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Time: George R. R. Martin interview, “I am going to finish these books!”

A

Acyl

Member
I wonder if he's not writing the books but just repeating this because it's better PR that he's an old man struggling to satisfy his fans than to say, "hey, I'm rich and I'm done!"

Who knows. I know I won't be buying his next book. I got the hardcover ADWD so many years ago and it's all fuddled after watching the show.
 
R

Rymuth

Member
Cesare Borgia said:
This isn't true. The first three books are basically one book; he started with the idea of Game Of Thrones ending with the Red Wedding. The world is smaller and the pacing is just right. The problems with Feast and Dance have been discussed as nauseam, no need to go over it again but: five year gap, Meereenese Knot, obsessive worldbuilding, etc.

He has a good editor...he doesn't listen to her much. The manuscript for ADWD is available to read in Texas A&M's library, you can see her notes. He basically outright ignores many lol.

She did convince him to remove the two major battles that were supposed to be in Dance and move them to Winds. I think it was a bad decision. She argues it had to be done or else the book would have been delayed a year to restructure to make room for them.
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Woah :eek:
 
F

Famassu

Member
4Tran said:
The problem with those books is that there are entire storylines that are bad with few redeeming qualities. Even if the continuation of those storylines ends up good, it does not excuse the bad material. Martin's original idea was correct; he should have just jumped the timeline by a few years and just glossed over the bad material by hitting a few of the high notes. As they stand, much of those two books should have never seen print, and that's what makes them garbage.
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Pink mast is the only storyline so far that hasn't had much in the way of good stuff (though it should now that they are where they are). The rest have some small parts here and there that could've been removed/edited for a slightly tighter script but otherwise I don't feel any of them are all bad or have no redeeming factors.

Cesare Borgia said:
This isn't true. The first three books are basically one book; he started with the idea of Game Of Thrones ending with the Red Wedding. The world is smaller and the pacing is just right. The problems with Feast and Dance have been discussed as nauseam, no need to go over it again but: five year gap, Meereenese Knot, obsessive worldbuilding, etc.

He has a good editor...he doesn't listen to her much. The manuscript for ADWD is available to read in Texas A&M's library, you can see her notes. He basically outright ignores many lol.

She did convince him to remove the two major battles that were supposed to be in Dance and move them to Winds. I think it was a bad decision. She argues it had to be done or else the book would have been delayed a year to restructure to make room for them.
Click to expand...
Wasn't ADWD more about them just wanting to get the book out ASAP after it taking so long & not having time to implement most of the editors notes/edits and less about GRRM just outright ignoring her?
 
4

4Tran

Member
Famassu said:
Pink mast is the only storyline so far that hasn't had much in the way of good stuff (though it should now that they are where they are). The rest have some small parts here and there that could've been removed/edited for a slightly tighter script but otherwise I don't feel any of them are all bad or have no redeeming factors.
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The story in the North, Arya's story, and a few of the side chapters are the only parts of a Dance With Dragons worth salvaging. The problem isn't that there's nothing of value in the other parts; it's that there's not enough value in them to be spending much time over. We could have skipped over them and put that material in a couple of flashbacks.
 
B

bionic77

Member
George Martin planning on finishing his books is akin to my plan to having a threesome with Rihanna and Alexandra Daddario.

Except the threesome is more likely to happen...
 
G

gforguava

Member
Who would've thought this would be Z Nation at its least realistic.

z-nation-grrm-e1446443505739.jpg


And, yeah, it is just not happening. Admit it and move on, George.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
gforguava said:
Who would've thought this would be Z Nation at its least realistic.

z-nation-grrm-e1446443505739.jpg


And, yeah, it is just not happening. Admit it and move on, George.
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I laughed my ass off at that scene for how blatant it is. Props for GRRM having a sense of humor
 
H

hydrophilic attack

Member
At some points, when David and Dan and I had discussions about what way we should go in, I would always favor sticking with the books, while they would favor making changes. I think one of the biggest ones would probably be when they made the decision not to bring Catelyn Stark back as Lady Stoneheart. That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and David and Dan made that decision.
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.
 
D

Dandy Lyin

Member
Matrix XII said:
The fact that the show is going on its own kind of disenfranchised me from the series. I read up to a Dance with a dragons and then stopped.
Didn't like a Feast for Crows much at all personally. However, the first 3 were very good.
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Even though I loved the first 3 books, I couldn't get through Feast for Crows. 1,000 pages of characters I don't care about it.
 
