HBO - Song of Ice&Fire Series -Varsity Thread - no TV only whiners (3 Viewers)

[Rohn Jambo]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

 

[Rohn Jambo]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

Whoever took the money.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

Whoever took the money.

I'd imagine there's a contract and they can see fit to exercise their rights if they want to.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

Whoever took the money.

I'd imagine there's a contract and they can see fit to exercise their rights if they want to.

My guess is GRRM wished he sold the rights for more money after the show became a big hit.

 

[Sebowski]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Um......

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

[spoilerLast Year (Winds of Winter)

Jan. 2nd, 2016 at 12:24 AM

...as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones.

/spoiler]

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

Whoever took the money.

I'd imagine there's a contract and they can see fit to exercise their rights if they want to.

My guess is GRRM wished he sold the rights for more money after the show became a big hit.

Pick a goal post that isn't on roller skates

 

[Sabertooth]

Meh, these books are his life's work. If he wants to enjoy his life, he's earned it. I hope he gets them done but if not, he's given me hours of enjoyment already. I've given him a few bucks. He owes me nothing.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

That's actually good news IMO. The fact that as late as October he thought it was remotely possible the book would be done in time to beat Season Six means there's a ton written. Of course I'd prefer (by a mile) that he take his time and do the same rewrites he did for the first five books.

Anyhow... sounds pretty likely we'll get a publication date later this year (even if the actual date is 2017). Will take it.

I'm not sure which is the bigger delusion GRRM thinking he'd finish last year or you believing he's at all close to being done at all.

I've got $50 that says we have an official publication date before 1/1/2017.

 

[Sinn Fein]

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

That's actually good news IMO. The fact that as late as October he thought it was remotely possible the book would be done in time to beat Season Six means there's a ton written. Of course I'd prefer (by a mile) that he take his time and do the same rewrites he did for the first five books.

Anyhow... sounds pretty likely we'll get a publication date later this year (even if the actual date is 2017). Will take it.

I'm not sure which is the bigger delusion GRRM thinking he'd finish last year or you believing he's at all close to being done at all.

I've got $50 that says we have an official publication date before 1/1/2016.

I'll take that bet...

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

lol... yeah, caught it myself.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

Meh, these books are his life's work. If he wants to enjoy his life, he's earned it. I hope he gets them done but if not, he's given me hours of enjoyment already. I've given him a few bucks. He owes me nothing.

He blamed HBO partly for catching up too quickly. They should not have skipped the material that requires big budget to produce.

 

[Capella]

GRRM should spend less time blogging and on all the other distractions.

Why. Guy has an awesome life.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

I don't blame the guy to be honest. He's loving his life right now. Good for him.

Yes, but he is being selfish in not meeting his commitments.

Whose commitments? His publishers?

Whoever took the money.

I'd imagine there's a contract and they can see fit to exercise their rights if they want to.

My guess is GRRM wished he sold the rights for more money after the show became a big hit.

Pick a goal post that isn't on roller skates

I am trying to stick to my New Year resolution because I did not say he enjoys the ego trip of seeing everyone wait for his book.

 

[Bigboy10182000]

Sigh

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/game-of-thrones/news/a778373/george-rr-martin-explains-why-he-hasnt-finished-the-latest-game-of-thrones-book-yet/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

I'm getting tired of this fat ####

 

[massraider]

I'm with Sabertooth.

Do what you want, GRRM! When the book comes out, I'll read it. When the shows come out, I'll watch them. Seriously, who give a #### whether it's going to make the experience more enjoyable for some fans that are going to buy the book anyway?

Frankly, he has indulged them too much already.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I'm with Sabertooth.

Do what you want, GRRM! When the book comes out, I'll read it. When the shows come out, I'll watch them. Seriously, who give a #### whether it's going to make the experience more enjoyable for some fans that are going to buy the book anyway?

Frankly, he has indulged them too much already.

Throw me in this bucket, too. If I had a choice, I'd rather read the story first then watch a show/movie about it. But that ain't an option here. I'll be watching in April.

I know I'm projecting here, but reading Martin's post - that dude sounds seriously depressed. And I'd bet that pressure slowed him down. Maybe, now that the added pressure of trying to beat season 6 is off, he'll be able to relax and write more easily.

