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George R.R. Martin, the author of the fantasy books that form the basis for the HBO show "Game of Thrones," is taking a break from his blog to concentrate on some projects — including, possibly, the long-awaited sixth novel in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Martin made the announcement on his blog Monday, writing, "All's good, boys and girls ... lots of exciting things going on. LOTS of exciting things. Maybe too many. I am buried in work, so much that it is starting to overwhelm me. Even with my army of loyal minions. "So I am going to step back from blogging ... for a while, till I get a few of these monkeys off my back," he continued. "In the near future, you'll likely see fewer posts here. And some of those will be by my minions." Martin didn't specify which "exciting things" he's working on, but "Game of Thrones" fans are likely hoping that "The Winds of Winter," the next novel in his most famous series, is among them. His readers have been waiting a long time for the latest installment — the most recent book in the series, "A Dance With Dragons," was published in 2011. Martin has been reluctant to speculate when the latest novel will be finished. In a blog post in July, the author wrote, "I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that's all I care to say." |
he doesn't care about finishing the story nearly as much as fans want him to, it seems.
He's gone longer in between books now than any of the others.
So you have to conclude that either he is totally bored with the main series and has no interest in writing it, or he's trolled everyone and is preparing to release both final books at once to coincide with the final season of Game of Thrones next year.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
I think I read something from Sanderson where he said he didn't really care for GoT's level of violence.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
A simple "I really don't care to write it" would be fine. Keeping people speculating about it is nonsense. He has no incentive to write it now that he's got the TV show to write it for him so why keep it hanging in the air.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
George, you can post here under your own name. You don't have to hide.
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he owes the fans something.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
George, you can post here under your own name. You don't have to hide.
What's his real name?
I have no doubt he’s written a lot of material for both books 6 and 7, but whenever he’s tried to sit down and finish them, he gets lost and bored and turns to creating new stories and characters to satisfy his creative juices
For those that havent read it, Sanderson's stormlight series is the best thing out there right now. And Sanderson has this pesky habbit of actually writing books instead of well not writing books like Martin or Rothfuss.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
I agree.
..and if he pulled the next book out of his ass to please fans they would surely tear him apart for a low quality offering.
Entitled fucks.
He will write it if and when he has something to write. He can retire to beach and never write another word if he wants, he doesn't owe you.
Probably he said that there was zero obligation; he's just as bad, and maybe worse, than Rothfuss at writing next chapters.
Fans buy his books and they are labeled as "entitled" because they expect the author to actually write the rest of the volumes in the series.
I don't think entitled means what some people think it means.
Maybe if the author said upfront I may or may not ever finish this series, even though the unwritten books have names and even some chapters leaked then fans could decide to buy the books or not.
But no, expecting an author to fulfill an unwritten obligation is not the definition of entitled. No special treatment or privileges wanted.
By Webster:
inˈtīdld,enˈtīdld/
adjective
adjective: entitled
believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
"his pompous, entitled attitude"
Fans buy his books and they are labeled as "entitled" because they expect the author to actually write the rest of the volumes in the series.
I don't think entitled means what some people think it means.
Maybe if the author said upfront I may or may not ever finish this series, even though the unwritten books have names and even some chapters leaked then fans could decide to buy the books or not.
But no, expecting an author to fulfill an unwritten obligation is not the definition of entitled. No special treatment or privileges wanted.
By Webster:
Quote:
en·ti·tled
inˈtīdld,enˈtīdld/
adjective
adjective: entitled
believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
"his pompous, entitled attitude"
I think this exactly where the fans are coming from with George. It would be one thing to write the 5 books and then option off the story to HBO and they finish it. It's another to make repeated claims that you're working towards finishing the story while putting out new work and the series that made you popular goes uncompleted.
If he never finishes GoT does anyone feel that 20 years from now it gets sold in book form to any degree? No, it won't because the complete story is HBO's at that point. But meanwhile while its hot due to HBO he can sit back and milk the book money (which he does not have to share with HBO) for all it's worth dropping hints that he may be working on the last book.
I think Sanderson is a better plot creator and world developer than an actual writer. His writing, in some places, I find atrocious. While you can knock GRRM for his over the top descriptions of food and feasts, Sanderson uses a ridiculous amount of adverbs, at times, three or four times in a single sentence. That particular writing style helps you write quicker, but is it better?
That's the debate I guess.
