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[Jon Neu]

How is that series? Are the books actually that good all-around?

It seems like focal point is violence in any way possible to gain power, right? I was told that there is some supernatural element to this series, and it sounded very intriguing, but the person who told me could not explain it properly enough. Which is odd for her, because she reads more than anyone I know. Must be a very subtle theme some wont even detect I imagine? This GOT series has me a little curious. Not the show though, only the books

They're amazing, you should totally read them.

There is supernatural elements, a lot of them actually, but for the most part the series takes a grounded approach.

 

[Yoboman]

Because anyone that will buy the books will have seen the show. You can't just forget it and happily accept a different ending, if there even is one.

Of course you can. The show diverged years ago.

Keep in mind where the books are now:

Jon Snow is still dead and no indication he is guarantee to go all jesus

Stannis is still alive and isn't likely to be written out at the first chance like the show

The whole storyline in the East is unresolved and much more interesting in the books

Dorne and Iron Islands have characters they just left out of the show who are important and interesting

Argon Targaryan is alive and is not Jon Snow, and is about to invade Westeros. Potentially he is a fake though. He was just left out of the show entirely.

Whatever the case, the source material will be so different to the show that it is an entirely different thing

 

[Shadowplay1979]

I have a feeling he doubles down and has the two last books combined into one or just suprise releases both books at the same time ...he prob has a desire to fix that broken shit the tv show did and make sure thats not the legacy of the story..which i imagine is stressful

 

[Ionian]

The 'Mereneese-knot' thin he complained about, once you read the books is so dumb.

His solution was to have a dragon take her to a cave and then get diarrhea, and then meet the Dothraki again.

What a stellar ending.

(epilogue with Reek was good though)

 

[triplestation]

twist

tomorrow is the release date

 

[DKehoe]

The 'Mereneese-knot' thin he complained about, once you read the books is so dumb.

His solution was to have a dragon take her to a cave and then get diarrhea, and then meet the Dothraki again.

What a stellar ending.

(epilogue with Reek was good though)

The Mereneese knot wasn't to do with Dany's end state in the book. It was to do with the number of characters heading to Mereen and how to manage that.

He talks about it here

Q: Now that we know how the “Meereenese knot” played out, what was the problem with this? For example, was it the order in which Dany met various characters, or who, when, and how someone would try to take the dragons?

A: Now I can explain things. It was a confluence of many, many factors: lets start with the offer from Xaro to give Dany ships, the refusal of which then leads to Qarth’s declaration of war. Then there’s the marriage of Daenerys to pacify the city. Then there’s the arrival of the Yunkish army at the gates of Meereen, there’s the order of arrival of various people going her way (Tyrion, Quentyn, Victarion, Aegon, Marwyn, etc.), and then there’s Daario, this dangerous sellsword and the question of whether Dany really wants him or not, there’s the plague, there’s Drogon’s return to Meereen…

All of these things were balls I had thrown up into the air, and they’re all linked and chronologically entwined. The return of Drogon to the city was something I explored as happening at different times. For example, I wrote three different versions of Quentyn’s arrival at Meereen: one where he arrived long before Dany’s marriage, one where he arrived much later, and one where he arrived just the day before the marriage (which is how it ended up being in the novel). And I had to write all three versions to be able to compare and see how these different arrival points affected the stories of the other characters. Including the story of a character who actually hasn’t arrived yet.

 

[Drake]

I stopped being invested a long time ago especially with how bad the show ended, it kind of killed my excitement for the series as a whole . That said, I'll definitely read the next installment when it comes out. I have all 1st edition, 1st printings of all the books (yes even the first), so I gotta keep the collection going.

 

[Ionian]

The Mereneese knot wasn't to do with Dany's end state in the book. It was to do with the number of characters heading to Mereen and how to manage that.

He talks about it here

Oh all those boring characters that did nothing?

Don't ruin my Dany diarrhea fapping fantasy's.

 

[bitbydeath]

How is that series? Are the books actually that good all-around?

It seems like focal point is violence in any way possible to gain power, right? I was told that there is some supernatural element to this series, and it sounded very intriguing, but the person who told me could not explain it properly enough. Which is odd for her, because she reads more than anyone I know. Must be a very subtle theme some wont even detect I imagine? This GOT series has me a little curious. Not the show though, only the books

The first three are fantastic and worth a read. Books 4 and 5 he does this stupid thing where he splits characters up with book 4 devoted to the absolute worst and most boring characters and then book 5 has the interesting ones for half of it or so and then brings them altogether at the end.

They’re still worth reading but George really begins to stray a bit with filler.

 

[Tesseract]

do as thy wilt

 

[Ionian]

Words are wind (of Winter) George get on it!

Just wanna know if Stannis uses the frozen lake against the Boltons.

 

[DKehoe]

Oh all those boring characters that did nothing?

Don't ruin my Dany diarrhea fapping fantasy's.

Fair enough if you didn't like it but I liked that last Dany chapter. It's the messiah figure going out into the wilderness and having visions about her apparent destiny. Her whole ADWD storyline is about trying to maintain an uneasy peace and being a leader not just a conqueror. Then the end is her basically deciding fuck it. She goes from locking away her dragons because one of them killed a kid to realising she can't remember what the kid was called. It's signposting what's going to happen with King's Landing in a way the show never did.