 

[IrishTwinkie]

I thought this was a good way to look at it. The dude can't write to a deadline. Oh well, deadlines suck and he is in the enviable position of being able to ignore them.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/game-of-thrones-george-r-r-martin-1201670667/

 

[dparker713]

I thought this was a good way to look at it. The dude can't write to a deadline. Oh well, deadlines suck and he is in the enviable position of being able to ignore them.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/game-of-thrones-george-r-r-martin-1201670667/

I'm sure before he was rich and famous that he wrote to deadlines all the time.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I thought this was a good way to look at it. The dude can't write to a deadline. Oh well, deadlines suck and he is in the enviable position of being able to ignore them.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/game-of-thrones-george-r-r-martin-1201670667/

I'm sure before he was rich and famous that he wrote to deadlines all the time.

No, he didn't. He says that right in his blog post. Not on his novels, anyway. I'm sure when he was writing TV scripts, he had to.

 

[Sabertooth]

So what. If you were suddenly rich would you go about your life exactly the same as when you were struggling to make ends meet? I wouldn't.

 

[Capella]

I thought this was a good way to look at it. The dude can't write to a deadline. Oh well, deadlines suck and he is in the enviable position of being able to ignore them.

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/game-of-thrones-george-r-r-martin-1201670667/

I'm sure before he was rich and famous that he wrote to deadlines all the time.

Maybe but now he's not poor so who cares what he did. I did things a lot different when I was broke too.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

I'm with Sabertooth.

Do what you want, GRRM! When the book comes out, I'll read it. When the shows come out, I'll watch them. Seriously, who give a #### whether it's going to make the experience more enjoyable for some fans that are going to buy the book anyway?

Frankly, he has indulged them too much already.

Throw me in this bucket, too. If I had a choice, I'd rather read the story first then watch a show/movie about it. But that ain't an option here. I'll be watching in April.I know I'm projecting here, but reading Martin's post - that dude sounds seriously depressed. And I'd bet that pressure slowed him down. Maybe, now that the added pressure of trying to beat season 6 is off, he'll be able to relax and write more easily.

I don't trust a word this guy says. He is a serial liar.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

HBO president Michael Lombardo revealed that the network is in negotiations for a full eighth season of Game of Thrones,

 

[renesauz]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

 

[renesauz]

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

Spoiler

Last Year (Winds of Winter)

Jan. 2nd, 2016 at 12:24 AM

writing

The last post from the Lost Post, and the one you've all been waiting for.

Back when this was one long long long post, before Live Journal sent it to the cornfield, I mentioned opening with Dickens' line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So it was for me in 2015. I've spent much of the day recreating (in Cliff's Note summaries) my own personal "best of times" from the previous year, all the wonderful things that went down for me in 2015, the awards and the publications and the bestseller lists, the cons and the parties, the travel, all the exciting new projects underway at HBO and right here down the street in Santa Fe. But inevitably that brings me to my own personal "worst of times," and that is considerably less fun to blog about, so do forgive my reluctance to do so.

You wanted an update. Here's the update. You won't like it.

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.

But the book's not done.

Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

I suppose I could just say, "Sorry, boys and girls, still writing," and leave it at that. "It will be done when it's done." Which is what I have been doing, more or less, since... well, forever. But with season 6 of GAME OF THRONES approaching, and so many requests for information boiling up, I am going to break my own rules and say a little more, since it would appear that hundreds of my readers, maybe thousands or tens of thousands, are very concerned about this question of 'spoilers" and the show catching up, revealing things not yet revealed in the books, etc.

My publishers and I have been cognizant of these concerns, of course. We discussed some of them last spring, as the fifth season of the HBO series was winding down, and came up with a plan. We all wanted book six of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE to come out before season six of the HBO show aired. Assuming the show would return in early April, that meant THE WINDS OF WINTER had to be published before the end of March, at the latest. For that to happen, my publishers told me, they would need the completed manuscript before the end of October. That seemed very do-able to me... in May. So there was the first deadline: Halloween.

Unfortunately, the writing did not go as fast or as well as I would have liked. You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s. And as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones. Around about August, I had to face facts: I was not going to be done by Halloween. I cannot tell you how deeply that realization depressed me.

