NFT: In "Yeah sure"" news GRR Martin is going off his blog

With the sloth activities.

.

He was at a greateful dead weekend show on a beach in mexico like a week ago. "Buried in work" my ass.

Who cares? Finish the books or F off. Does anyone care about all these other projects he supposedly is working on?

a big fat middle finger for years.

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.

Either he's done with everything already or he's done being a writer.

What a dick. I hope Brandon Sanderson finishes the series. I haven't read all the Wheel of time books, but heard he did an excellent job finishing off the series. WOT was another series I stopped reading and picked back up just recently. On book 6 after starting over. Not sure if I want to keep going. To much repetitive bullshit, but I'm trying to keep going.

"Fire and Blood" the first part of the history of House Targaryen is being released this year. It's supposedly like 800 pages and the reports were that GRRM wrote like 125-150,000 words in a few months. He's also helping re-write the 5 potential spinoff pilot scripts. So, he's not as lazy as he comes off. 150,000 words in a few months is a large output and certainly not lazy or procrastinating.

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.

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.

In comment 13854429 slickwilly said:

Quote:

What a dick. I hope Brandon Sanderson finishes the series. I haven't read all the Wheel of time books, but heard he did an excellent job finishing off the series. WOT was another series I stopped reading and picked back up just recently. On book 6 after starting over. Not sure if I want to keep going. To much repetitive bullshit, but I'm trying to keep going.

I think I read something from Sanderson where he said he didn't really care for GoT's level of violence.

In comment 13854436 LakeGeorgeGiant said:

Quote:

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.

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.

In comment 13854436 LakeGeorgeGiant said:

Quote:

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.

In comment 13854463 Gary from The East End said:

Quote:

In comment 13854436 LakeGeorgeGiant said: Quote: 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?

Martin bragged that book 6 was already half written just in stuff he had to cut out.

worlds and landscapes and characters and conflicts and, of course, descriptions of myriad feasts...but he’s really not good at writing it all to a conclusion that satisfies him, much less potentially his readers, and successfully finishes off all his story lines

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

With regard to WOT, books 8/9/10 were a little rough but once sanderson took over he started wrapping it all up perfectly.

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.

In comment 13854436 LakeGeorgeGiant said:

Quote:

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.

I agree.

In comment 13854436 LakeGeorgeGiant said:

Quote:

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.

I think that's an interesting question and one which could be fodder for a philosophical debate. Is there an implied agreement, contract even, between an author and reader to wrap a story up? I think that you could make an argument that there is an ethical obligation when you rope in fans.

by Patrick Rothfuss in one of his blog pieces. I can't recall his conclusion though.

Probably he said that there was zero obligation; he's just as bad, and maybe worse, than Rothfuss at writing next chapters.

writes a multi-volume series, that is acknowledged as a multi-volume series and he has even named the future volumes of the series.

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 inˈtÄ«dld,enˈtÄ«dld/ adjective adjective: entitled believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. "his pompous, entitled attitude"

In comment 13854963 pjcas18 said:

Quote:

writes a multi-volume series, that is acknowledged as a multi-volume series and he has even named the future volumes of the series. 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 inˈtÄ«dld,enˈtÄ«dld/ 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.

Yes, he releases books in a rapid fashion. But it's that old, quality or quantity argument. In my opinion limits exist to how long the quality over quantity argument holds, when dealing with someone like GRRM in particular, who takes ages. But I think the opposite of GRRM happens if you just mass produce 900 page books every year.

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.

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.

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).

In comment 13855089 Metnut said:

Quote:

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.

I just don't get the love for this guy. Sanderson is the kind of author that needs a GREAT editor. He comes up with some truly innovative and unique magic system and he's a master of world creation, but his actual ability to write and execute a story are pretty meh.

about telling you where he is in his work and what to expect when...and then holding to his words.

In comment 13855076 Metnut said:

Quote:

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.

In comment 13855116 Jan in DC said:

Quote:

In comment 13855076 Metnut said: Quote: 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.

In comment 13855105 Bill L said:

Quote:

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.

In comment 13855072 moespree said:

Quote:

Yes, he releases books in a rapid fashion. But it's that old, quality or quantity argument. In my opinion limits exist to how long the quality over quantity argument holds, when dealing with someone like GRRM in particular, who takes ages. But I think the opposite of GRRM happens if you just mass produce 900 page books every year. 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.

In comment 13855133 Metnut said:

Quote:

In comment 13855105 Bill L said: Quote: 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 have only read a handful of his books. I like him ok, but I find that I like the ideas of his books better than the books themselves. The Mistborn books for example. They have a really cool, really interesting magic system. You can tell a lot of thought went into it, and he does a great job describing it (and I love his Rules of Magic [An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic. ... Ideally, the magic is explained to the reader before it is used to resolve a conflict] and I wish more writers would use it) but I never found his characters to be that memorable.

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.

In comment 13855101 Bill L said:

Quote:

In comment 13855089 Metnut said: Quote: 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.

recommended to me Bernard Cornwell on here based on my GOT and Vikings like. I thought it was Bill.

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.

stuff that Kay wrote. His books take on an increasingly historical and less fantasy like feel as he gets older IMO. I didn't really like Fionavar either, but a lot of others did. Those books are a bit polarizing with Kay fans.

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.

Richard Kadrey lately. I like his Sandman Slim books. They're sort of urban fantasy/noir. He's got a really distinct writing style which I enjoy. Just started his second series, which is more humorous about a con man, also urban fantasy. It's pretty fun. I'd recommend it.

but I agree, it was pretty good.