drain. Tywin's dead, Cersei's in prison, Tyrion's in exile for killing Dad, and Jamie seems to be moving toward saying "f it" to the whole thing.
Iron Islands: King "accidentally" died. Coincidentally, crazy ambitious son with a taste for magic shows up just then, beats out all contenders for the throne & send his brother east to snatch Dany, all the while attacking Westeros.
Kings Landing: Cersei's rule was a debacle. For one thing, she's going insane. For another, she surrounded herself with incompetents or seeming incompetents who had their own agendas. A religious cult has stepped into the leaderless void, arresting both Cersei (Queen Regent) & Margaery (Queen) for a variety of sins. The guy Cersei hired to take over the navy has split with all of the ships.
None of these (& there are more) situations are remotely close to where they were two books ago. The realm is in chaos - it just doesn't know it yet.
Roberts' bastards already served their purposes - they all look like him & his "trueborn" kids with Cersei didn't. That's what got Arryn & Ned killed. That's not to say that Gendry or one of the others don't have a further part to play.We already know who tried to murder Bran, who set it up, and why. That thread was resolved by book 3.
I'm not sure what you mean about Dany. She didn't sell ships to get her army, she took the army herself.
I thought the coming-back-from-the-dead was explained pretty well by Thoros to Arya in either book 2 or book 3.
As for Arya, do you realize what she's doing? "Little altar girl" is the furthest thing from it.
And Sansa's arc has been going on since book one - there's been plenty of exposition on her growth.
Fiddles
Footballguy
no nickname from highschool but a very cool character
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
I think the fact that the series isn't done yet leads to a lot of your (& everyone else's) frustration. Assuming Martin ever finishes the damned thing, those having all seven books in front of them won't have to deal for years with all of the unresolved issues. But I'll say this - I don't expect Martin to tie every loose thread up in a neat bow. I really think he gets off on readers having to put the clues together and I don't think he's going to provide a bullet-point list for a lot of these mysteries.As for the realm being in chaos, there's no comparison to where things stood in book 1/2 & where they are now. Back then, the Lannisters were in control (even if the other factions didn't know it). Now, everything's up for grabs. I expect Martin's setting this up for Dany to be the savior, but he's tricksy so who knows....I'm not quite sure why some of Robert's bastards still being around irritates you so much. There were what - 18 of them? Some lived, some died. Most don't know that Robert was their father & many of the people that did know are out of action. Maybe someone will try to use them, though Edric is the only one with any kind of potential power base right now. As I wrote earlier, I think their larger purpose has already been put to bed (exposing Jamie & Cersei).Tyrion figured out who tried to kill Bran in book 3. It wasn't Littlefinger, who used the knife as a way to create chaos & confusion; his lie about it was exposed pretty early on.I assumed Dany kept everything that she "offered" for the army, including the ships. Who else would have them?One thing to keep in mind about many of the unresolved issues (Dany & the ships, for example) is that those characters haven't been seen since the mysteries have been introduced. So there's been no opportunity for them to be explained. That's part of the hell of an unfinished series like this one.
Sabertooth
Footballguy
I doubt Martin ever finished the series. He's like what 3 years for this book? He's old, fat, and more interested in TV and comic books than finishing this series.
kupcho1
Footballguy
TexanFan02
Footballguy
He's probably drunk and/or high and laughing at people that are still waiting on updates for this.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
Dude. It's the final twist. He hooks people in on a good story, then uses the proceeds to do the stuff he really wants to. Meanwhile, he's a fat old guy with no intention of finishing anytime soon. And by soon, I mean... when did the last book come out? 3 years ago. So he'll probably end up dying happy, while pissing all his fans off. I'm giving up. It wasn't THAT good.Still not done. I don't think he's even been working on it the last few months.
Darrinll40
Footballguy
Me too, though I have recently read the first four books in the series and enjoyed them also. I am now in the middle of WoT 12 and I like it. I checked his blog back to September and not one mention of the book. I did catch the trailer for AGOT from HBO and it had the same feel as LOTR, but it was only 30 some seconds long. At the least, he seems to be a huge football fan.