Early August saw me back east for my nephew's wedding and an appearance with the Staten Island Direwolves. I took advantage of the visit to have another sit down with my editors and publishers and told them that I didn't think I could deliver by Halloween. I thought they'd be sick about it... but I have to say, my editors and publishers are great, and they took it with surprising equanimity. (Maybe they knew it before I did). They already had contigencies in place. They had made plans to speed up production. If I could deliver WINDS OF WINTER by the end of the year, they told me, they could still get it our before the end of March.

I was immensely relieved. I had two whole extra months! I could make that, certainly. August was an insane month, too much travel, too many other obligations... but I'd have September, October, and now November and December as well. Once again I was confident I could do it.

After reading this entire thing, it's abundantly clear that GRRM has no clue where he's heading with his own story. That's absolutely amazing to me, but if also makes me wish I have never heard of him or his series, and had never read it.

After getting hooked on his series and on WOT long before they were complete, I've made it a more recent habit of mine to never start a series that wasn't already completed.

 

[renesauz]

Meh, these books are his life's work. If he wants to enjoy his life, he's earned it. I hope he gets them done but if not, he's given me hours of enjoyment already. I've given him a few bucks. He owes me nothing.

Tend to disagree. If you sell part of a story with the stated promise of delivering the rest of the story, you're bloody well obligated to actually, you know, deliver the rest of the story.

I can understand a soft deadline, but he's gone well past the point of absurdity with multiple years in between installments.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

 

[renesauz]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

No idea...haven't read anything else from Sanderson, but he did a pretty good job finishing up WOT and is on my short list of guys I want to read sometime in the not-too-distant future. Been reading some of the newer Goodkind Richard and Khalan novels. (The Sword of truth series from Goodkind is excellant...the very first book, Wizards First Rule, being among my all time favorites)

 

[Sabertooth]

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

Spoiler

Last Year (Winds of Winter)

Jan. 2nd, 2016 at 12:24 AM

writing

The last post from the Lost Post, and the one you've all been waiting for.

Back when this was one long long long post, before Live Journal sent it to the cornfield, I mentioned opening with Dickens' line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So it was for me in 2015. I've spent much of the day recreating (in Cliff's Note summaries) my own personal "best of times" from the previous year, all the wonderful things that went down for me in 2015, the awards and the publications and the bestseller lists, the cons and the parties, the travel, all the exciting new projects underway at HBO and right here down the street in Santa Fe. But inevitably that brings me to my own personal "worst of times," and that is considerably less fun to blog about, so do forgive my reluctance to do so.

You wanted an update. Here's the update. You won't like it.

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.

But the book's not done.

Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

I suppose I could just say, "Sorry, boys and girls, still writing," and leave it at that. "It will be done when it's done." Which is what I have been doing, more or less, since... well, forever. But with season 6 of GAME OF THRONES approaching, and so many requests for information boiling up, I am going to break my own rules and say a little more, since it would appear that hundreds of my readers, maybe thousands or tens of thousands, are very concerned about this question of 'spoilers" and the show catching up, revealing things not yet revealed in the books, etc.

My publishers and I have been cognizant of these concerns, of course. We discussed some of them last spring, as the fifth season of the HBO series was winding down, and came up with a plan. We all wanted book six of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE to come out before season six of the HBO show aired. Assuming the show would return in early April, that meant THE WINDS OF WINTER had to be published before the end of March, at the latest. For that to happen, my publishers told me, they would need the completed manuscript before the end of October. That seemed very do-able to me... in May. So there was the first deadline: Halloween.

Unfortunately, the writing did not go as fast or as well as I would have liked. You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s. And as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones. Around about August, I had to face facts: I was not going to be done by Halloween. I cannot tell you how deeply that realization depressed me.

Early August saw me back east for my nephew's wedding and an appearance with the Staten Island Direwolves. I took advantage of the visit to have another sit down with my editors and publishers and told them that I didn't think I could deliver by Halloween. I thought they'd be sick about it... but I have to say, my editors and publishers are great, and they took it with surprising equanimity. (Maybe they knew it before I did). They already had contigencies in place. They had made plans to speed up production. If I could deliver WINDS OF WINTER by the end of the year, they told me, they could still get it our before the end of March.

I was immensely relieved. I had two whole extra months! I could make that, certainly. August was an insane month, too much travel, too many other obligations... but I'd have September, October, and now November and December as well. Once again I was confident I could do it.