 

[Ionian]

Fair enough if you didn't like it but I liked that last Dany chapter. It's the messiah figure going out into the wilderness and having visions about her apparent destiny. Her whole ADWD storyline is about trying to maintain an uneasy peace and being a leader not just a conqueror. Then the end is her basically deciding fuck it. She goes from locking away her dragons because one of them killed a kid to realising she can't remember what the kid was called. It's signposting what's going to happen with King's Landing in a way the show never did.

Oh I getcha on that, I was just joking about the unnecessary filler.

Faegon, ain't gonna be anyone.

Victorian is awesome but will obviously die.

He did promise in the back of 'A Feast for Crows' that the next book would be out soon, look how that turned out.

He just needs to shut up about it and release when he's ready or don't.

His fault he added a ton of new characters late in the game. I'm sure the 'Darkstar' chapters will be amazing.

 

[Ionian]

And his descriptions of food sound like he's dreaming about what to have for dinner.

 

[BadBurger]

I don't think he's ever finishing another Song book and doesn't intend to. He's old and made his millions. Gonna coast right into the sunset.

 

[DKehoe]

His fault he added a ton of new characters late in the game. I'm sure the 'Darkstar' chapters will be amazing.

It's amazing that, going by interviews, Martin doesn't seem to realise that Darkstar comes across as a total edgelord and that wasn't what he was going for. I guess that's where it being a fantasy series started in 1991 really starts to show since that kind of character seemed innovative back then.

 

[and 3 others]

Plot Twist, it's what he wanted all along.

Wiener, wiener wiener, wiener wiener, big and floppy wiener, twoooo wienerssss, next tooo one anotherrr.

 

[Ionian]

It's amazing that, going by interviews, Martin doesn't seem to realise that Darkstar comes across as a total edgelord and that wasn't what he was going for. I guess that's where it being a fantasy series started in 1991 really starts to show since that kind of character seemed innovative back then.

Darkstar is 'of the night'.

What happens with him? Fuck knows, but he was appropriately ridiculed.

I think the whole Dorne plot was shoe-horned in TBH. To pad things out.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

I don't think he's ever going to finish.

Plot Twist, it's what he wanted all along.

Wiener, wiener wiener, wiener wiener, big and floppy wiener, twoooo wienerssss, next tooo one anotherrr.

You sound like like you have the chips to help finish his work.

 

[Tesseract]

he'll finish when the time is right, owes the world nothing

 

[Yoboman]

The first three are fantastic and worth a read. Books 4 and 5 he does this stupid thing where he splits characters up with book 4 devoted to the absolute worst and most boring characters and then book 5 has the interesting ones for half of it or so and then brings them altogether at the end.

They’re still worth reading but George really begins to stray a bit with filler.

None of it is filler IMO. I actually found ADWD and Feast way better upon re-read. But for me, it seems like books 1 through 3 were the first act. Feast and Dragons are the start of the second act, which involves a ton of restoring and building out eith new additional characters. He needs to pay that off with pulling all those expanded threads together in a compelling way for the final two books

 

[Compsiox]

I can't believe that even a global pandemic couldn't get him to sit down and write.

A lot of people have been saying they want to accomplish shit but claim they had too much to worry about. Now that they got that chance with the pandemic and all the time they had I doubt they did anything.

 

[Reptars Revenge]

Because anyone that will buy the books will have seen the show. You can't just forget it and happily accept a different ending, if there even is one.

I’m used to it as an anime fan haha

 

[Halo is Back]

he'll finish when the time is right, owes the world nothing

While finishing his master piece.....

 

[420bits]

I gave up on ever finishing the GoT Books.

I started reading them when I saw s1 / s2 of the show, i have since then re-read all of them while waiting for Winds of winter and then i gave up because GRR won't ever finish the series.
At best he will get Winds of winter out on the shelves but I wouldn't bet any money on "A dream of spring" ever seing the light of day.

Luckily, i found an author in the same kind of setting - Joe Abercrombie.
"The first law" universe is by far superior to GoT. Not only does he actually release books but they are fucking GREAT! Characters are amazing.

The First Law trilogy

1. The Blade Itself (May 2006)
2. Before They Are Hanged (March 2007)
3. Last Argument of Kings (March 2008)

First Law universe standalone novels

• Best Served Cold (June 2009)
• The Heroes (January 2011)
• Red Country (October 2012)

The Age of Madness trilogy

1. A Little Hatred (September 2019)
2. The Trouble With Peace (September 2020)
3. The Beautiful Machine (September 2021)

This is how you fucking release a triology.
He writes all of it, cuts it up and polishes the first part, releases it and start to polish the 2nd one and so on.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

So, is he already in jail or not?

 

[Zeypher]

I'm increasingly of the mind that The Name of the Wind was a fluke. The Wise Man's Fear was just a cringey disaster.

Agreed the second book was all over the place and not worth it. The first book seems like a fluke and author has no clue how to take the story forwards.

 

[Tesseract]

While finishing his master piece.....

nothing wrong with that

 

[Stiflers Mom]

I think at this point, putting energy into writing these books is just a lose/lose situation for him.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

He's going to die with the series unfinished like Robert Jordan did.

 

[Chromata]

Just like Rothfuss and book 3.



Every time with these fantasy nerds.

I still don't understand what happened to Doors of Stone.

Rothfuss posted finished manuscripts of it years ago. Book just up and vanished.

 

[Chromata]

I'm increasingly of the mind that The Name of the Wind was a fluke. The Wise Man's Fear was just a cringey disaster.

The writing was way too good for it to be a fluke imo, but I'm with you that the second book wasn't as good. The pacing was whack, especially the part with Felurian.

Still, the silence of three parts opening and closing is just classic.