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kupcho1
Footballguy
The novel was first published on 17 October 2005 in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on 8 November 2005.US edition of AFfC turns 5 on Monday. Happy Birthday!Dude. It's the final twist. He hooks people in on a good story, then uses the proceeds to do the stuff he really wants to. Meanwhile, he's a fat old guy with no intention of finishing anytime soon. And by soon, I mean... when did the last book come out? 3 years ago. So he'll probably end up dying happy, while pissing all his fans off. I'm giving up. It wasn't THAT good.Still not done. I don't think he's even been working on it the last few months.
Maelstrom
Footballguy
I would definitely recommend The Wheel of Time series to any fans of Martin's work. I've enjoyed Martin's series as well, but hate the wait times between books. Sanderson (the author finishing the Wheel of Time series) has done a great job of picking up the series and doing at least as good, if not a little better, than Jordan. As others have said, books 1-4 will hook ya, but I also disagree that the middle books are bad. I think they just don't quite measure up to the first set. But it's worth getting through them as it picks back up smartly and quickly.
Sabertooth
Footballguy
Yeah, I'll pick these back up when they are done. I'm figuring another 10 years at least.
kupcho1
Footballguy
Sabertooth
Footballguy
I don't even recall where they left this.
renesauz
IBL Representative
Martin is a worthless POS leaving a series mid-stride like that. As others have said, the first couple books were A+ work, the last pretty meh, but it's inexcusable for a writer to purposefully ignore an unfinished work like that, for FIVE YEARS!
As for Jordan's WoT...my favorite series ever. A few books seemed to stall a bit (7-8-9ish), but overall great story well worth the read for any fantasy fan.
Sanderson's additions have been nearly flawless...could almost believe JOrdan was still writing them. As I understand, Jordan DID write many of the key passages before he passed, including the climactic passage of the final (as yet unpublished) book.
As for Jordan's WoT...my favorite series ever. A few books seemed to stall a bit (7-8-9ish), but overall great story well worth the read for any fantasy fan.
Sanderson's additions have been nearly flawless...could almost believe JOrdan was still writing them. As I understand, Jordan DID write many of the key passages before he passed, including the climactic passage of the final (as yet unpublished) book.
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igbomb
Footballguy
Not to get into the whole Martin pissing match here. but do people really think that he intentionally just walked away from the series for years to mess with everybody? If anything, his life would be easier if he just kicked out a couple of garbage novels to finish the series and make his loads of dough.He's not the first author to get stuck for a long period, nor will he be the last. The vitriol against the man is seriously pathetic.
TexanFan02
Footballguy
BS. He completely deserves it. His first 3 books took 6 years. The next one took 5. This one is at 6 and counting. Meanwhile he's traveling around the world attending conferences and promoting his other work. And he's fat and old and going to die, leaving his fans who have been waiting with nothing. Then he accuses his fans of demanding he spend "all of his time" on the new book, which he obviously isn't doing. He was nothing before this series, and now he's neglecting it to the point of the ridiculous. It's not like the first three books were short stories, they were 1000 page affairs. He managed one of those every 2 years. Now he's made his money, and is basically saying screw you to the people he made it from. I don't blame him for enjoying his newfound wealth, but he has pretty much walked away from the series. He can't finish one book in the time it took him to finish the first 3? Please. He could, he just doesn't need or want to enough.
mad sweeney
Footballguy
That last trailer was pretty good but I think the earlier ones were better and more effective. This one seems like almost like a nod to fans of the book. Speaking of which, I mistakenly thought it was coming out this month so I started re-reading book 1. As such, much of the trailer was very familiar to what I've read as recently as 2 days ago. There are already, just from that trailer, some deviations from the book. Many of them are necessary expositional dialog but it struck me how different many of the lines were from the books. The first one I noticed was Robb (?) asking Neddard about the "white walkers" during the first execution scene. This was the first time in all the teasers and trailers that I got a little nervous about what might be changed for the series.
renesauz
IBL Representative
"Getting stuck" is one thing. Multiple times I went to his website to check on progress, only to discover he was off invloved in other projects. ONe of those projects was working on a series based on these books he hasn't even finished yet. IE: He wasn't "stuck"...he just decided to do other things!'igbomb said:
Sand
Footballguy
Now that there is a TV series based on these I doubt it. I'm sure there were serious discussions during negotiations that he get back on these and finish them. I believe, in turn, the next (final?) book will be worked on in a timely basis.I was actually expecting an announcement like this. Now he undoubtedly has contractual items to fulfull - i.e. finishing these things.