But, I don't think he's lying to anyone about still working on the book. My guess is that he's really struggling with how to progress the storyline. ADWD ended up with characters and storylines all over the place and that results in a degree of complexity that really exceeds where the HBO show is. Tyrion hasn't even met Dany yet, there's a fake (?) Aegon Targaryen landing an army on Westeros with a character named Griff, Catelyn stark has risen from the dead and might be hanging Jaime Lannister, there's more Greyjoy brothers and they all have their own arcs (and even a special artifact), etc.
A big part of the delay is that IMO George has bit off more than he can chew and every time he writes the book and thinks he's making progress he changes his mind and thinks it sucks and edits and edits and edits. It's a lot easier for him to write the Targaryen history and that's why he can move so much faster on the side-story.
Abercrombie finished his trilogy and wrote a few stand alone side stories in the same world. He has some really wild and morally ambiguous and flawed characters that you'll somehow not help being able to root for.
Kay writes "historical fantasy" books (think fantasy stories set in the Byzantine Empire, Viking Age, Renaissance Italy, Spain during Reconquista, etc.) and most of his books are stand-alone, so you get real (and mostly great) endings.
Both authors have "magic" in the stories but it's sparingly used (similar to Martin's books, and contrasts with Sanderson and Jordan).
Abercrombie finished his trilogy and wrote a few stand alone side stories in the same world. He has some really wild and morally ambiguous and flawed characters that you'll somehow not help being able to root for.
Kay writes "historical fantasy" books (think fantasy stories set in the Byzantine Empire, Viking Age, Renaissance Italy, Spain during Reconquista, etc.) and most of his books are stand-alone, so you get real (and mostly great) endings.
Both authors have "magic" in the stories but it's sparingly used (similar to Martin's books, and contrasts with Sanderson and Jordan).
My favorite, and generally considered his weakest works, are the Fionavar Tapestry books, which I think are getting made into a novel or tv series.
Tigana is probably the best written but I also loved Lions and A Song for Arbonne next best.
I think only a couple are truly stand-alone, although some you can read that way.
But, I don't think he's lying to anyone about still working on the book. My guess is that he's really struggling with how to progress the storyline. ADWD ended up with characters and storylines all over the place and that results in a degree of complexity that really exceeds where the HBO show is. Tyrion hasn't even met Dany yet, there's a fake (?) Aegon Targaryen landing an army on Westeros with a character named Griff, Catelyn stark has risen from the dead and might be hanging Jaime Lannister, there's more Greyjoy brothers and they all have their own arcs (and even a special artifact), etc.
A big part of the delay is that IMO George has bit off more than he can chew and every time he writes the book and thinks he's making progress he changes his mind and thinks it sucks and edits and edits and edits. It's a lot easier for him to write the Targaryen history and that's why he can move so much faster on the side-story.
I agree with this. He's always tried to make the travel and locales in his stories line up and be realistic. HBO abandoned that fantasy this year with characters just teleporting across Westros all season. I mean, I want him to finish, but it's getting more and more likely that he won't.
And the other author that really frustrates me is Rothfuss. I mean, I read and loved Name of the Wind, but haven't read any of his other stuff because I'm just going to have to reread them anyways to remember the story. A couple months back, he announced on his social media that he was doing a livestream and to talk about some exciting news. Everyone thought it was going to be about the third book that he's been writing since 2011, but no. It was the annoucement of a new 10th anniversary edition of Name of the Wind. The first book in the series.
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some laziness on his part and a lack of urgency to finish the books given that there's 100000 or so other things that he'd rather be doing.
But, I don't think he's lying to anyone about still working on the book. My guess is that he's really struggling with how to progress the storyline. ADWD ended up with characters and storylines all over the place and that results in a degree of complexity that really exceeds where the HBO show is. Tyrion hasn't even met Dany yet, there's a fake (?) Aegon Targaryen landing an army on Westeros with a character named Griff, Catelyn stark has risen from the dead and might be hanging Jaime Lannister, there's more Greyjoy brothers and they all have their own arcs (and even a special artifact), etc.
A big part of the delay is that IMO George has bit off more than he can chew and every time he writes the book and thinks he's making progress he changes his mind and thinks it sucks and edits and edits and edits. It's a lot easier for him to write the Targaryen history and that's why he can move so much faster on the side-story.
