A Song of Ice & Fire Fans discussion

Probably not but we can dream lol

George said recently something like, "It won’t be tomorrow, and it won’t be next week, but you will get the end of A Song of Ice and Fire."
So uh... there's hope

Lol...He's probably finished it. Holding the finished product to torture all the over zealous fanatics hounding him and making life miserable for him. Just waiting until he's on his death bed, so he doesn't have to hear their pestering/harassment about GOT any more...or if he ever needs the cash

Doubt it.

I write this as a life-long fan of GRRM starting with his early scifi (A Song For Lyia, for example), horror (Fevre Dream, Songs the Dead Men Sing.)
(And here is where I enter into the territory of "heresy", perhaps for some.)
For me the first three books of "A Song of Ice And Fire" were glorious , to say the least, especially Book Three. But then I encountered Book Four and I felt I ran into a brick wall. (I'm currently about 300 pages of Book Five, "A Dance With Dragons" and my experience thus far is not much better than with Book Four. I'm just curious as to why reaction to the last two books is so vastly different as compared to the first three. Expectations running too high, perhaps?

Have you just started dance or have you been trying to read it since 2011?

I read and finished "A Storm of Swords" and "A Feast of Crows" back-to-back about 6 months ago and then jumped right into "A dance With Dragons" almost right after that.... currently about 300 pages in, at the moment. I haven't read any of GRRM's books upon publication.

Robert, I had the same experience and, now that it's been soooo long with the next 2 books taking forever, I'm not sure I'm up for re-reading all of them to get back into the flow, when the 'Winds' book comes out. Perhaps a synopsis review will do. There are some guides where people have merged the last 2 books to where it supposedly reads better but ..... I love his writing but it feels like Book Four was such an indulgence and seemed to be off track. I'm sure there are a lot of things in it that will tie in but I can't remember any of it now. First 3 books were great. Next 2 seem sub-par to me.

George, I really "hate" the possibility of putting down a book, leaving it un-read and I won't give in to that temptation with "A Dance With Dragons". ( but I won't lie and say this hasn't crossed my mind.)
The odd thing is when the main characters are in play (ie Dany, Tyrion, Jon etc) the book really comes to life. But when those secondary characters (ie Reek, Davos etc.) appear the book slows to a crawl. At this point in time I'm not sure I see the significance of those characters in the overall story arc. I guess this is the "curse" of impatience.

Maybe!...or maybe not!

Maybe next year (2020)

I don't know, but, I'm anxious because I would know the end. :/

Probably not. I'm really hopeful that it'll come out early next year though.

GrrM has said on his blog that if attendees going to World Con New Zealand in late July 2020 and do not have Winds of Winter in their hands He will shut himself up in a cabin on the shores of a New Zealand Lake that has poisonous fumes. I take that as the most assured statement yet

Stephen wrote: "GrrM has said on his blog that if attendees going to World Con New Zealand in late July 2020 and do not have Winds of Winter in their hands He will shut himself up in a cabin on the shores of a New..."

Here's to hoping. To give him credit though, he does seem a lot more confident nowadays with his tentative release dates than he did before.

Robert wrote: "I write this as a life-long fan of GRRM starting with his early scifi (A Song For Lyia, for example), horror (Fevre Dream, Songs the Dead Men Sing.)
(And here is where I enter into the territory ..."

Robert I completely agree. Books 4 and 5 should have both been cut in 1/2, TOO MUCH EXTRA SHIT. Got that off my chest.

GRRM has written that he's working on Winter full time now. Doesn't have anything else to do...
I don't think World Con is happening in New Zealand this year, so he's stuck in Santa Fe.
Don't hold your breath. There's another book after Winter to finish ASoIaF, and that assumes GRRM can wrap it up in 2000 or so pages.
I wish him the best, but there's too much good stuff out there for me to read already.

WorldCon is virtual and for attendees there is still a lot to do. Every year I read the Hugo nomimees and watch the films and view the art. I am half through my reading.

If the above claim, is true, GRRM working on winds of winter full time...It will be about the only positive thing 2020 has to offer so far.

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2...

One can only hope. GRRM is a genius, but a chronic procrastinator. The sad thing is that he is not getting any younger and it is essentially a probability at this point that he will leave this series unfinished when he dies. I am willing to wait for the next five years for the next novel. However, he probably doesn't have that amount of time considering the fact that he is in his seventies and, lets be honest, is not in the best of shape. Still, there is always the chance that he could buckle down and give us the final two books, but it is slim. I still have a large amount of respect and admiration for George and the tale that he has crafted, but I just hope that this magnum opus doesn't remain unfinished.