Spoiler

After reading this entire thing, it's abundantly clear that GRRM has no clue where he's heading with his own story. That's absolutely amazing to me, but if also makes me wish I have never heard of him or his series, and had never read it.

After getting hooked on his series and on WOT long before they were complete, I've made it a more recent habit of mine to never start a series that wasn't already completed.

Agreed. We do this with TV shows as well. I really really want to start Fargo, but I want to have it finished before I start. This is why I don't watch Shannara or Vikings either. I want to, but have no faith in them finishing strong so I wait.

 

[Sabertooth]

Currently reading Tides of War by Pressfield. Historic fiction set in ancient Athens. Pretty good. And I know when it's done, it's done.

 

[Thunderlips]

I don't believe he didn't have more than the broad strokes for how this story is going to end up. I think he's probably pressing to come up with a new angle that will distinguish itself from the show,as the show will pass him by and give the "reveals" before he can, thus lessening the impacts of the books.

 

[ScottNorwood]

Currently reading Tides of War by Pressfield. Historic fiction set in ancient Athens. Pretty good. And I know when it's done, it's done.

Currently reading Tides of War posts from FBGs Great Works Draft. Especially gripping when he challenges Timchochet to a fist fight.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I don't believe he didn't have more than the broad strokes for how this story is going to end up. I think he's probably pressing to come up with a new angle that will distinguish itself from the show,as the show will pass him by and give the "reveals" before he can, thus lessening the impacts of the books.

Aegon will play a bigger role in the books. Maybe stannis doesn't die and plays a role. The Jon snow, bran and Dany stuff will be largely the same.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I do feel like the show hasn't been as good this past season and could have and should have followed the books closer and used more from crows. They totally messed up Dorne. Brutal job there really.

 

[dparker713]

Want to *sigh* for real? GRRMs words - http://grrm.livejournal.com/465247.html

Spoiler

Last Year (Winds of Winter)

Jan. 2nd, 2016 at 12:24 AM

writing

The last post from the Lost Post, and the one you've all been waiting for.

Back when this was one long long long post, before Live Journal sent it to the cornfield, I mentioned opening with Dickens' line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." So it was for me in 2015. I've spent much of the day recreating (in Cliff's Note summaries) my own personal "best of times" from the previous year, all the wonderful things that went down for me in 2015, the awards and the publications and the bestseller lists, the cons and the parties, the travel, all the exciting new projects underway at HBO and right here down the street in Santa Fe. But inevitably that brings me to my own personal "worst of times," and that is considerably less fun to blog about, so do forgive my reluctance to do so.

You wanted an update. Here's the update. You won't like it.

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.

But the book's not done.

Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

I suppose I could just say, "Sorry, boys and girls, still writing," and leave it at that. "It will be done when it's done." Which is what I have been doing, more or less, since... well, forever. But with season 6 of GAME OF THRONES approaching, and so many requests for information boiling up, I am going to break my own rules and say a little more, since it would appear that hundreds of my readers, maybe thousands or tens of thousands, are very concerned about this question of 'spoilers" and the show catching up, revealing things not yet revealed in the books, etc.

My publishers and I have been cognizant of these concerns, of course. We discussed some of them last spring, as the fifth season of the HBO series was winding down, and came up with a plan. We all wanted book six of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE to come out before season six of the HBO show aired. Assuming the show would return in early April, that meant THE WINDS OF WINTER had to be published before the end of March, at the latest. For that to happen, my publishers told me, they would need the completed manuscript before the end of October. That seemed very do-able to me... in May. So there was the first deadline: Halloween.

Unfortunately, the writing did not go as fast or as well as I would have liked. You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s. And as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones. Around about August, I had to face facts: I was not going to be done by Halloween. I cannot tell you how deeply that realization depressed me.

Early August saw me back east for my nephew's wedding and an appearance with the Staten Island Direwolves. I took advantage of the visit to have another sit down with my editors and publishers and told them that I didn't think I could deliver by Halloween. I thought they'd be sick about it... but I have to say, my editors and publishers are great, and they took it with surprising equanimity. (Maybe they knew it before I did). They already had contigencies in place. They had made plans to speed up production. If I could deliver WINDS OF WINTER by the end of the year, they told me, they could still get it our before the end of March.

I was immensely relieved. I had two whole extra months! I could make that, certainly. August was an insane month, too much travel, too many other obligations... but I'd have September, October, and now November and December as well. Once again I was confident I could do it.

