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No Winds of Winter in 2017. Most likely 2018.

I stopped feeling bad for him when I realized he keeps making the same mistakes over and over and does nothing to change it. First it was the endless con/traveling that delayed his writing. Now it's television projects, editing, traveling, and who knows what else.

Not saying he needs to lock himself up and only write the books. But it's clear he has too much on his plate, yet he keeps stuffing it.

If he forced himself to sit in front of a computer and work on it for 8 hours a day he would have finished the series at least a decade ago
 

Strimei

Member
I've read a fair amount of his shorter fiction and I've largely enjoyed it. Which is why I wouldn't mind seeing more of it.

Alrighty, just making sure. Always happy to sing the praises of his shorter fiction. Which reminds me I gotta find my copy of Tuf Voyaging again, its been a while since I reread it and I'm in need of something I haven't read a dozen times over by now.
 

old

Member
Seems like every time he updates us about the book he tells us about a new project he's working on.
 
I'm over the books for now. Like, I immersed myself in that world/lore for 10 years and thought the show meant the books would be sped along. Then the show outpaced the books and I'm like... well, at least I'll see one version of the story to completion.

I'll buy WoW if it ever comes out but until then I'm not sweating it anymore.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
Fuck, nevermind this book.

Imagine when the NEXT book after is going to come out!!!

Each book has progressively taken longer to come out.

2 years
5 years
6 years
Potentially 7 years, but who knows.

By going with this fucked up timeline, and assuming winds does come out in 2018 by the grace of god, dream of spring will probably be the year 2027 if we add an extra 2 years.

GRRM will be 80 years old.
 

Speevy

Banned
Not saying he needs to lock himself up and only write the books. But it's clear he has too much on his plate, yet he keeps stuffing it.

iwrjngd-imgur.gif
 
Every time I see David Benioff being credited as "The Creator of Game of Thrones" I feel bad for GRRM, but then I remember that he's responsible for all of it and I feel strangely satisfied.
 
Fuck, nevermind this book.

Imagine when the NEXT book after is going to come out!!!

Each book has progressively taken longer to come out.

2 years
5 years
6 years
Potentially 7 years, but who knows.

By going with this fucked up timeline, and assuming winds does come out in 2018 by the grace of god, dream of spring will probably be the year 2027 if we add an extra 2 years.

GRRM will be 80 years old.

It is exponentially harder to write an ongoing series as it continues. It is EASY to introduce fun new characters and cool story elements, giving Future You plenty of great stuff to work with. But as you go, you have to take those characters through arcs and decide which elements actually contribute to the story or can be eliminated (the way the show wrote out the direwolves completely). You get boxed in more and more because you know where the characters NEED to end up, but getting them there creates endless complications.

I'm going to bet that by this stage, the time isn't spent writing, the time is spent staring at nothing and thinking through all of these corners he's written himself into AND having to try to figure out how to write shocking twists that were spoiled by the show five years ago. Do you write them as if the reader doesn't know it's coming? Do you change it just enough so that it's still kind of shocking? Do you scrap it completely? So now even the vague roadmap he had before no longer applies - maybe he decides to
keep Stannis alive in the books. Okay, so what does he do? What role does he play in the subsequent events?

The last book has to be ten times harder to write than the first.
 

Zabojnik

Member
At this point he should just hire a Brandon Sanderson and have him Wheel of Time it. He could still be heavily involved in the books, but leave the actual writing, seemingly his bane, to someone else. If killing himself sitting behind a typewriter / computer is not how he wants to spend his late years, then he shouldn't. He'd spare himself and his readers the misery of it.
 

kevin1025

Banned
At this point he should just hire a Brandon Sanderson and have him Wheel of Time it. He could still be heavily involved in the books, but leave the actual writing, seemingly his bane, to someone else. If killing himself sitting behind a typewriter / computer is not how he wants to spend his late years, then he shouldn't, spare himself and his readers the misery of it.

James S.A. Corey could be up to the task, given Ty's, well, ties. Plus they write mega fast.
 
It is exponentially harder to write an ongoing series as it continues. It is EASY to introduce fun new characters and cool story elements, giving Future You plenty of great stuff to work with. But as you go, you have to take those characters through arcs and decide which elements actually contribute to the story or can be eliminated (the way the show wrote out the direwolves completely). You get boxed in more and more because you know where the characters NEED to end up, but getting them there creates endless complications.
Which is why GRRM vastly broadening the scope of the series post ASOS and introducing all those easier to write new characters and plotlines likely fucked him over. People talk about scrapping the 5 year gap, but GRRM deciding to introduce all these new elements (perhaps because they were easier/more fun to write) just made all the structural problems he was dealing with even worse.