R

Ravager61

Member
Unless he is pulling a fast one and plans on releasing the last few books all together, I full believe this series is never being finished. There's not even a projected release date for TWOW. It just bums me out so much.
 
D

Devil

Member
He will finish them. When the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves.
 
C

Cesare Borgia

Banned
Famassu said:
P
Wasn't ADWD more about them just wanting to get the book out ASAP after it taking so long & not having time to implement most of the editors notes/edits and less about GRRM just outright ignoring her?
Click to expand...

You can read the notes. She suggests things, he decides otherwise. That's not to say he never took her advice, he did of course. Here's her comments on the removals (it's been confirmed she was discussing the battles):

AG: Well… Probably more say that he would have liked…though many of the choices were his as well. Finishing this book where he absolutely wanted to end it would have taken probably another year and more pages than could be realistically bound between two covers. And so much great stuff had happened already that no one, I felt, could be unsatisfied by the developments. So he voluntarily pulled one big sequence out of the book. I lobbied for another…and it came out, too. People may hold me to blame for this, but I still think it was the right choice. The book is so big and complex and rich and wonderful that adding these two sequences would not have made it any better than it already its.

But based on the few things I know that are coming–and on one sneaky bit of information that he fed me early–I simply can’t wait to read WINDS OF WINTER. So, get cracking, George! It’ll be a doozy, I know.
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2011/07/dance-interview-with-george-r-r-martin-editor-anne-groell/
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
Machine Messiah said:
cite Neil Gaiman's post
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Neil Gaiman said:
And if you are waiting for a new book in a long ongoing series, whether from George or from Pat Rothfuss or from someone else...

Wait. Read the original book again...
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haha, I reread that Gaiman post for the first time in a long while and had forgotten he named dropped Path Rothfuss as well.

Machine Messiah said:
It looks like the public opinion has changed now though, for some reason...
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that Gaiman post was written '09 ― four years after A Feast of Crows and two years after Name of the Wind. It's now six years since both A Dance with Dragons and The Wise Man's Fear with no new release dates in the foreseeable future. Do you really have to wonder the reason public opinion has changed? Rothfuss recently tried to advertise the 10th anniversary edition of Name of the Wind ("Read the original book again" ha) then complained about the twitter responses. lmao

3VDRWBy.png

9xOuTwo.png
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S

Sillverrr

Member
I may be wrong, and he could announce the completion of Winds tomorrow... but from where I've been waiting, he doesn't seem in any particular rush to complete the series!

Imagine if he'd kept up the quality and momentum after the third book. We'd be talking best of all time. As it is, the series has still spoiled me for epic fantasy, and nothing else I've read in terms of modern releases compares.

The likelihood now is we'll get to see *a* resolution, via the HBO show, long before GRRM has completed his original vision. A big part of me is sad, but I think the scope of the story just became too large for him to manage. As a perfectionist, he didn't want to dumb the story down - something the TV show has no problem with (enjoyable as it is)!
 
M

Mael

Member
I'm a reader of Berserk, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, Nana and A Song of Ice & Fire.
Don't worry and take your time GRRM, better having something satisfactory over some rushed BS that we all long to forget like Bleach.
I'll add that some of the best piece of fiction are actually unfinished.
Brother Karamazov is probably the best thing I've ever laid eyes on and it's still part 1 of what Dostoevsky wanted to write so if it's unfinished, it's unfinished :/.

Seriously though, if I'm still waiting for Nana I know I can wait for ASoI&F
 
G

GasProblem

Member
Game of Thrones is what got me into reading fantasy (well, read Harry Potter before that). It was the trailer for the first season of the show actually. Thought it looked cool, saw that it was based on the books, said why not and bought the 4 book set. It was amazing. Thanks for that George.

I do expect Winds of Winter to come out someday. I don't think I'll ever see A Dream of Spring though.

Luckily there's enough other stuff to read.
 