Sabertooth
Footballguy
Who am I kidding, I'm going to pre-order this book. 
igbomb
Footballguy
I've never written a novel. And even 99% of those who have haven't written anything half as good as those written by Martin. So I'm not going to for a second presume to know what Martin could have done. Perhaps he was a lazy SOB enjoying the trapping of his success. If he was, more power to him. Or perhaps he was truly struggling to put out something that would meet the expectations of his legions of fans. He's been pretty open about the fact that he really struggled with pulling the story together on this last book.What I feel confident in is that the guy would have much rather written this book three years ago and gotten to work on 6 and 7. He's had tools all over the internet who have some misguided sense of entitlement insist that he owes them something and how lazy and fat and destined to soon die he is. Ridiculous. childish.
igbomb
Footballguy
Do you do anything outside of work? Pursue other hobbies or watch some football? Who cares what the guy does with his time? What a bunch of ungrateful whiners.
mad sweeney
Footballguy
I'll be getting it on my nook that same day.Who am I kidding, I'm going to pre-order this book.
fasteddie_21
2006 NM Poker Champ
Let's hope. There are two more books, according to him, AFTER ADWD.
Sand
Footballguy
...and I'm going to have to dust off the last book to figure out what the #### was going on before this one. It has been a while.Who am I kidding, I'm going to pre-order this book.
mad sweeney
Footballguy
Probably have to dust off the last 2 since the last one was the same timeline as this next one. I'm just re-reading all of them....and I'm going to have to dust off the last book to figure out what the #### was going on before this one. It has been a while.Who am I kidding, I'm going to pre-order this book.
Mjolnirs
Footballguy
I may read the series again since it isn't many books. With the Jordan series I was able to find chapter synopses to help with the recap....and I'm going to have to dust off the last book to figure out what the #### was going on before this one. It has been a while.Who am I kidding, I'm going to pre-order this book.
Black Sunday
Footballguy
Never read Malazan, but WoT rocks. Some say the middle books drag, but I enjoy the extremely detailed character developement and interactions. During those middle books, you never really got the feel that you were nearing the end of the books, but that was fine with me. Nobody has ever developed the number of characters as fully as Jordan. The only one that's come close is Martin. That's not to say that Martin's books aren't as good. I put them on an equal footing.
igbomb
Footballguy
I'm on the second WOT book right now. I'm enjoying them, but there is so much hand-wringing from Rand that I get bored. Just man up and get to it! He obsesses non-stop.
Maelstrom
Footballguy
The entire series does a bit of "hand-wringing" from each of the characters at one time or another. Doesn't change how I feel about the books though. Easily my favorite fantasy series, not that Martin's books aren't right up there.
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
I think when ADWD comes out, fans should organize a protest of sorts and delay purchase for 6 months. Just don't start re-reading until Dance comes out then don't buy it until after we're caught up. That would give GRRM and his publisher a little taste of their own medicine.
Depends on what you are looking for.If you want to have a pretty easy read and enjoy the ride, I'd say WoT.If you want to invest some time going through hundreds of pages before you actually understand what is happening, but then once you get through it all and are interested in rereading the series a couple of times you get a huge payoff in terms of higher quality, I'd say Malazan. You can read the series 5 times and see things from entirely different angles each time, seeing things you missed the first time(s) around.Reading Wot first time > reading Malazan first timeReading Malazan 2nd (and 3rd, and 4th...) time >>> reading Wot any time
Maelstrom
Footballguy
Looks like I have a series I need to pick up - I have read the WoT series early books (1-9ish) probably 5 or 6 times, with the later ones (except the last 1) twice. I definitely found things even in my later re-reads that I had missed the first time around.