(tolkien started writing the silmarillion at the same time as he was writing lotr)
LOTR and its universe isn't a great comparison because Tolkien wasn't writing any of it as a full-time job.
 
At this point I'm just waiting for them all to be finished before reading the whole series in one go. Worked for The Dark Tower. That way if Martin dies first it won't hurt as bad.

lol i remember reading the ending to The Waste Lands and thinking "thank god I don't have to wait 6 years for the next book"
 

Phased

Member
I'm more than happy just watching the show and finding out the ending that way. Honestly between youtube channels like alt shift x and fan theories being largely spot on I'm confident most of the major notes have been guessed already.

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching it, I love the show, but nothing the show has done beyond the books has been much of a surprise since it's all been speculated on to death. The only point in reading the books will be to see the different path they take to get to the same ending as the show.
 
I'm going to bet that by this stage, the time isn't spent writing, the time is spent staring at nothing and thinking through all of these corners he's written himself into AND having to try to figure out how to write shocking twists that were spoiled by the show five years ago. Do you write them as if the reader doesn't know it's coming? Do you change it just enough so that it's still kind of shocking? Do you scrap it completely? So now even the vague roadmap he had before no longer applies - maybe he decides to
keep Stannis alive in the books. Okay, so what does he do? What role does he play in the subsequent events?

The last book has to be ten times harder to write than the first.

Exactly, this is the really tragic thing I'd have to think. You're never going to get the "pure" version of how the story is going to end, the show is going to influence it one way or another. He could make changes specifically to differentiate from the show that he would otherwise might not make, or if he keeps something the same might feel like he's 'copying' the show. It's like hearing a lot of positive (or negative) stuff about a movie before you see it - it shapes your opinion versus going in dark and reaching your own conclusion.


At this point he should just hire a Brandon Sanderson and have him Wheel of Time it. He could still be heavily involved in the books, but leave the actual writing, seemingly his bane, to someone else. If killing himself sitting behind a typewriter / computer is not how he wants to spend his late years, then he shouldn't. He'd spare himself and his readers the misery of it.

If he were serious about wanting to finish the series and about his limitations and / or lack of interest in the main series this seems like the best route to go. I think it's a matter of pride, I can't imagine he (or anyone for that matter) would want to admit you can't finish the story now that it's become such a global phenomena.
 
George isn't obligated to force himself to finish this series in a timely matter, but I'm not obligated to care anymore when one of these books finally see release. I really don't care one way or the other anymore and I've only been a fan since 2010. I couldn't imagine what it's like for the one's who have been here longer.
 

Speevy

Banned
I think everyone has an idea for a story they'd like to tell, one that is entirely theirs. For most people, the idea is too much work to conceive. And even if you start, you probably won't follow through.

George R.R. Martin wrote some absurdly long books with what he thought would be a magical, heartbreaking, and thematically cohesive universe.

The most interesting pieces are there but they've been there since 2000. All his best ideas have been in print for 17 years and the rest of it is just filling out the world, and getting bogged down in details that the show has long since glossed over.

People are actually asking how he'll blow up the Sept of Baelor in the books or whether Tommen will commit suicide by jumping out of a window. Lord help him in writing the Tyrell/Martell/Targaryen alliance, or putting Euron with Cersei potentially. Some of that probably happens in the books.

Have you ever had a great idea, but once you got it down on paper, you realized that you couldn't finish what you
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I think everyone has an idea for a story they'd like to tell, one that is entirely theirs. For most people, the idea is too much work to conceive. And even if you start, you probably won't follow through.

George R.R. Martin wrote some absurdly long books with what he thought would be a magical, heartbreaking, and thematically cohesive universe.

The most interesting pieces are there but they've been there since 2000. All his best ideas have been in print for 17 years and the rest of it is just filling out the world, and getting bogged down in details that the show has long since glossed over.

People are actually asking how he'll blow up the Sept of Baelor in the books or whether Tommen will commit suicide by jumping out of a window. Lord help him in writing the Tyrell/Martell/Targaryen alliance, or putting Euron with Cersei potentially. Some of that probably happens in the books.

Have you ever had a great idea, but once you got it down on paper, you realized that you couldn't finish what you

I can easily see the books being drastically different in conclusion to the way the show ends up. There are so many other sub plots and characters in the books that are totally absent in the show and so many characters act and have totally different fates than in the books as well. Not only that but I'm sure things have probably been changing in GRRM's head compared to what he gave to D and D. I'm sure the big stuff will turn out the same but a lot of how it gets to that point will be different.
 