E

Eylos

Banned
Blackhead said:
haha, I reread that Gaiman post for the first time in a long while and had forgotten he named dropped Path Rothfuss as well.



that Gaiman post was written '09 ― four years after A Feast of Crows and two years after Name of the Wind. It's now six years since both A Dance with Dragons and The Wise Man's Fear with no new release dates in the foreseeable future. Do you really have to wonder the reason public opinion has changed? Rothfuss recently tried to advertise the 10th anniversary edition of Name of the Wind ("Read the original book again" ha) then complained about the twitter responses. lmao
Click to expand...
Name of the Wind IS good?
 
J

Jinroh

Member
I'm a fan of Bastard!!. so I feel the pain. The last time Hagiwara released a chapter was in 2011.

Anyway, from what I read here and there the pacing of the previous books is terrible, why would he want to waste so much time on something that should have been on flashbacks, taking the risk of never ending his story? Seems strange.
 
C

Catvoca

Banned
I never get the "He's lying/stop lying George" posts. Like he clearly thinks he's going to finish them, he's not lying when he says he's still working on them. That might not happen, maybe he really is in such a rut that he dies or something before they get finished, but I think he clearly wants to finish them, he's just bad at it.
 
D

Dash_Riprock

Member
Catvoca said:
I never get the "He's lying/stop lying George" posts. Like he clearly thinks he's going to finish them, he's not lying when he says he's still working on them. That might not happen, maybe he really is in such a rut that he dies or something before they get finished, but I think he clearly wants to finish them, he's just bad at it.
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He can WANT to finish them all he pleases. Him stepping back and assessing whether or not he realistically CAN is an entirely different matter.

DrSlek said:
It's literatures Half-Life 3.

Just give up hope.
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If you count the Episodes (I don't but some do) we at least got 2/3s or Half Life 3. Most of the "sample chapters" for the TWOW were just holdovers from Dance with Dragons so really we've gotten fuck all at this point.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
DrSlek said:
It's literatures Half-Life 3.

Just give up hope.
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I'm just imagining Gabe Newell and GRRM having a stiff drink together and laughing hilariously while reading fan demands for their long in waiting follow ups.
 
T

Therin

Member
That's nice, but it's been so long that I've completely lost interest & probably won't even read the next book. Too much time has passed & I don't care anymore.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I will never not laugh at GRRM asking Stephen King,"How the fuck do you write so fast?"
 
V

Venture

Member
Let him work at his own pace. After his near fatal accident Stephen King, understandably, felt the need to hurry and finish the Dark Tower series and that turned out... not so well.
 
P

Purple Cheeto

Member
He announced he's executive producing another book to tv show adaptation. He has no interest in finishing ASoIaF. Maybe he lets Linda finish them since she did book 4b already.

Aselith said:
At least GRRM still writes books
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He hasn't written a book in over a decade.

Catvoca said:
I never get the "He's lying/stop lying George" posts. Like he clearly thinks he's going to finish them, he's not lying when he says he's still working on them. That might not happen, maybe he really is in such a rut that he dies or something before they get finished, but I think he clearly wants to finish them, he's just bad at it.
Click to expand...

There is significant historical evidence that he isn't writing and won't write anymore on this series. So when he says he is still going to finish it, it does come across pretty disingenuously. He doesn't finish what he starts.
 
B

Bounceounce

Member
Purple Cheeto said:
He announced he's executive producing another book to tv show adaptation. He has no interest in finishing ASoIaF. Maybe he lets Linda finish them since she did book 4b already.



He hasn't written a book in over a decade.



There is significant historical evidence that he isn't writing and won't write anymore on this series.So when he says he is still going to finish it, it does come across pretty disingenuously. He doesn't finish what he starts.
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That's a boldface lie.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
The track record for writers at that sort of advanced age isn't great. And he's already been in a rut for 15 years now. But he'll be 110 on his deathbed with this unfinished and we'll have new readers talking about how now he's finally turned it around and it's smooth sailed from here on.
 
B

Basileus777

Member
Dash_Riprock said:
Once the show started, however, that all vanished. GRRM no longer needed to worry about pushy editors. Deadlines no longer mattered, GRRM could write at his own pace and nothing his editor said or suggested really mattered since the publisher would greedily take his work regardless. Paying back his advance fee? The royalty on the show probably gives ten, twenty times that amount so he doesn't care.
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GRRM's problems predate the show by a decade. The AFFC/ADWD issues are unrelated and whatever is going on with TWOW is just a continuation of past trends.
 
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