Spoiler

After reading this entire thing, it's abundantly clear that GRRM has no clue where he's heading with his own story. That's absolutely amazing to me, but if also makes me wish I have never heard of him or his series, and had never read it.

After getting hooked on his series and on WOT long before they were complete, I've made it a more recent habit of mine to never start a series that wasn't already completed.

Spoiler

Agreed. We do this with TV shows as well. I really really want to start Fargo, but I want to have it finished before I start. This is why I don't watch Shannara or Vikings either. I want to, but have no faith in them finishing strong so I wait.

Its often about the journey, not the destination.

 

[Thunderlips]

I don't believe he didn't have more than the broad strokes for how this story is going to end up. I think he's probably pressing to come up with a new angle that will distinguish itself from the show,as the show will pass him by and give the "reveals" before he can, thus lessening the impacts of the books.

Aegon will play a bigger role in the books. Maybe stannis doesn't die and plays a role. The Jon snow, bran and Dany stuff will be largely the same.

I don't see Aegon as anything more than an 11th hour conflict for one of the main characters to resolve. I don't think he's very relevant. I'm more worried about him trying to swerve on the Jon Snow lineage or something along those lines; that at one time, GRRM told the show creators exactly how it panned out and now he's looking to shoehorn something in to the current structure so he'll have something to trumpet as different from the show or "what he intended to do the entire time".

The show has passed him and has all of the relevant information to complete the story. Maybe he made a mistake by not working harder to be sure his pure vision is the defining end, but to me, he should keep in mind that the story will, more or less, eternal and he should write it for the future reader to love....not the current book reader who is now getting his primary source of new ASOIAF from the show.

 

[Sabertooth]

I do feel like the show hasn't been as good this past season and could have and should have followed the books closer and used more from crows. They totally messed up Dorne. Brutal job there really.

I agree. Dorn seems so rotten and spoiled in the books. The seen with the blood oranges was fantastic.

 

[sn0mm1s]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:

Depends. I think it is a great series except for one thing (and this applies to *all* Sanderson books) - his male/female romance/courting/relationships are written in a way that make me want to cringe. If you can get past that then I highly recommend the books. The first one starts off sort of slow but really picks up about 1/2 way through. His Mistborn Trilogy is good as well. I would pass on Elantris and Warbreaker. He also did a decent job picking up the WoT series. I don't recommend those often since people have either already read WoT or, if they haven't, it almost guarantees they haven't read other authors that I recommend.

As of right now, the 4 authors that I recommend for fantasy are: GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I am sure I have mentioned this in this thread before but I am too lazy to go find it. My next tier would be Sanderson (Mistborn and Stormlight), Jordan (WoT), and Tolkien.

 

[The Duff Man]

Does Martin not realize what kind of fan base he is dealing with? Some lunatic is bound to go Misery on his hide.

 

[Notorious T.R.E.]

Don't really care for Sanderson, fyi, imo.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:

Depends. I think it is a great series except for one thing (and this applies to *all* Sanderson books) - his male/female romance/courting/relationships are written in a way that make me want to cringe. If you can get past that then I highly recommend the books. The first one starts off sort of slow but really picks up about 1/2 way through. His Mistborn Trilogy is good as well. I would pass on Elantris and Warbreaker. He also did a decent job picking up the WoT series. I don't recommend those often since people have either already read WoT or, if they haven't, it almost guarantees they haven't read other authors that I recommend.

As of right now, the 4 authors that I recommend for fantasy are: GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I am sure I have mentioned this in this thread before but I am too lazy to go find it. My next tier would be Sanderson (Mistborn and Stormlight), Jordan (WoT), and Tolkien.

Thanks for the reply. I got a couple other books for the holidays that I had already, so what I will probably do is just keep the Sanderson book and exchange the other two for the first book in the 2 series you suggested.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I hope he just stops writing them altogether and tells you guys to f off.

 

[AnonymousBob]

I hope he does the next book in a choose your own adventure format.

 

[sn0mm1s]

As of right now, the 4 authors that I recommend for fantasy are: GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I am sure I have mentioned this in this thread before but I am too lazy to go find it. My next tier would be Sanderson (Mistborn and Stormlight), Jordan (WoT), and Tolkien.