4Tran

Member
I'm going to bet that by this stage, the time isn't spent writing, the time is spent staring at nothing and thinking through all of these corners he's written himself into AND having to try to figure out how to write shocking twists that were spoiled by the show five years ago. Do you write them as if the reader doesn't know it's coming? Do you change it just enough so that it's still kind of shocking? Do you scrap it completely? So now even the vague roadmap he had before no longer applies - maybe he decides to
keep Stannis alive in the books. Okay, so what does he do? What role does he play in the subsequent events?
That sound better than the way GRRM works. He'll write without really know how the pieces fit together and then he ends up having to rewrite it or scrap major portions of story. And then he comes up with new ideas that he wants to fit in and the thing becomes a bigger and bigger mess. I suspect that as a result of this, none of the last books are going to be particularly good. The sad thing is that GRRM has been producing better and better prose and it's being wasted on terrible storylines.
 
At this point he should just hire a Brandon Sanderson and have him Wheel of Time it. He could still be heavily involved in the books, but leave the actual writing, seemingly his bane, to someone else. If killing himself sitting behind a typewriter / computer is not how he wants to spend his late years, then he shouldn't. He'd spare himself and his readers the misery of it.
There isn't a worse idea on earth, than someone else finishing the series for George.
That's insane and it wouldn't be ASOIAF anymore.
Stop caring a long time ago. TV series will end the story as far as I'm concerned.
It will end the shows story, which is an entirely separate entity.
 
And it isn't already?
TWOW isn't holding anyone's child hostage, it ain't that urgent.
Your or anyone elses bitterness doesn't make the idea of anyone else finishing George's series less ridiculous or insulting.
If all you wanted was an ending then you should have never read these books and then just waited for Spring to be released so you could read the last line rather than have wasted your time on all of this useless story.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I think what saddens me most about the never-ending delays is that Roy Dotrice will almost certainly be dead before the series finishes and we won't get him finishing out the audiobooks.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
TWOW isn't holding anyone's child hostage, it ain't that urgent.
Your or anyone elses bitterness doesn't make the idea of anyone else finishing George's series less ridiculous or insulting.
If all you wanted was an ending then you should have never read these books and then just waited for Spring to be released so you could read the last line rather than have wasted your time on all of this useless story.

You might want to check your own bitterness if that's your reaction to several not at all serious comments.
 
GRRM isn't writing ASOIAF as a full time job either!

Touche.

I think what saddens me most about the never-ending delays is that Roy Dotrice will almost certainly be dead before the series finishes and we won't get him finishing out the audiobooks.
The timeline for this getting finished at all is getting increasingly tight. I'm going to be an old man wistfully talking about that series that I started in middle school never getting finished.
 

duckroll

Member
I think this new update he put out is pretty bad because it fails to communicate anything other than the fact that not only is the book that people really want to read not coming out this year, but that he is far enough along on ANOTHER book people want to read less (in the same franchise no less) that he thinks both might release next year. This isn't going to make people who are already mad any less mad, and it's not really helping make people who are patiently waiting without being abusive feel any better about the situation.
 

Veelk

Banned
TWOW isn't holding anyone's child hostage, it ain't that urgent.
Your or anyone elses bitterness doesn't make the idea of anyone else finishing George's series less ridiculous or insulting.
If all you wanted was an ending then you should have never read these books and then just waited for Spring to be released so you could read the last line rather than have wasted your time on all of this useless story.

Dude, I'm all for waiting for GRRM's version as well as I'm pretty uninterested in anyone else's writing style for the mainstream ASoIaF books, but you're kinda overdramatizing the situation. It wouldn't be insulting or ridiculous for someone else to finish GRRM's book. It would just be different than if GRRM finished it himself. Hell, it's perfectly possible that a lot of writers could do a better job in a lot of ways.

I just want GRRM's version because I like GRRM's voice, but writing in someone else's world isn't a transgression of any kind.
 
Last book came out four days before my wedding.

Here we are years later, no book and I have a 4 year old. He is going to be driving before this series finishes (if it finishes)

Saddest part is my grandfather was the first person in my family I got to read these novels (back when there were 3 in 2004). Now he has Alzheimer's, and now he can't even remember it. It's a shame. Not sure what he would think of the TV series (truly he loved the novels but Alzheimer's is awful)
 
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