I agree with this. He's always tried to make the travel and locales in his stories line up and be realistic. HBO abandoned that fantasy this year with characters just teleporting across Westros all season. I mean, I want him to finish, but it's getting more and more likely that he won't.
And the other author that really frustrates me is Rothfuss. I mean, I read and loved Name of the Wind, but haven't read any of his other stuff because I'm just going to have to reread them anyways to remember the story. A couple months back, he announced on his social media that he was doing a livestream and to talk about some exciting news. Everyone thought it was going to be about the third book that he's been writing since 2011, but no. It was the annoucement of a new 10th anniversary edition of Name of the Wind. The first book in the series.
I just saw a story where Rothfuss is saying that the next book will complete the trilogy but that the trilogy is really a "prologue". People are taking that to mean that there are a lot of unknowns that will not be known or wrapped up in the next book. Like the origin of the name "KingKiller" ion the Kingkiller Chronicles.
Yep, this is true and part of why I respect him so much. Abercrombie does the same thing. He's writing a new trilogy and won't release the first book until he has a rough draft written for all three so that they can each come out within a year of each other.
It's such a contrast to Rothhus or Martin who act insulted when asked about progress on their new books.
I think Sanderson is a better plot creator and world developer than an actual writer. His writing, in some places, I find atrocious. While you can knock GRRM for his over the top descriptions of food and feasts, Sanderson uses a ridiculous amount of adverbs, at times, three or four times in a single sentence. That particular writing style helps you write quicker, but is it better?
That's the debate I guess.
Somebody beat me to it. I guess that's what happens when you write a reply and forget to submit it.
I'll always wonder what WoT would have ended up being had Jordan not died. There was definitely a tonal shift when Sanderson took over, and I felt like it was pretty easy to identify passages Jordan had written before he died and what Sanderson wrote. One thing I really struggled with was the piss poor battle planning. Jordan was actually a military historian and put a lot of thought into how battles would work given the world he created. The generals at Tarmon Gai'don concocted perhaps the stupidest battle plan I had ever seen, and I can't imagine Jordan would have had them plan it that way.
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about telling you where he is in his work and what to expect when...and then holding to his words.
Yep, this is true and part of why I respect him so much. Abercrombie does the same thing. He's writing a new trilogy and won't release the first book until he has a rough draft written for all three so that they can each come out within a year of each other.
It's such a contrast to Rothhus or Martin who act insulted when asked about progress on their new books.
Love Abercrombie's work. Pretty much my favorite fantasy author right now
I haven't tried the Stormlight Archive yet. I'll definitely do that at some point, but I want to give it some time for him to write more. There's more than enough books to read before starting another series that isn't finished.
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for some good books to read while Martin and Rothhuss take their sweet times to write new books, check out the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie and try Lions of Al-Rassan or Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Abercrombie finished his trilogy and wrote a few stand alone side stories in the same world. He has some really wild and morally ambiguous and flawed characters that you'll somehow not help being able to root for.
Kay writes "historical fantasy" books (think fantasy stories set in the Byzantine Empire, Viking Age, Renaissance Italy, Spain during Reconquista, etc.) and most of his books are stand-alone, so you get real (and mostly great) endings.
Both authors have "magic" in the stories but it's sparingly used (similar to Martin's books, and contrasts with Sanderson and Jordan).
Kay is my most favorite author ever.
My favorite, and generally considered his weakest works, are the Fionavar Tapestry books, which I think are getting made into a novel or tv series.
Tigana is probably the best written but I also loved Lions and A Song for Arbonne next best.
I think only a couple are truly stand-alone, although some you can read that way.
Good to know. I read the Fionavar Tapestry and... well, I loathed them. I was actually angry when I was done reading them, so I haven't understood why people have recommended him so much. Maybe I'll have to give his other books a shot.
Abercrombie though. I love him. Best Served Cold was one of my faves.
I first read the Saxon stories, which were incredible and had a mediocre Netflix series.
After watching the Vikings series on HST, there is a lot of historical fiction, and Cornwell is a great story teller.
Now I'm reading the Warlord Chronicles series (Arhurian Britain series). and they are also incredible.
The first book I read from Kay was Sailing to Sarantium. I've always like Byzantine empire history, and when I heard he had a book set in that time I gave it a shot. Justinian, Theodora, Belisarius and others all had characters modeled off of them and Kay definitely has his unique own writing style.
He's also a big Yankee fan so I've been able to forgive him for that.