Thanks for the reply. I got a couple other books for the holidays that I had already, so what I will probably do is just keep the Sanderson book and exchange the other two for the first book in the 2 series you suggested.

The first two Dresden Files books were written as class projects. The 3rd book is significantly better (as are the following books). If you absolutely hate the first book I wouldn't continue. If you think it is good but not great keep with the series.

 

[encaitar]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

It's very well done. It's not ASOIAF, but still very good. Sanderson is an incredible world builder. He has 4 or 5 different series all built into the same multiverse that each contain their own magic system that makes sense in a weird way. Some of his worlds are modern, some are stuck in what would be middle-ageish, some are even futuristic. It's incredible that he can create such starkly different worlds and yet still write so quickly. The one thing you'll enjoy about Sanderson is that you'll get two or three books every year.

 

[encaitar]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer:

Depends. I think it is a great series except for one thing (and this applies to *all* Sanderson books) - his male/female romance/courting/relationships are written in a way that make me want to cringe. If you can get past that then I highly recommend the books. The first one starts off sort of slow but really picks up about 1/2 way through. His Mistborn Trilogy is good as well. I would pass on Elantris and Warbreaker. He also did a decent job picking up the WoT series. I don't recommend those often since people have either already read WoT or, if they haven't, it almost guarantees they haven't read other authors that I recommend.

As of right now, the 4 authors that I recommend for fantasy are: GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I am sure I have mentioned this in this thread before but I am too lazy to go find it. My next tier would be Sanderson (Mistborn and Stormlight), Jordan (WoT), and Tolkien.

This was said better than my reply. I agree that I wouldn't put Sanderson in the top tier, but he is still very good.

I hate that Rothfuss is basically George's equal in time taken to finish a series. His series is actually my favorite fantasy series of all time(so far of course, he could still #### it up) and his writing style blows everyone else out of the water. I am just getting very impatient with both him and Martin.

 

[Sebowski]

As of right now, the 4 authors that I recommend for fantasy are: GRRM, Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles), Jim Butcher (Dresden Files), and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I am sure I have mentioned this in this thread before but I am too lazy to go find it. My next tier would be Sanderson (Mistborn and Stormlight), Jordan (WoT), and Tolkien.

Not my style at all, but I have a friend who wrote a book. If any of read this let me know what you think

http://www.amazon.com/Thrace-Centaur-Hundred-Keith-Bender-ebook/dp/B00JCURL60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452584743&sr=8-1&keywords=keith+bender

 

[Maelstrom]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WOT is my favorite series ever, but it does more than a little bit of meandering between about book 4 or 5 and book 10 or so. Everything contained in those 6 or 7 books could have easily been covered in 3 books. The pace and quality recover very well in the last couple (which Brandon Sanderson wrote much of)

Quick hijack - is Sanderson's stormlight archive worth starting? Got book one for Christmas, but didn't know if I should bother.

No idea...haven't read anything else from Sanderson, but he did a pretty good job finishing up WOT and is on my short list of guys I want to read sometime in the not-too-distant future. Been reading some of the newer Goodkind Richard and Khalan novels. (The Sword of truth series from Goodkind is excellant...the very first book, Wizards First Rule, being among my all time favorites)

I've read a lot of the Sword of Truth series, but stopped when Goodkind said it was done. Then he must have figured out that his name only really worked for SoT, and started writting them again. I've enjoyed the books, but I did find that they got rather repetitive, he definitely seemed to write to a formula.

 

[babydemon90]

Almost finished with my Crows re-read. This book is actually quite good. I think all the stink was due to the wait and missing characters. I can see why people would be angry, I certainly would have been, but the book is pretty quality and gives more color to the stories.

The problem with Crows is that it suffers in comparison to the previous 3 books. It tends to meander a bit. It's still better than any of the wheel of time books for instance. But it's not as good as the 1st three of this series.

I just finished the 4th Wheel of Time book. I might just read a synopsis and be done with it.

Having forced myself to finish the series, I recommend this course of action.

Despite the meandering in the middle books, I still prefer the WoT series to this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them both, and they are both good. I like the WoT characters/story better though.

WowI can't imagine there are too many people that share your opinion.

WoT had a good start but ran off the rails in flurry of hair tugging. I quit well before that travesty of a series ended.

Started very well - the last couple before he did weren't great, meandered all over the place. Sanderson did a good job of finishing it up though.