We will see.
I'm not sure about procrastination...
Dragons was over 400,000 words, and I suspect the remaining books will not be any smaller. Which means about 800,000+ words to finish ASoIaF. If it can be finished in 2 books. That's a lot of writing.
All 4 of "The Lord of the Rings" books come to about 500,000 words, and that is including "The Hobbit".
He has been at this since 1996, and I would suspect more than a little burned out.

Those are valid points Dana.

I have just completed reading 'A Game of Thrones' and am about a quarter of the way through 'A Clash of Kings', with the remaining three books waiting in the wings. I am a slow reader, at the best-of-times, and I hope, by the time I have completed 'A Dance with Dragons', I will be able to continue with the remainder. 'Skyan' mentioned GRRM's state of health, and the chance of the series will be completed. Maybe, if the author is married, and his health does deteriorate,this may be another Monsaraat and 'Master Mariner' situation. But, hey, lets be positive.

Enjoy!
(view spoiler)[
I'm interested to know how other people feel. Hopefully this is not the only thing he's reading. He , Ross-Barry, has something like 1.5 million words in front of him, and that doesn't count Winter. Martin has said if he doesn't finish ASoIaF no one is.
So it's one thing if this was somewhat lighter reading, but this is a lot of work (I am current with ASoIaF, and I did find getting through this, especially the 4th book and the first 1/2-2/3 of Dragons work)on a series that I don't think Martin will ever finish...
(hide spoiler)]

Robert wrote: "I write this as a life-long fan of GRRM starting with his early scifi (A Song For Lyia, for example), horror (Fevre Dream, Songs the Dead Men Sing.)
(And here is where I enter into the territory ..."

The differences in reactions are a mix of things. Books 1-3 came out in pretty successive order, the gap between 3 and 4 left fans frustrated. You have the hype factor of waiting but also if someone is taking a long time to do something you believe it's going to be 10x better. 4 and 5 are very different tonally and are more of a return to book 1's tone, I think that set people off. I personally enjoy 4 and 5, especially 5, it has some of my favorite moments in the series. I will say GRRM uses 4 and 5 to move characters around and set the board for the finale of the series. I can see why people find them harder to get through.

Personally, I think that a Feast for Crows is the worst of the series. Still a good book, just not as impressive as the others (my favorite book in the series and possibly my favorite book of all time being A Storm of Swords) given the fact that not a lot happens and it was very slow. I am close to 300 pages into A Dance with Dragons and I am liking it so far.

Feast of Crows is one of those books that is better on the second read. and the third read. It has layers that you miss the first time around.

The other interesting thing is who will read the audiobook for WOW.

Stephen wrote: "The other interesting thing is who will read the audiobook for WOW."

I'd like for the whole series to be redone, I hated Roy Dotrice at first but I got used to him and even came to enjoy him. But the
show must go on and I'd recommend Steven Pacey who did the The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie perhaps the best rendition of an audiobook I've experienced.


I think Simon Vance who did Fire & Blood.

I'd also be cool with John Telfer

Short answer ... no.

Hello. I just finished the series of A Song of Ice and Fire. It was most certainly time well-spent. I would love it if we got the next entry. However, we probably will not get a new installment for years to come.

Hopefully we will read it by the end of 2021

If being isolated through a pandemic can’t motivate George to finish Winds I don’t know what will. I know we’re all dying to see what happens to these characters so badly!

Unlikely

He hardly even write anything about ASoIaF in Not A Blog anymore, i think he truly has lost interest 😥

Well hey, he's apparently been writing "hundreds" of pages in 2020, so...only a couple more hundred to go.

Just don't start to wonder how many pages he'd already had written before then.

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.deno...

bruh....no...

I’m sure some of you heard but George RR Martin is going to work on a new series for HBO that is a science fiction project based on Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny. This will take up his time so one can assume once again TWOW is going to take a back seat as we patiently been waiting for years and years now.

Jason wrote: "Maybe!...or maybe not!"
2019 was not!...neither was 2020.

Each year I tell myself "after so many years, this HAS to be the year TWoW gets published" but I am always proven wrong...

I’ve lost all hope... so George Martin, make everyone believe there is no chance at all... then publish a week later.
but i don’t even believe that anymore. Seriously I give up

Probably not.

Not in 2022

Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed.

I've just given up. At this point it's far more likely that it won't be coming out at all.

Wow if it wasn't for the notifications about this thread I would forget that this book is still due.

I wish I could forget. I read the series every year. (Just started the series again recently and am on Clash of Kings) ASOIAF is my favorite series and I love it wholeheartedly. It breaks my heart we may never get Winds. Every time I see a article/post etc showing GRRM has released yet ANOTHER book nobody asked for… Well. It makes me feel some sort of way that’s for sure. How can you start such an epic tale and just not want to finish it as the author. It’s very strange.

I’m really starting to believe that it’s not gonna happen…….a premature end to a great series ☹️.

imo it will come out sometime before 2025
or it won't